El Manati

Olmec Culture – Archaeological Site
Four of the preserved wooden busts. Note the resemblance to this jade figurine.
Name:	El Manatí
Type	Mesoamerican archaeology
Location	Hidalgotitlán, Veracruz  Mexico
Region	Mesoamérica (México)
Coordinates	17°37′21″N 94°38′30″W / 17.622427°N 94.641552°W / 17.622427; -94.641552Coordinates: 17°37′21″N 94°38′30″W / 17.622427°N 94.641552°W / 17.622427; -94.641552
Culture	Olmec
Language
Chronology	1600–1200 BCE.C.
Period	Mesoamerican Preclassical
Apogee
INAH Web Page	Non existent

El Manatí is an archaeological site located approximately 60 km south of Coatzacoalcos, in the municipality of Hidalgotitlán 27 kilometers southeast of Minatitlan in the Mexican state of Veracruz. El Manatí was the site of a sacred Olmec sacrificial bog from roughly 1600 BCE until 1200 BCE. It is likely that this site was used for ritual ceremonies which included offerings of wooden sculptures, rubber balls, ceremonial axes, and other items, including the bones of infants – all found in an excellent state of preservation in the muck. Most of the wooden sculptures are busts created in the "elongated man" style and are the oldest wooden artifacts yet found in Mexico. The rubber balls are also the earliest such items yet discovered and were possibly used in the Mesoamerican ballgame.

The Olmec were a Pre-Columbian civilization living in the tropical lowlands of south-central Mexico, close to the border between the modern-day states of Veracruz and Tabasco. The Olmec flourished during Mesoamerica's Formative period, dating roughly from as early as 1500 BCE to about 400 BCE. Pre-Olmec cultures had flourished in the area since about 2500 BCE, but by 1600-1500 BCE Early Olmec culture had emerged centered around the San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán site near the coast in southeast Veracruz. They were the first Mesoamerican civilization and laid many of the foundations for the civilizations that followed. Among other "firsts", there is evidence that the Olmec practiced ritual bloodletting and played the Mesoamerican ballgame, hallmarks of nearly all subsequent Mesoamerican societies.