This book is about the oldest - and strangest - of the native New-World civilizations. The Olmec civilization of the southern Mexican jungles was virtually unknown to archaeologists until the early twentieth century and its true importance only later realized. Research on the ancient Olmec has thrown a new light on an old problem: how the Indian peoples of our hemisphere came here.

Odd though it may be, what these people called themselves remains unknown. Since these “Olmec” were the first American Indians to achieve such a high level of social, cultural, and artistic complexity, it would not be stretching a word to call them “civilized.” This level was reached 3,000 years ago, long before the Aztecs.

But this is not a history; there are no reliable documents about these people (although they do seem to have had a form of writing), nor even secure traditions. No Mexican Homer sings the deeds of ancient Olmec heroes. So in the absence of readable accounts, the techniques of prehistory must be applied to the Olmec. Archeologists, armed with methods and theories from the natural sciences and from anthropology, must bring to life dead and forgotten cultures.

The archeological approach can expose relationships between people and their environments. Lessons can be drawn, even new opportunities discovered, by an understanding of how early men dealt with the possibilities and limitations of all kinds of surroundings.

The Olmec Indians evolved an incredible culture in an area that seems impossibly hostile. In the hot, wet, tropical lowlands of the Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco, amid rivers, swamps, high jungle, and savannas, they built their great temple centers and carved huge stone monuments. It was there that the New World’s first civilization arose.

In describing the Olmec, the culture of Mesoamerica, a term used for those portions of Mexico and Central America civilized in pre-Spanish times, is also delineated. In spite of the interesting diversity, there is also a fundamental unity among the Mesoamerican cultures, whether Maya, Toltec, Aztec, Totonac, Zapotec, or Mixtec. There are probably strong ecological reasons for the diversity, but for the unity, there can be but one cause: a common heritage. This heritage can only be Olmec.

Olmec civilization took shape on the Gulf Coast lowlands during the centuries around 1,000 years before Christ, flourishing and then dying. But the Olmec pattern was transmitted to become the common legacy of all the native peoples of Mesoamerica.