The Olmec

The Olmec was an ancient American civilisation that lived in what is now modern-day Mexico, around the states of Tabasco and Veracruz, and they survived from about 1,600 - 350 BCE.

The Olmec were famous for building large 20-ton stone heads in the shape of their rulers to represent them. The word Olmec comes from the word rubber people in the Aztec language, as the Olmec would trade rubber with other civilisations for goods. 

The Olmec was one of the first major civilisations in Mexico.
As stated above, the name Olmec comes from the word rubber people, meaning it could have been one of the first civilisations to be able to turn the sap from the rubber tree into usable materials by hardening, shaping and curing it. 

The Olmec didn't have a written language, so it is speculated that it was an oral one and unwritten.

They appeared roughly around 1600 BCE The Olmecs were one of the first Mesoamerican civilisations.
They were famous for carving structures out of a special volcanic rock named Basalt.

It is also speculated that they have influenced future civilisations like the Mayans, and were the creators of the Mesoamerican ballgame, or the Mayan death-ball games played with rubber balls and the game, which was a form of ritual bloodletting.

They hardly kept written records and documents about their customs or beliefs, but it is well known that they had extensive trade routes since archaeologists could find the Olmec's traded goods all around Mesoamerica.

Often trading Obsidian and Jade with people outside the Gulf of Mexico, most of Oaxaca, and what is now the country of Guatemala in the south.

While the obsidian originated from the Mexican highlands in the north, this trade helped expand and complicate the trade routes in Mesoamerica.

Trading helped the Olmec expand its urban centres, such as San Lorenzo and La Venta, and most of the Olmec people lived in small villages, and the cities were reserved for the Elite and for ceremonial purposes.

Most of the Olmec lived in small villages with a pit to store root vegetables.
They lived in lean-tos, which are like small tents; they may have also had gardens, which allowed them to grow herbs either for food or medicinal purposes, such as sunflowers.

Often growing crops like maize, beans, sweet potatoes, cotton and squashes, often using the slash and burn method, which means that all the little crops are slashed and burned to make way for new crops to grow.

Unfortunately, the Religion of the Olmec wasn't written down compared to other civilisations.
We do know that they had their gods, their deities, followed natural things such as a bird creature which looked like a harpy eagle, meant to symbolise kingship and ruling.
The Olmec dragon, which was noted to have eyebrows with flames, a forked tongue and a round bulbous nose. 

Their other gods, such as their Maise deity, the ware-Jaguar or rain spirit, and the fish or shark creature, which priests would make offerings at religious sites at San Lorenzo and La Venta.

They made their art via greenstone, which is a way of saying carved from green materials, basalt, jade and clay, making figures often human shaped.