The Olmec culture on Mexico’s southern gulf coast—identified as such only in the 1930s and subsequently explored by Smithsonian researchers—flourished in several ceremonial civic centers over 3,000 years ago, from about 1500 to 400 B.C.E.

Best known as creators of colossal stone heads, the Olmec were masters of monumental sculpture but also produced an array of other distinctive artworks in stone, ceramic, wood, and jade. They provide some of the earliest evidence of urban planning in North America and early examples of a system of numbering and of glyphic writing. In a richly illustrated lecture, cultural historian George Scheper explores the archaeological and sculptural wonders of the Olmec, along with the controversial issue of whether they were the mother culture of Mesoamerica or an influential sibling of an array of Formative Period cultures in Mexico and Central America.

Scheper is a senior lecturer in advanced academic programs at Johns Hopkins University.

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