Formative Settlement on the Western Margin of Olman

The Olmec and Epi-Olmec center of Tres Zapotes has attracted scholarly attention since 1869 when José María Melgar y Serrano reported the first find of a colossal head. Nevertheless, the lack of regional scale settlement data for the Tres Zapotes hinterland has hampered our understanding of how the large center was integrated with other settlements in western Olman. Building on the authors’ previous subregional surveys at Tres Zapotes and around El Mesón, the Recorrido Regional Arqueológico de Tres Zapotes [RRATZ] survey has documented prehispanic occupation in a 400-km² area of the Eastern Lower Papaloapan Basin spanning the Early Formative period through the Postclassic periods. Early Formative (1250–1000 BC) villages and hamlets grew into a Middle Formative (1000–400 BC) regional polity headed by Tres Zapotes that persisted and expanded in the Late Formative (400–1 BC). This chapter argues that the persistence of Olmec and Epi-Olmec settlement in the area was facilitated by the ability of political leaders to employ varying political strategies in order to withstand broader changes to regional political, demographic, and economic environments.