How the Olmec used bitumen in ancient Mesoamerica

Early Formative Pottery Production, Mobility, and Exchange on the Pacific Coast of Southern Mexico

“…Larger quantities of goods can be transported in canoes and this facilitates the transport of bulkier items like ceramics. The evidence supporting the importance of canoes and waterways on the Gulf Coast during the Early Formative is growing (Symonds 1995;Wendt and Cyphers 2008) and this is consistent with the hypothesis that important maritime trade networks connected the Gulf and Pacific coasts via an overland route across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. This does not rule out other forms of transport and communication and the clear connectivity of important political centers in Mesoamerica connected by overland and riverine routes.…”

Settlement and subsistence among the Early Formative Gulf Olmec

“…Recent chemical analysis, however, reveal that chapopote samples recovered from San Lorenzo reflect only two of six archeological sources identified for the region while samples from Loma del Zapote and adjacent El Azuzul formed a third, mutually exclusive cluster (Wendt and Lu, 2006). Such evidence casts doubt on the control over bitumen by San Lorenzo's elite (Wendt and Cyphers, 2008).…”

3 The Scale and Structure of Bitumen Processing in Early Formative Olmec Households

“…1), and offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. In these areas, bitumen would have been available for collection from seepages and beaches where it washes ashore (Wendt and Lu 2006; Wendt and Cyphers 2008). No archaeological materials were found near any of the > 50 active seepages visited in the region (Wendt and Lu 2006).…”

“…For bitumen to be effectively used it must be processed, which involves heating the natural bitumen and often mixing it with vegetal and/or mineral additives, such as sand, grass, straw, or leaves (Wendt and Cyphers 2008). Processed bitumen has the advantage of stiffening upon application and not melting in the sun (see Forbes 1936:42–45; Connan and Deschesne 1992).…”

“…Bitumen processing among the Olmec (Figure 1) represents some of the earliest evidence for domestic craft specialization in Mesoamerica, and is the earliest documented evidence for non‐elite domestic craft specialization in the southern Gulf lowlands (Wendt and Cyphers 2008). In this chapter, I use data on bitumen processing from the San Lorenzo Olmec rural levee sites of El Remolino and Paso los Ortices (Wendt and Cyphers 2008; Wendt 2005b) in the San Lorenzo region (Figure 2) to investigate domestic production organization, specialization, risk, and scheduling among the Early Formative Olmec (1400–1000 BC). In doing this I consider the ways bitumen processing activities were integrated with other domestic activities and how domestic craft producers were incorporated into the San Lorenzo Olmec political economy.…”