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San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán (or San Lorenzo) is the collective name for three related archaeological sites—San Lorenzo, Tenochtitlán and Potrero Nuevo—located in the southeast portion of the Mexican state of Veracruz. Along with La Venta and Tres Zapotes, it was one of the three major cities of the Olmec (it was the major center of Olmec culture from 1200 BC to 900 BC). San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán is best known today for the colossal stone heads unearthed there, the greatest of which weigh or more and are high.〔Diehl, p. 41.〕 The site should not be confused with Tenochtitlan, the Aztec site in Mexico City. ==Description== The earliest evidence for Olmec culture is found at nearby El Manatí, a sacrificial bog with artifacts dating to 1600 BC or earlier. Sedentary agriculturalists had lived in the area for centuries before San Lorenzo developed into a regional center.〔Clark, 342.〕 San Lorenzo was the first Olmec site that demonstrates state level complexity. The site dominated the gulf coast lowlands, creating Olmec cultural diffusion throughout the rest of Mesoamerica. The iconic finds at the site are the famous colossal heads. The colossal heads stand up to tall. According to archaeological finds, archaeologists have divided the Olmec history into four stages: Formation stage (1700–1300 BC), Integration stage (1300–900 BC) Expansion stage (900–300 BC) and Disintegration stage (300 BC – 200AD). Another name archaeologists use is for categorizing the Olmecs is the Formative Period. Formative meaning, the pivotal years that laid the ground work for state level, complex societies. Formative Mesoamerica can be divided into three periods: Early Formative (1800–900 BC), Middle Formative (900–400 BC) and Late Formative (400 BC – 200 AD). San Lorenzo was the largest city in Mesoamerica from roughly 1200 BC to 900 BC, at which time it had begun to be overtaken by the Olmec center of La Venta. By 800 BC, there was little or no population, although there was an important recolonization of the San Lorenzo plateau from 600 to 400 BC and again from circa 800 to 1000 AD. In contrast to La Venta's swamp-like environs, San Lorenzo was situated in the midst of a large agricultural area.〔Coe, p. 44.〕 San Lorenzo seems to have been largely a ceremonial site, a town without city walls, centered in the midst of a widespread medium-to-large agricultural population. The ceremonial center and attendant buildings could have housed 5,500 while the entire area, including hinterlands, could have reached 13,000.〔Lawler, p. 23〕 It is thought that while San Lorenzo controlled much or all of the Coatzacoalcos basin, areas to the east (such as the area where La Venta would rise to prominence) and north-northwest (such as the Tuxtla Mountains) were home to independent polities.〔Pool, p. 193.〕 Built on some of high ground between then-active tributaries, the core of San Lorenzo covers 〔Pool, p. 100.〕 that were further modified through extensive filling and leveling; by one estimate of earthen fill were needed, moved by the basketload. The rulers of San Lorenzo played a crucial role in integrating a population that changed the natural environment into sacred and secular landscapes for the glorification of the San Lorenzo polity.〔Symonds, p. 55.〕 Archaeologists Michael Coe and Richard Diehl calculated that the area of San Lorenzo that they studied could produce approximately of maize annually, enough to feed 5,556 people, more than the estimated population at the time. Residents of San Lorenzo also consumed domestic dog, snook, tarpon, mojarra, catfish, and turtles. Although some claim that manioc was cultivated here, no evidence for this has been found.〔Flannery, p. 443〕 San Lorenzo also boasted an elaborate drainage system which used buried, covered, channeled stones as a type of "pipe".〔Cyphers, p. 165.〕 Fresh spring water was available on the elevated lands, but not as available in the lowlands.〔Symonds, p. 56.〕 Long lines of U-shaped drain stones directed water to the edges of the plateau, which reflected how the rulers directed and controlled this precious resource.〔Pool, p. 98.〕 Some researchers have inferred that the purpose of this system was not only to provide drinking water for the population but for ritual purposes as well, and that the rulership was "intimately linked to the figure of a patron water supernatural".〔Cyphers, p. 165.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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