Mesoamerican Mathematics

Abstract

The Olmec world has a special place in the sequence of cultures that developed in the region that has come to be known as Mesoamerica (Figure 1). It flourished along Mexico’s Gulf Coast between 1200 and 400 BC. Because it exhibited early achievements in art, politics, religion, and economics that appear to be ancestral to later developments in Mesoamerica, it has earned the reputation of being a kind of ‘mother culture’ of all later civilizations in the region. The same culture is now known to have deep roots in the Pacific littoral of Chiapas state in Mexico and neighbouring Guatemala as well as in the hills of Guerrero state in Mexico. Thus, the Olmec heartland may be more extensive than once believed.