Olmec Civilization
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The Emergence of the Olmecs:
The great Olmec civilization emerged in South Central Mexico somewhere between 5,000 and 3,500 years ago. Radiocarbon dating places them before 1500 BCE, but many historians believe their society reached as far back as 3000 BCE. They supposedly called themselves the Xi, but little is known about their oral communication because the civilization dates so far back. The definition of Olmec is either "mouth of the jaguar" or "the rubber people," the latter which was earned because of their discovery of natural rubber over 3,000 years ago.
The Olmec Discovery of Rubber:
The first European contact with rubber came when Christopher Columbus got lost in the Pacific and invaded modern-day Haiti. The indigenous tribes used rubber to play a ball game, as the Olmecs did thousands of years earlier. Europeans did not learn how to use rubber properly until the 18th century. But historians do not believe that discoveries of this magnitude are proof of an advanced civilization, unless of course they come from Europeans. European gunpowder, steel, guns, canons, crossbows, and other weapons are considered to be more indicative of sophistication than rubber, even though every one of those "European" inventions were discovered by the Chinese. (see Chinese Inventions)
The Olmec Domain:
The Olmecs were the supreme power from 1200 BCE to 800 BCE in the areas of the tropical coastal plains of modern-day Veracruz and Tabasco, but their influence reached Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Belize, and Costa Rica...