On the Gulf coast of Mexico, the Olmec culture built its first great centre at San Lorenzo around 1200 BC, with earthen platforms, drains and workshops, and later at La Venta. Olmec artists carved colossal basalt heads, up to 3 metres high and weighing many tonnes, which probably portray rulers, and transported the stone over 60 km. They used a calendar, hieroglyph-like signs and a ritual ball game, and traded jade and obsidian over long distances. The Olmec are called the mother culture of Mesoamerica, because later peoples such as the Maya adopted their ideas.
Before and after
- from 13th century BCE to 6th centuryAncient Greece
- from 13th century BCE to 6th century BCEAncient Israel and Judah
- from 13th century BCE to 4th century BCEMagadha
- 13th century BCEAncient Celts
- c. 1,201 BCEThe Olmec civilisation emerges at San Lorenzo
- from c. 1,200 BCE to 1,150 BCEBronze Age collapse
- c. 1,200 BCEIron Age
- from c. 1,200 BCE to 450 BCEHallstatt culture
- from c. 1,200 BCE to 800 BCEUrnfield culture
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- 600 BCEFounding of Milan
- 80 CEThe Colosseum is inaugurated
- from 285 CE to 1453Byzantine Empire
- 25 March 421 CEFounding of Venice
The era
This moment belongs to the Ancient civilizations (3,200 BCE to 500 CE), writing, cities and empires. You can also browse everything in the 13th century BCE.