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The region from the Papaloapan River in southern Veracruz to the Chontalpa lowlands in western Tabasco is generally considered the heartland or climax area of Olmec culture (but see Arnold 2012 for a more expansive definition) (Figure 2.1). These labels and Bernal’s (1969) metropolitan area all connote an original and more developed hearth in keeping with the Mother Culture narrative for the origins of Mesoamerican civilization. A more neutral term that has achieved recent currency by scholars on both sides of that argument is Olman, derived from the same Aztec root as Olmec and referring to a “land of rubber,” evoking both the natural environment of the region and one of its principal products (Diehl 1996: 29; Pool 2007: 4–5).

Figure 2.1 Maps of Olman. Top: locations of sites mentioned in the text and coverage of archaeological surveys. Dashed line indicates the approximate extent of Olman. Bottom: geological map with physiographic provinces labeled. Base maps downloaded from the Mapa Digital de México V 6.3.0, INEGI.