| RZ-51497-12 | Research Programs: Collaborative Research | Florida State University | Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity at La Venta, Tabasco, Mexico | 11/1/2012 - 6/30/2018 | $280,000.00 | Mary | DeLand | Pohl | Christopher | L. | von Nagy | Florida State University | Tallahassee | FL | 32306-0001 | USA | 2012 | Archaeology | Collaborative Research | Research Programs | 280000 | 0 | 280000 | 0 | The excavation, analysis, and creation of a website dedicated to the findings on social, economic, and ritual practices of the neighborhood populations living near the Olmec city of La Venta (800-400 BCE). (36 months)
The Olmec civilization was one of the earliest to develop in the Americas. The city of La Venta (800-400 BCE) was the prototypical sacred urban template on which later Maya and Aztec rulers modeled their cities. Yet knowledge of the internal social and economic dynamics of the La Venta polity is lacking. Excavation data come almost entirely from limited areas of the central elite core of the ceremonial city. We seek to understand the evolution of La Venta within the context of the neighborhood populations living in a changing riverine landscape. We hypothesize that La Venta's ritual practices structured the underlying cultural framework that organized politics, economics, social status, and warfare within the polity. The research encompasses the disciplines of art history, archaeology, anthropology, geosciences, and religion. |