The History of the Olmec Site of La Venta

The History of the Olmec Site of La Venta The Olmec capital of La Venta is located in the city of Huimanguillo, in the state of Tabasco, Mexico, 15 kilometers (9 miles) inland from the Gulf coast. The site is perched on a narrow natural elevation approximately 4 km (2.5 mi) long which rises above the wetland swamps on the coastal plain. La Venta was first occupied as early as 1750 BC, becoming an Olmec temple-town complex between 1200 and 400 BC. La Venta was the primary center of the Olmec culture and likely the most important regional capital in non-Maya Mesoamerica during the Middle Formative period (approximately 800-400 BC). In its heyday, La Ventas residential zone included an area of ~200 hectares (500 acres), with a population numbering in the thousands. Architecture at La Venta Most of the structures at La Venta were built of wattle-and-daub walls placed atop earthen or adobe mudbrick platforms or mounds  and covered with a thatched roof. Little natural stone was available, and, apart from the massive stone sculptures, the only stone used in public architecture was a few basalt, andesite and limestone foundational support or internal buttresses. The 1.5 km (~1 mi) long civic-ceremonial core of La Venta includes over 30 earthen mounds and platforms. The core is dominated by a 30 meter (100 foot) high clay pyramid (called Mound C-1), which has been heavily eroded  but was likely the largest single building at the time in Mesoamerica. Despite the lack of native stone, La Ventas artisans crafted sculptures including four colossal heads from massive blocks of stone quarried from the Tuxtla Mountains approximately 100 km (62 mi) to the west. The most intensive archaeological investigations at La Venta were conducted in Complex A, a small group of low clay platform mounds and plazas within an area of about 1.4 hectares (3 acres), located immediately north of the tallest pyramidal mound. Most of Complex A was destroyed shortly after the excavations in 1955, by a combination of looters and civic development. However, detailed maps of the area were made by the excavators and, due primarily to the efforts of archaeologist Susan Gillespie, a digital map of the buildings and construction events at Complex A has been made (Gillespie, Gillespie, and Volk). Read more on Complex A at La Venta Subsistence Methods Traditionally, scholars have attributed the rise of Olmec society to the development of maize agriculture. According to recent investigations, however, the people at La Venta subsisted on fish, shellfish and terrestrial faunal remains until about 800 BC, when maize, beans, cotton, palm and other crops were grown in gardens on relict beach ridges, called tierra de primera by maize farmers today, perhaps fueled by long-distance trade networks. Killion (2013) conducted a survey of paleobotanical data from several Olmec period sites including La Venta. He suggests that the initial founders at La Venta and other Early Formative sites such as San Lorenzo were not farmers, but rather were hunter-gatherer-fishers. That dependence on mixed hunting and gathering extends well into the Formative period. Killion suggests that the mixed subsistence worked in the well-watered lowland environments, but that a wetland environment was not suited to intensive agriculture. La Venta and the Cosmos La Venta is oriented 8 degrees west of north, like most Olmec sites, the significance of which is obscure to date. This alignment is echoed in Complex As central avenue, which points to the central mountain. The central bars of each of La Ventas mosaic pavements  and the four elements of the quincunxes in the mosaics are positioned at intercardinal points. Complex D at La Venta is an E-Group configuration, a specific layout of buildings identified at over 70 Maya sites and believed to have been designed to track movements of the sun. Archaeology La Venta was excavated by members of the Smithsonian Institution, including Matthew Stirling, Philip Drucker, Waldo Wedel and Robert Heizer, in three major excavations between 1942 and 1955. Most of this work was focused on Complex A: and the finds from that work were published in popular texts and La Venta quickly became the type site for defining the Olmec culture. Shortly after the 1955 excavations, the site was badly damaged by looting and development, although a brief expedition did retrieve some stratigraphic data. Much was lost in Complex A, which was torn up by bulldozers. A map of Complex A made in 1955 formed the basis for digitizing the field records of the site. Gillespie and Volk worked together to create a three-dimensional map of Complex A, based on archived notes and drawings and published in 2014. The most recent archaeological studies have been undertaken by Rebecca Gonzlez Lauck at the Instituto Nacional de Antropologà ­a e Historia (INAH). Sources Clark JE, and Colman A. 2013. Olmec Things and Identity: A Reassessment of Offerings and Burials at La Venta, Tabasco. Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association  23(1):14-37. doi: 10.1111/apaa.12013 Gillespie S. 2011. Archaeological Drawings as Re-Presentations: The Maps of Complex A, La Venta, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity  22(1):3-36. doi: 10.7183/1045-6635.22.1.3 Gillespie SD, and Volk M. In press. A 3d model of Complex A, La Venta, Mexico. Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage (in press). doi: 10.1016/j.daach.2014.06.001 Killion TW. 2013. Nonagricultural cultivation and social complexity (with commentary). Current Anthropology 54(5):596-606. doi: 10.2307/276200 Pohl MD, and von Nagy C. 2008. The Olmec and their contemporaries. In: Pearsall DM, editor. Encyclopedia of Archaeology . London: Elsevier Inc. p 217-230. doi: 10.1016/B978-012373962-9.00425-8 Reilly FK. 1989. Enclosed ritual spaces and the watery underworld in Formative period architecture: New observations on the function of La Venta Complex A. In: Robertson MG, and Fields VM, editors. Seventh Palenque Round Table. San Francisco: Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute. Rust WF, and Sharer RJ. 1988. Olmec Settlement Data from La Venta, Tabasco, Mexico. Science 242(4875):102-104. doi: 10.1126/science.242.4875.102

Essay and Editing Edification - Your Top Five Tips

Essay and Editing Edification - Your Top Five Tips Essay and Editing Edification Your Top Five Tips While we can sometimes depend on technology to let us know when we have made spelling errors, it is crucial to remember that technology is not always reliable. Spelling is so important. Spelling accurately helps others understand you and improves your essay writing and editing skills. In addition, word knowledge makes it possible for you to understand more of what you read. The more you learn about spelling, the more you know about how words function. This knowledge can help you figure out the meaning of new words, and the best way to pronounce them. Before you learn to spell English words, figure out which type of spelling you want to learn. Canadian English has somewhat different spellings and merges both American and British conventions. For example words such as paralyze and realize are customarily spelled with -yse (for the former) and -ise (for the latter), replacing the â€Å"z† with an â€Å"s.† Confused yet? Don’t worry. Here are five tips to enhance your essay writing and editing skills: Read a lot Nothing’s better for learning about words than reading. Just as we learn spoken English by hearing people talking, we learn written language (including spelling) by reading many different sources. Spelling isnt about how a word sounds, it’s about how it looks on the page, which means you must examine words in printed material to learn how theyre spelled. Analyze misspelled words Create a list of your frequently misspelled words. When you find that you are spelling the same word wrong over and over again, take note of the word or write it down on a notepad. Perhaps you already know the way to spell some frequently misspelled words (good for you)! When you find a strange word, look it up in the dictionary and write it in your notepad. Unlike the enormous lists of â€Å"usually misspelled words† in the rear of some grammar books, this is your custom list that reveals the words and spelling rules that challenge you. So, instead of a long list of other peoples challenges, you have a custom-made guide of your own. Use mnemonics. Mnemonics are memory tricks. Spelling rules are often intangible and, in English, completely at odds, so they can be difficult to remember. So mnemonics â€Å"sneak in† through an alternative part of your brain, by rhyming, imagining, or forming a pattern to help make sense of the spelling of a word. Here are some examples of spelling mnemonics: Rhymes and tunes make words easier to recall. You can even make up your own! An acronym chooses the first letter of a couple of words and puts them together. You might already use acronyms online or in texts. LOL, stands for â€Å"Laughing Out Loud.† TGIF for â€Å"Thank God It’s Friday.† One way to recall some catchy spellings is by turning the word into a mnemonic. Turn hard words into absurd sentences and you will recall them in no time. Some mnemonics use sentences to describe the hard part of spelling a word. Having difficulty spelling the word â€Å"isle†? Keep in mind, an isle is land encircled by water. To spell â€Å"separate† correctly remember the a rat in the middle of word. Crosswords and code words Puzzles are an excellent method to make your brain work harder and enhance your general knowledge, and they’re a superior method for improving your spelling. Crosswords supply a string of hints to find words which you place in overlapping horizontal and vertical boxes. Other â€Å"brain teasers† include â€Å"jumbles† where you work out which numbers stand for certain letters, in order to spell a `code word’ in a phrase. If you get the spelling incorrect in either a crossword or a code word, the other words won’t match, so it’s a great idea to use a dictionary as a tool when solving those puzzles. Crosswords are a time-tested method of learning new words and mastering how to spell. It is a fun game and involves a fair amount of brain activity. Sometimes you might guess which words go where, but eventually you will come to realize that you have learned several new words and the correct spelling for these words; it’s a great aid. Work with others Many individuals find group work more exciting than solo study sessions. Groups can break the monotony of learning, and, by divvying up spelling jobs and sharing words that are tricky, you can pool your resources. One way to test yourself on a word you spelled from its pronunciation is to get somebody else to pronounce your spelled word. If they cannot figure out the word, there’s a possibility you misspelled it. When you work in groups, youll be able to take turns testing each other, and the sessions can be both useful and fun. So, how does that make you feel? Is it a daunting list? Perhaps. However, if you work with others you can cut the workload. And, hey, there arent any real short cuts in enhancing your spelling skills. It requires true dedication. These tips will help you streamline the procedure and empower you to maximize your study time. Check out some free sample essays on our website to help improve your spelling skills today.