Original subtitles

Narrator: la venta, mexico --

A huge pyramid Rises from the jungle,

Built by A pioneering civilization

That vanished 2,500 years ago.

This was once the capital Of a mysterious ancient people,

The olmec.

People had been living Throughout the jungle,

And then the olmec came And built cities

Like nothing else

That has been seen On the planet at the time.

Narrator: who were the olmec?

Why did they carve These strange, stone statues,

And what drove them

To build the first cities In north america?

The remarkable artifacts Found here

Are revealing Of an incredible people.

Narrator: did the olmec invent Mesoamerica's first writing

And a belief in the afterlife?

♪♪

Without the achievements Of the olmec,

Would the great civilizations That came after them

Have even existed?

This is the spark that Transforms mesoamerica,

The revolution that begins With the olmec.

Narrator: to unearth the truth About this mysterious people,

We'll tear away the jungle, Uncover hidden treasures,

And blow apart their capital's Ancient structures

To reveal why civilization In north america evolved here.

--captions by vitac-- Www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by Discovery communications

On the mexican gulf coast Lies one of the most

Mysterious ancient cities Of the americas -- la venta.

♪♪

Today, jungle covers Most of this site,

But at its peak 3,000 years ago,

This was a thriving metropolis Built almost entirely from mud.

♪♪

Thousands of years Before the ancient maya

And aztec build cities In north america,

The olmec created The first civilization here.

♪♪

This jungle landscape Was once covered

With millions of tons Of earthen mounds.

Scores of basalt columns Marked out a ceremonial core.

A huge 100-foot-high mound Dominated the mud city

That stretched for 200 acres

With thousands of Thatched homes.

Who were the ancient olmec,

And why were they the first-ever To build a true city here?

♪♪

Archaeologist carl wendt is On a hunt for answers.

What were they doing To allow them to transform

This tropical lowland, Hot, humid area

Into one of the most incredible Civilizations at the time?

Narrator: But he faces a huge obstacle.

La venta's secrets lie Buried under thick jungle

And 3,000 years Of soil deposits.

But clues do exist, giant ones That could finally reveal

Who the olmec really were.

♪♪

Buried beneath the ground At the heart of the city,

Archaeologists unearthed An enormous stone head,

Entirely carved From a single boulder.

♪♪

Nearby, They discovered two more.

Each statue stands Over seven feet high,

Weighs up to 20 tons,

And wears The same mysterious headgear.

♪♪

Who are these people?

Were they gods Or the masterminds

Behind mesoamerica's First civilization?

♪♪

Wow, when you walk up To these things,

It's right there in your face.

They're -- they're massive.

You can stare right Into their eyes,

And, I mean, you can really tell That this was an individual.

This was a person.

Narrator: Carl believes the material

The heads are made from

Is a clue To revealing their identities.

They're all basalt, a type of Rock not found at la venta.

Wendt: Why would they carve this stone?

You can't find this stuff Anywhere around here.

Bringing this stuff in For a prior to reason,

This was important, and where They actually got this rock from

Is gonna tell us a lot.

♪♪

Narrator: to investigate where The olmecs sourced the stone,

Carl travels 60 miles north Of la venta

Into the tuxtla mountains.

[ cow moos ]

Today, it's a short ride On a highway.

♪♪

But for the olmec, it was A three-day, uphill hike.

Wendt: wow. That's hot, man.

Narrator: here, giant basalt Boulders cover a vast area.

Carl scours the site for proof La venta's heads

Came from this spot.

Pushing deeper into the jungle,

He makes An extraordinary discovery.

Wendt: oh, man.

I've never seen anything Like this before.

This is one-of-a-kind.

This is a preform Of an olmec colossal head.

They would've carved The headdress.

Then you could come down To the face to the nose

And finally, the mouth.

This is the exact same size

As some of the colossal heads At la venta.

I mean, it's a dead ringer.

With a few more weeks' work,

This stone could've ended up At la venta.

Narrator: carl thinks how this Rock was formed is a clue

To the identity Of the carved faces.

Basalt is the product Of volcanic eruptions,

A natural event the olmec Considered the work of the gods.

Mountains, and volcanoes Especially,

Are significant In olmec religion,

And for these boulders, then, To be thrown out of the volcano

And strewn Throughout this area,

The material itself Would've had symbolic,

Religious significance.

And the people whose images were Carved into these monuments,

They were aligning themselves With the deities.

Narrator: carl believes only La venta's elite

Could've been Given this honor.

Wendt: These are almost certainly

The faces of the priest-kings,

The leaders of the site Of la venta.

Narrator: incredibly, there is Evidence these people

Could've been the first Royal family in the americas.

While the faces are different,

We have a certain template That all these heads follow --

The ears pierced, The headdress, the helmet.

And for the similarities Designed,

It could be that These individuals were related

And represent not just A secession of rulers

But possibly The first dynasty.

Narrator: Carving and transporting

Such huge stones Was a massive undertaking.

Dragging them through 60 miles Of dense jungle

Would've been impossible,

So how did the olmec do it?

Could a local natural resource Provide a clue?

♪♪

Carl examines pieces Of ancient bitumen

Excavated from the banks Of rivers that led to la venta.

He believes They're evidence the olmec

Floated the giant heads Downriver to their city.

This could be the missing link

To how the olmec transported Their colossal heads.

What's really neat About this one here

Is that you can see, Actually, little striation marks

That were formed as it Was affixed to a piece of wood.

♪♪

Narrator: carl thinks The bitumen is all that remains

Of a huge ancient raft.

By using this material to fill In the gaps of their watercraft,

Say rafts, all sealed With this bitumen,

That would've allowed them, Then, to drag the colossal heads

Onto these rafts And transport them

Via water To the site of la venta.

♪♪

Narrator: 3,000 years ago,

60 miles of thick jungle And winding rivers

Stood between the basalt Boulder fields and la venta.

♪♪

Archaeologists believe that The olmec used trees and vines

To construct sledges To transport the giant rocks.

A huge workforce hauled Each sledge

Along wooden rollers To a nearby river

And onto bitumen-sealed rafts To float the head downstream.

They skillfully navigated The coast

Before dragging the stones Into position at la venta.

♪♪

Centuries before the maya And aztec civilizations,

The people of la venta Exploited natural resources

To immortalize their ruling Dynasty in sacred stone,

But what was this jungle city

Where the heads Were being taken,

And why was the first pyramid In north america built here?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: la venta -- The capital city of the olmec,

Ancient mexico's Oldest civilization

Once ruled by a powerful Dynasty of priest-kings.

Today, most of their city lies Hidden under thick jungle,

But its greatest And most mysterious structure

Still dominates the landscape --

A great clay pyramid that towers 100 feet over the jungle canopy.

♪♪

3,000 years ago,

It was the largest man-made Monument in mesoamerica.

Why did the olmec build it?

The pyramid of la venta Is full of mysteries,

And if you know where to look, You will find its purpose.

♪♪

Narrator: archaeologist Rebecca gonzález lauck

And her team have unearthed Giant limestone blocks here.

They form a strange ring Around the pyramid,

Part of what rebecca thinks Is an intricate, hidden design.

Lauck: Our excavations have revealed

Hundreds of limestone slabs

Embedded into the clay surface.

You can just imagine The weight they carry.

Narrator: Rebecca believes exposing

The pyramid's original design

Can reveal why The olmec built it.

Her team strips back The thick vegetation.

[ speaking spanish ]

So we're standing on a ridge, Which we're clearing

So that it reveals The ravines and the ridges.

As you can see, this is One ridge here that goes down

And to the right, And to the left, the ravine.

Narrator: Rebecca launches a drone

To investigate the feature From a more revealing angle.

Lauck: so you can very clearly See the ravines.

It is obviously An architectural feature

That goes from the top to The bottom in a straight line.

♪♪

Narrator: Rebecca surveys the site.

She combines her data

With existing Topographical information

To create a relief map Of the entire pyramid.

Lauck: A series of ridges and ravines

That circle around it.

Here are probably corners,

And the ravines Are probably staircases.

The data reveals an elaborate, Ancient olmec design.

♪♪

Concealed under the soil Is the outline

Of what was The pyramid's true shape.

The ridges, ravines And inset limestone blocks hint

That it once had a much More complex structure,

An extraordinary geometric shape

With four huge staircases,

And set into a massive Earthen platform

Once stood a line Of ceremonial stones.

It's a 200,000-ton Engineering marvel,

But why did the olmec build it, And what was it for?

Lauck: When the elites needed to talk

To the general population,

They probably climbed up These staircases

To address them from The summit of the pyramid.

You can imagine a large Gathering of people

In this plaza.

For people coming From elsewhere,

It would've Totally blown them away.

It transmits power.

It transmits status.

It transmits strength.

Narrator: but la venta's Statement of power

Has one big flaw.

It is made from mud.

How did its engineers stop such A huge, heavy pile of dirt

From collapsing Under its own weight?

A clue lies in la venta's Archaeological vaults...

♪♪

...Soil samples taken from deep Inside the pyramid.

They had a very sophisticated Combination of materials.

So the main component is clay, But they also used sand,

Which has a function A bit like temper

That avoids making it crack,

And it holds together very Plastic but still very strong.

♪♪

Narrator: As a building material,

Dense clay sets hard,

But it's brittle And crumbles easily.

[ cracking sound ]

This is because when clay dries,

The water particles Trapped inside evaporate.

The clay shrinks and splits.

Mixing sand into the clay Gives it added support,

So now, when the clay dries, It shrinks less,

Preventing cracking.

By pounding this mixture Into layers,

The olmecs shaped A lasting monument

At the heart of la venta.

♪♪

The first pyramid In north america

Was the focus Of this olmec metropolis.

Home to tens of thousands Of people,

This was the first planned city In mesoamerica,

But the mighty pyramid Is not the only mystery

The olmec left behind.

They laid this strange Stone structure in a hole

In the ground And buried it completely.

What was this for, and will The answer reveal what drove

The olmec to build la venta here In the first place?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: la venta, mexico --

The ancient Olmecs' pioneering city,

A place where north american Civilization sparked into life.

♪♪

It was dominated by The continent's first

Stepped pyramid, Once the stage for ceremonies

Conducted By powerful priest-kings.

♪♪

But the reason for la venta's Genesis remains a mystery.

What drove people to leave Their small settlements

And come together To live in a planned city for

The first time?

And why did they choose To build it here?

♪♪

Archaeologist carl wendt Hunts for answers.

For tens of thousands of years, People had been living here

Scattered throughout the jungle,

And then the olmec came And changed everything.

They built cities out of mud Like nothing else

That has been seen On the planet at the time.

Narrator: he believes a unique Find from beneath la venta

Could be a clue To why this site was chosen.

Wendt: when archaeologists Discovered this,

There wasn't anything like this

In the archaeological record In the entire world.

♪♪

Hidden 13 feet beneath The ground,

Archaeologists unearthed A strange stack of stones

Made from 28 layers Of precious serpentine slabs.

On top of this platform, A mosaic of 485 polished rocks

Arranged into a cryptic pattern,

And buried on the other side Of the plaza,

A second, identical mosaic.

Incredibly, both were covered up As soon as they were finished.

Could the reason the olmec Buried all these extraordinary

Artworks reveal why civilization Took off here at la venta?

♪♪

Wendt: most archaeologists, We thought that this was a mask,

But as you look at it, It's not that intuitive.

This could be various layers

With organic elements At the top.

This could be plants sprouting.

These could be roots In the ground.

What was really puzzling is why They had brought

In thousands of tons of stone From hundreds of miles away

And buried it for no one to see.

Narrator: Decoding the mosaic's pattern

Could shed light on the mystery,

But what does this strange Design represent?

♪♪

Could the answer lie in The remains of another

Mysterious olmec settlement

Just seven miles upriver From la venta?

♪♪

The river cuts into The mud banks here,

Revealing traces of life 3,000 years ago.

Oh, yeah, look at this. You can see.

Obviously, this is really Dense occupation.

I mean, just material, There's tons of it.

Narrator: One find stands out...

Wendt: hola.

Narrator: ...An ancient olmec Kitchen tool

That could help explain The mosaic's design.

This is an actual olmec Grinding stone,

And you can see By the shape of it,

They actually ground seeds Here on the surface.

Narrator: carl believes The plant they processed

With these grinding stones

Is a clue To decoding the mosaic --

Corn, known as maize here In mexico.

So this is the maize That the people use today,

And they used to use In the past in olmec time

For thousands of years,

But we found remnants Of these particular seeds,

These maize seeds, at our Excavations under the ground

Dating to the olmec period.

Narrator: Carl thinks corn became

The most important food source For the olmec,

Important enough to be honored On the buried mosaic.

He thinks the plant-like shapes On its top layer

Depict this vital crop.

This is maize here With the leaves is very similar

To what we see On the mosaic at la venta.

♪♪

Narrator: carl's convinced The mosaic's maize symbolism

Means they were buried As offerings to a fertility god.

Given how important The environment

Was to the olmec,

We start to understand Why they would bury the mosaic,

So now the mosaic seems to me As sort of a debt of gratitude

Or a veneration To the earth god.

♪♪

Narrator: but the use of so much Precious stone

Suggests these mosaics are No ordinary religious offering.

It's evidence the olmec knew Their success

Depended on their environment.

♪♪

La venta had it all --

Fertile soils for growing crops,

Rich fish stocks, and forests For sourcing building materials.

♪♪

Because the area was packed With so many resources,

Fewer people were needed to Produce food to feed the city.

♪♪

For the first time, People could do new jobs,

Manufacturing, Building, and trading.

Armed with new skills,

The olmec built A thriving metropolis

To support their Growing population.

La venta became mexico's Very own cradle of civilization.

♪♪

Wendt: Living in this garden of eden,

They would've been Devoted to the land.

They captured and harnessed Their environment

In ways never before done.

Narrator: This huge offering reveals

Why the olmec chose la venta

To revolutionize North american civilization.

♪♪

But they could be responsible

For even more Incredible innovations.

Does this strange wooden object

Prove the olmec Were the first in mesoamerica

To believe in life after death,

And did their legacy Lay the foundation

For some of The greatest civilizations

The world has ever known?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: 3,000 years ago,

The city of la venta Thrived on mexico's gulf coast.

The olmec that lived here Dedicated their lives

To building huge mud monuments,

Faithfully following Powerful priest-kings,

And worshipped mysterious Gods of the earth.

But what did the people Of la venta believe

Happened to them in death?

2,500 years Before the native americans

Built totem poles To honor spirits of the dead,

The oldest tomb in mesoamerica Could reveal the olmec

As the creators as a pioneering Concept of the afterlife.

♪♪

Deep beneath the ground At la venta,

Archaeologists unearthed A massive stone tomb.

30 basalt columns Formed the walls,

And nine more made a roof.

Inside they found no skeletons,

Just beautiful jewelry And stone carvings.

Among the haul, One find stood out,

A rare, jade figurine Wearing a gleaming, iron mirror,

And in nearby burials,

Archaeologists found seven more Polished, reflective stones.

Why were mirrors buried Under the ground,

And what did they Represent for the olmec?

The answers could lie With incredible finds

Discovered at another Olmec burial site.

♪♪

At el manatí, 70 miles Southwest of la venta,

Experts have unearthed Carved wooden heads

And the bones of an infant.

Ponciano ortiz Leads the excavation.

[ speaking spanish ]

Narrator: Ponciano believes the reason

Why these artifacts survived

Is the clue to solving The mystery of the mirrors.

♪♪

These precious items Weren't buried in the ground.

They were placed Into an ancient lake.

Narrator: la venta is built On high ground.

This means the bones Found in the tomb here

Were buried in earth That contains pockets of air.

Exposed to oxygen, They decomposed over time,

But conditions at el manatí Are different.

A natural spring keeps soils

Below the ground Submerged in water,

So when the olmec threw bodies And organic artifacts

Into the spring,

They sank into the mud

And were sealed off From the air.

With no oxygen to decompose The organic items,

They stayed preserved For millennia.

♪♪

Why did the ancient olmec Put human remains into water?

♪♪

It seems they believed what lay Beneath the water's reflective

Surface was a different world,

One that could only be Accessed in death.

♪♪

Ponciano thinks the ancient pool At el manatí symbolized

An entrance Into this afterlife,

Just like the mirrors found Among burials at la venta.

Narrator: if the olmec believed It was possible to transition

Magically between this world And the next,

Then they were the first People in mesoamerica

To develop The revolutionary idea

That life exists after death.

♪♪

The evidence indicates That the ancient people

Who built this continent's First cities

Also forged a religion here.

Led by mighty priest-kings,

They worshipped gods Of the earth

And created a concept Of the afterlife.

For decades, archaeologists Believe the olmec did all this

Without a written language, But a mysterious object

Could now turn That theory on its head.

Does this clay cylinder Prove the olmec were

The first people in the americas To invent writing,

And did these symbols Communicate ideas

So powerful that they lasted For thousands of years?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: la venta, mexico -- The greatest achievement

Of the ancient Olmec civilization,

The builders Of a mighty mud city

And followers of A revolutionary religion.

Many experts believe They achieved all this

With no written language

Because what some believe

To be the earliest writing in North america

Is on a huge rock Carved 300 years

After the olmec disappeared.

♪♪

Over 100 miles from la venta,

Archaeologists unearthed Half of a three-ton stone.

Chiseled into it Is a strange design.

When investigators found The missing half 30 years later,

The complete stone reveals

The carving is An elaborate mask,

But then they spotted A puzzling inscription

On the stone's other side,

A curious code of symbols, Lines, and dots.

Did the people who carved This stone invent

Writing in the americas, Or does a new discovery prove

It started centuries Earlier at la venta?

♪♪

Archaeologists excavating An ancient suburb of the city

Have discovered A strange clay object

600 years older Than the giant split stone.

It's a cylindrical seal,

An ancient olmec Printing device.

Is the pattern it prints Just decoration or, incredibly,

Could this be north america's First-ever written message?

♪♪

And what would decoding It reveal?

Unfortunately, the seal Is too fragile to test.

Dipping it in ink Could damage it beyond repair.

So christopher von nagy And a team

From florida state university 3-d print an exact replica.

♪♪

Christopher dips the seal in ink And rolls it on his skin,

Just as the olmec Would've done.

It reveals a bizarre design,

But is it writing?

Coming out of the bird's beak Are two speech scrolls,

Which are kind of Like mesoamerican versions

Of the speech bubble We see in modern cartoons,

At the end of which We have two sets of signs.

The bird is actually speaking, And we believe

That the signs here Are written speech, writing.

♪♪

Narrator: If this is a written message,

What does it say?

Christopher believes decoding it Could reveal a rare glimpse

Into life at la venta 2,500 years ago.

He compares the characters With their closest match,

Ancient mayan script.

Von nagy: what's interesting is That there's a similarity

Between the cylinder With this u-shaped element

That almost looks like a mouth And the maya symbol,

Where you have something Similar going on.

You have a little face with a u For a mouth and dots for eyes.

The central part of The olmec symbol

Is an early version of The maya word for king or lord.

♪♪

Narrator: The message on the seal

Reveals a long-lost vision

Of royal life at la venta.

A person in a ceremony Could have a name of a king

From la venta Inked on themselves,

And then, therefore, The cylinder seal

Could record some event Related to his reign,

An accession to the throne.

It could mark a birth.

It could mark a victory In a military battle.

Narrator: but christopher thinks The seal is also proof

The olmec developed North america's first calendar.

♪♪

These dots signify The number three in mayan.

Similar dots appear on the split Stone carved 300 years later.

♪♪

Like maya kings, olmec rulers Were named after the day

On which they were born, So combining a number with a day

Means the olmec were The first civilization

In the americas To record time.

This isn't just among The earliest evidence

For writing in mesoamerica.

This is the earliest evidence For a date in mesoamerica.

♪♪

Narrator: What started with simple dots

On this seal at la venta

Evolved into a system that Recorded long stretches of time.

♪♪

Learning from the olmec,

The carvers of the split stone Recorded a date --

September 3, 31 b.C.

The maya developed the system Into calendars

To track religious days,

The solar year, And maya history.

They divided time into eras.

The last of these ended On december 23, 2012,

Which some believed would mark The end of the world.

♪♪

For christopher, The cylinder seal is proof

That writing in the americas

Began with the civilization At la venta.

This is the spark that Transforms mesoamerica,

The revolution that begins With the olmec.

Narrator: but 600 years after North america's first

Planned city was founded,

Traces of olmec life at la venta Suddenly disappear.

♪♪

Why was this city abandoned,

And did la venta's legacy Draw the blueprint

For all later Civilizations in the americas?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: 2,500 years ago, The olmec mud city of la venta

Thrived in southern mexico.

It gave rise to North american civilization,

The continent's first pyramid,

And a belief in life After death,

But 600 years After it was founded,

The city was abandoned.

Why did olmec civilization Suddenly collapse?

♪♪

Rebecca gonzález lauck is on A quest to solve this mystery.

♪♪

She believes a nearby river Is a vital clue.

Rivers can change courses, And through thousands of years,

The landscape changes very fast.

You can see in this is map How far the river

Has moved to the west.

♪♪

Narrator: rebecca thinks The olmecs' intensive

Farming clogged The water with silt.

The river changed course Away from la venta.

This triggered devastating Consequences for the city.

♪♪

Lauck: The river to the north silted in

And ceased to function

As a transportation venue And for fish and foods.

In the case of la venta, You could see that people

Abandoned the habitation Of the sites on the riverside.

♪♪

Narrator: Food production dwindled as

People left the fields.

Faced with starvation,

La venta's citizens Abandoned their city.

Olmec civilization was finished.

♪♪

But does their story end there?

♪♪

It's possible key elements Of olmec civilization

Lived on for thousands of years.

This is teotihuacan In central mexico,

Mesoamerica's mightiest city.

It lasted for 1,700 years

Before it fell To the spanish conquistadors,

But would this place even exist

If it weren't for the olmec?

Rebecca explores the city's Massive structures for clues.

This ancient city is the home

To some of the largest Pyramids of the world,

Which share, amazingly, features

That were determined 1,000 years Earlier in la venta

With the step platforms And the central staircase.

Narrator: at teotihuacan, Ancient engineers

Supersized la venta's Mud-pyramid design in stone.

♪♪

Lauck: it's incredible to think That all this started

In la venta 1,000 years earlier.

La venta was such An impressive city for its time

That the idea of the planned City persisted

Through generations.

Narrator: the olmecs' pioneering Innovations

Became the blueprint For this metropolis,

And their influence Runs deeper still.

Everywhere Rebecca looks at teotihuacan,

There are echoes of the olmec.

Ancient paintings Of portal mirrors

Like the ones unearthed At la venta

And images of corn Similar to those the olmec

Pictured On their mosaic offerings.

Rebecca believes this Is evidence the culture

The olmec invented influenced Mesoamerica for millennia.

At la venta, the olmec created Monumental architecture,

Spectacular arts, And the first planned city.

It represents a transformation In the way of life

In ancient mexico.

The olmec legacy inspired Millions of people

For thousands of years.

Narrator: the olmec at la venta Were true pioneers,

The first people in North america to build cities.

Their ideas laid the foundations

For civilizations Like the maya and aztec.

The olmec at la venta were Central in the story of kings,

Central in ritual in a way That is revolutionary

And absolutely different Than what came before.

Wendt: The olmec should be remembered

For their sophistication.

They removed hundreds of tons Of stone

Through tropical rainforests.

They built cities out of mud.

They developed a sophisticated Religion and symbol system.

The more we learn About the olmec,

The more we're learning About the foundations

Of mesoamerican society.

Narrator: a mud metropolis home To tens of thousands of people,

Ruled by america's First royal dynasty

Who presided over A new, revolutionary religion.

The olmec built the first Pyramids here

For spectacular ceremonies

And wrote the rules For mesoamerica.

♪♪

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