Olmec tools and weapons

The Olmecs also relied heavily on melee weapons, like clubs and maces. They could be used for deflecting projectiles, and were effective at killing large amounts of people. Atlatls were used to throw spears and darts, but they were not often used because they needed constant resupplying, and they were easy to deflect and dodge.

They were only used towards the end of the Olmec empire, when volleys were necessary to take down large armies. Bibliography About the Authors. The Olmec did not have metal tools, which makes the sculptures all the more remarkable.

The Olmecs were the first group in Mesoamerica with specialized weapons and personnel for war. Their homeland was in the lowlands along the Gulf coast in the Mexican provinces of Tabasco and Veracruz. Atlatls spear-throwers were not yet a weapon of war. They used neither shields nor armor. The Olmec created massive monuments, including colossal stone heads, thrones, stela upright slabs , and statues. They may have been the originators of the Mesoamerican ball game, a ceremonial team sport played throughout the region for centuries.

Tools were mostly made of stone and include basic items such as hammers, wedges, mortar-and-pestles and mano-and-metate grinders used for mashing corn and other grains. Obsidian was not native to the Olmec lands, but when it could be had, it made excellent knives. The Olmec created massive monuments, including colossal stone heads, thrones, stela upright slabs , and statues.

They may have been the originators of the Mesoamerican ball game, a ceremonial team sport played throughout the region for centuries. Tools were mostly made of stone and include basic items such as hammers, wedges, mortar-and-pestles and mano-and-metate grinders used for mashing corn and other grains.

Obsidian was not native to the Olmec lands, but when it could be had, it made excellent knives. The Olmec culture flourished in several civic and ceremonial centers along the Gulf of Mexico more than 3, years ago, from to B. Best known for their carvings of colossal stone heads, the Olmec were masters of monumental sculpture, and also produced an array of other distinctive artworks in stone, ceramic. The heads were each carved from a single basalt boulder which in some cases were transported km or more to their final destination, presumably using huge balsa river rafts wherever possible and log rollers on land.

The principal source of this heavy stone was Cerro Cintepec in the Tuxtla Mountains. It is with these primitive tools that the Olmecan artisans carved these huge sculptures. No, though oddly the reason why is not that popcorn is a modern invention, but that popping corn in fact goes back to at least BCE. The Aztec, Olmec, and Maya of Mesoamerica are known to have made rubber using natural latex—a milky, sap-like fluid found in some plants. Some of the rubber came out more bouncy, suggesting it may have been used to make balls for the legendary Mesoamerican ball games.

Linguistic evidence has contributed to the ethnic identity of the archaeological Olmecs: they spoke a Mixe-Zoquean language. The Olmecs produced the earliest complex civilization in Mesoamerica c. The Olmecs were a culture of ancient peoples B.