The Olmec, previously considered Mesoamerica’s “Mother Culture”, have been demoted to “Sister Culture” status in a more coeval model of Mesoamerica’s earliest civilizations. But still, they were key players in region’s mathematical and astronomical knowledge base. They also had a hand in developing the earliest Mesoamerican calendar systems.

An often-misunderstood aspect of Olmec Civilization is the difference between their Olmec and Epi-Olmec stages of development. Though the internet often speaks of Olmec writing, calendars, and astronomy – we’re not certain those existed. As we currently understand it, those were the achievements of the Epi-Olmecs, who existed directly after the Olmecs, beginning around 400 BCE.

In this lecture, we’ll review the current state of knowledge regarding Epi-Olmec and potential Olmec writing, astronomy, and calendrics. We’ll compare them chronologically to the developments in neighboring culture area, digging into the “who did it first” issues. At the conclusion, we’ll discuss the latest lidar studies and the new theories about actual Olmec age astronomy and calendrics.