A Powerful Civilization

I wouldn't want to meet a guy like this in a dark alley somewhere! The Olmecans began as a nomadic people who by around 1150 BCE somehow -- with their knowledge of good agricultural practices had transformed themselves into the civilization that gave rise to the Mayans and the Aztecs.

For whatever reason, they created gigantic heads like the one in the photo below on display in El Museo de Arquelogio in Mexico City. They were a remarkable people because they created the hieroglyphics and a mathematical system based on the number 20 that the Mayans later perfected.

Eventually like almost all civilizations in the past, it fell apart around 900 CE

None of the Olmecan script has survived. But below you can see two of the only surviving Mayan texts. The rest were burned by the Spaniards.