A label for a transition
“Epi-Olmec” is a scholarly term meaning roughly “post-Olmec” or “late Olmec”. It does not name a people who called themselves that, and it is not a single unified state. It is used for the societies of the southern Gulf Coast of Mexico, in parts of what are now Veracruz and Tabasco, in the centuries after the Olmec heartland centres declined, from about 400 BCE to roughly 400 CE. Dates are approximate and vary between authors. The Epi-Olmec are not forgotten in the way the title suggests, but they are less well known than the Olmec civilization that preceded them or the Maya who rose nearby.
Where they lived
The Gulf Coast lowlands are warm and humid, cut by rivers, and the soils of the river plains are fertile. The sites most closely associated with the Epi-Olmec include Tres Zapotes, which was occupied before, during and after the Olmec period, La Mojarra, Cerro de las Mesas and other settlements in the region of the Tuxtla Mountains and Papaloapan river basin. Tres Zapotes is also known for its Olmec colossal heads, one of which was found there in 1862, so the site connects the two eras.
Settlements were towns and ceremonial centres with earthen and stone platforms, plazas and carved monuments. Archaeologists do not agree on how politically centralised the region was. The evidence usually points to a group of competing centres, some with rulers who commissioned monuments, rather than a single empire.
Farming
As in the Olmec period, the economy rested on farming. Maize, beans and squash were staple foods, and rivers and coastal lagoons supplied fish and other animals. Fertile floodplain soils could be farmed intensively, and some sites show evidence of long occupation. Details about field systems, crop yields and population remain uncertain, as the humid climate destroys organic remains and tropical vegetation hides many sites.
Trade
Goods moved through the region and beyond it. Obsidian, a volcanic glass used for blades, had to be imported from highland sources, and other items such as greenstone, shell and ceramics circulated as well. Gulf Coast communities lay on routes that linked the Mexican highlands, Oaxaca and the Maya lowlands, which is a main reason the area matters. These exchange connections are comparable in kind to the later Maya trade networks, though evidence for their organisation is limited.
Art and religion
The Epi-Olmec continued some Olmec traditions, such as the use of carved stone and imagery of rulers and supernatural beings, while introducing new styles. Stelae carved with figures and text appear at several sites. Because there are few written sources beyond the carved texts, much about beliefs must be inferred from imagery, and interpretations are uncertain.
The La Mojarra stela and the script
The best known Epi-Olmec object is La Mojarra Stela 1, found in Veracruz in 1986. It shows a standing figure in elaborate dress, with long columns of glyphs. The stela carries a date in the Long Count, a way of counting days from a fixed starting point that is part of the Maya calendar system as well, and the date is usually read as corresponding to 156 CE. Tres Zapotes Stela C carries an earlier Long Count date, usually put around 32 BCE, and the Tuxtla Statuette has another from the second century CE. These dates are among the earliest in Mesoamerica and show the system was in use in the Gulf Coast before the first Maya Long Count dates, although where it originated is a matter of discussion.
The script on the La Mojarra stela, usually called Epi-Olmec or Isthmian script, is only partly understood. In the 1990s two scholars published a proposed decipherment that treated the language as an early form of the Mixe-Zoquean family and offered readings of much of the text. Other scholars have accepted parts of it but argue that the evidence is too limited to be certain. With only a small number of known texts, the script is not deciphered to the standard of Maya glyph decipherment. Without a long bilingual text of the kind that unlocked the Rosetta Stone, progress depends on finding more inscriptions.
What ended the period
By about 400 CE the Epi-Olmec centres declined or were absorbed into other cultural traditions. Reasons are not well established. Possible factors include volcanic eruptions in the Tuxtla region, shifting river courses, and the rise of other centres, but none is firmly proven. People continued to live on the Gulf Coast, and later Classic Veracruz cultures such as El Tajin developed in the area. Mixe-Zoquean languages are still spoken in southern Mexico today.