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Olmec Heartland Overview 4
CC BY 3.0
Polity Americas

Olmec

Attested 1500 BCE – 400 BCE

Earliest known major Mesoamerican civilization

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Wikipedia

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Olmecs on Wikipedia.

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How these dates were made

Why this bar's edges are floors, not a founding and a fall.

The atlas draws the world at 5 moments in time, not continuously. This bar runs from the first snapshot in which Olmec appears to the last, so both edges are floors — the earliest and latest years it is attested, not a founding and a dissolution.

1500 BCE 5 snapshots · 500 years unattested at the widest 400 BCE
1500 BCE1000 BCE700 BCE500 BCE400 BCE

Elsewhere in Americas at the time

Records whose own span overlaps this one, found by the same test the canvas draws with. The bar under each card is where it sits inside this one.

See the whole view

Landmark · Americas

Tikal

600 BCE – still standing

Polity · Americas

Chavin

Attested 1000 BCE – 100 BCE

Trade route · Americas

Mesoamerican Trade Network

1200 BCE – 1521 CE

Conflict · Americas

Maya City-State Wars

400 BCE – 900 CE

Landmark · Americas

Chinchorro Mummy Sites

5000 BCE – 1500 BCE

Polity · Americas

Glades Culture

Attested 500 BCE – 400 CE

Landmark · Americas

Poverty Point

1700 BCE – 1100 BCE

Polity · Americas

Paleo-Inuit

Attested 500 BCE – 400 CE

Dated moments inside this span

Events the timeline places between 1500 BCE and 400 BCE.

1200 BCE Ha'amonga 'a Maui 1100 BCE Pulemelei Mound 900 BCE Chavín de Huántar 600 BCE Tikal 600 BCE San Agustín Archaeological Park 600 BCE Tierradentro

And in the rest of the world

Records running through the same years, on the other side of the map.

Great Wall of China Landmark · East Asia 700 BCE – still standing Meroe Polity · Middle East 500 BCE – 400 CE Mesopotamian Trade Network Trade route · Middle East 3000 BCE – 500 BCE Conquests of Cyrus the Great Conflict · Middle East 559 BCE – 530 BCE Moses Figure · Egypt / Sinai / Canaan 1391 BCE – 1271 BCE Hanging Gardens of Babylon Landmark · Middle East 600 BCE – 320 BCE
Image credits5 pictures from Wikimedia Commons