Laguna de los Cerros

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Laguna de los Cerros is a little-excavated Olmec and Classical period archaeological site in the highlands of the Mexican state of Veracruz, in the southern foothills of the Tuxtla Mountains.

Laguna de los Cerros ("lake of the hills") was so named because of the nearly 100 mounds dotting the landscape. Long parallel mounds, terminated by conical mounds at each edge, flank large rectangular plazas. Large raised residential platforms are associated with the long parallel mounds.^[1]

The site was occupied from Olmec times until the Classic Era, due its location in a pass between the the river valleys to the south and the northwest and its proximity to basalt sources in the volcanic Tuxtla Mountains to the north. Recent investigations have cast doubt on earlier assumptions that Laguna de los Cerros was a major Olmec center.^[2]

Laguna de los Cerros' 40 hectares (100 acres) contain roughly 40 monuments, most of them from the Classic period.^[3] However, some two dozen of the monuments show Olmec features, indicating a Middle Formative origin. There are also strong indications of Olmec era basalt workshops, using stone from the nearby volcanoes.^[4]

Laguna de los Cerros was briefly investigated by Alfonso Medellin Zenil in 1960 and by Ann Cyphers in the late 1990's and early 2000's.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Coe, M.D. (2002); Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs London: Thames and Hudson.
• Cyphers, Ann (2003) "Laguna de los Cerros: A Terminal Classic Period Capital in the Southern Mexican Gulf Coast", Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc., accessed February 2007.
• Diehl, Richard A. (2004) The Olmecs: America's First Civilization, Thames & Hudson, London.
• Grove, David C. (2000) "Laguna de los Cerros (Veracruz, Mexico)", in Archaeology of Ancient Mexico & Central America: an Encyclopedia; Thames and Hudson, London.

Coordinates: 18°07′N, 95°06′W