La Mojarra is an

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...

in the

Mexican state A Mexican State (), officially the Free and Sovereign State (), is a constituent federative entity of Mexico according to the Constitution of Mexico. Currently there are 31 states, each with its own constitution, government, state governor, a ...

Veracruz Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entit ...

, located near

Gulf Coast The Gulf Coast of the United States, also known as the Gulf South or the South Coast, is the coastline along the Southern United States where they meet the Gulf of Mexico. The coastal states that have a shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico are Tex ...

, at a bend in the Acula River. It was continually occupied from the late

Formative period Several chronologies in the archaeology of the Americas include a Formative Period or Formative stage etc. It is often sub-divided, for example into "Early", "Middle" and "Late" stages. The Formative is the third of five stages defined by Gord ...

(ca. 300

BCE Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the o ...

) until perhaps as late as 1000 CE. Not a large site, La Mojarra has been little excavated. It covers roughly 1 km² and consists of small mounds and a modest plaza. Three

kilns A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects made from clay into ...

have been unearthed, which fired locally used orange pottery. Nonetheless, La Mojarra and environs have yielded two important

Epi-Olmec culture The Epi-Olmec culture was a cultural area in the central region of the present-day Mexican state of Veracruz. Concentrated in the Papaloapan River basin, a culture that existed during the Late Formative period, from roughly 300 BCE to roughly 250 ...

artifacts:

La Mojarra Stela 1 La Mojarra Stela 1 is a Mesoamerican carved monument ( stela) dating from 156 CE (2nd century CE). It was discovered in 1986, pulled from the Acula River near La Mojarra, Veracruz, Mexico, not far from the Tres Zapotes archaeological site. The ...

and the

Tuxtla Statuette The Tuxtla Statuette is a small 6.3 inch (16 cm) rounded greenstone (archaeology), greenstone figurine, carved to resemble a squat, bullet-shaped human with a duck-like bill and wings. Most researchers believe the statuette represents a ...

. Both of these artifacts contain what has been classified as

Epi-Olmec script The Isthmian script is an early set of symbols found in inscriptions around the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, dating to , though with dates subject to disagreement. It is also called the La Mojarra script and the Epi-Olmec script ('post-Olmec script') ...

as well as very early Long Count calendar dates.

References

*Diehl, Richard A. (2000) “Mojarra, La (Veraruz, Mexico),” in ''Archaeology of Ancient Mexico & Central America: an Encyclopedia''; Routledge, London. *Diehl, Richard A. (2004) ''The Olmecs: America’s First Civilization'', Thames & Hudson, London. {{coord, 18.6153, N, 95.7417, W, source:wikidata, display=title Mesoamerican sites Epi-Olmec sites Former populated places in Mexico Archaeological sites in Veracruz