OLMEC RELIGION. The Olmec occupied southern Mexico's tropical lowlands in southeastern Veracruz and western Tabasco between 1200 and 600 BCE. Like other Mesoamerican peoples of the period, they lived in villages, practiced agriculture based on maize cultivation, and produced pottery. However, they differed from their contemporaries in their more complex social and political institutions, in the construction of large centers with temples and other specialized buildings, and in their development of a distinctive style of art expressed in monumental stone sculptures and exquisite small portable objects. If they had a writing system, none of their texts has survived; everything known about the Olmec is based upon archaeological excavations at San Lorenzo, La Venta, Laguna de los Cerros, Tres Zapotes, and other major centers. Although religion is a most difficult aspect of prehistoric life for archaeologists to reconstruct, Olmec architecture, sculpture, and artifacts provide many useful insights into their...