All language subtitles for Unearthed.(2016).S04E07.Curse.of.the.Jungle.Treasure.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-Cinefeel_track3_[eng]

Narrator: la venta, mexico --

A huge pyramid
Rises from the jungle,

Built by
A pioneering civilization

That vanished 2,500 years ago.

This was once the capital
Of a mysterious ancient people,

The olmec.

People had been living
Throughout the jungle,

And then the olmec came
And built cities

Like nothing else

That has been seen
On the planet at the time.

Narrator: who were the olmec?

Why did they carve
These strange, stone statues,

And what drove them

To build the first cities
In north america?

The remarkable artifacts
Found here

Are revealing
Of an incredible people.

Narrator: did the olmec invent
Mesoamerica's first writing

And a belief in the afterlife?

♪♪

Without the achievements
Of the olmec,

Would the great civilizations
That came after them

Have even existed?

This is the spark that
Transforms mesoamerica,

The revolution that begins
With the olmec.

Narrator: to unearth the truth
About this mysterious people,

We'll tear away the jungle,
Uncover hidden treasures,

And blow apart their capital's
Ancient structures

To reveal why civilization
In north america evolved here.

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On the mexican gulf coast
Lies one of the most

Mysterious ancient cities
Of the americas -- la venta.

♪♪

Today, jungle covers
Most of this site,

But at its peak 3,000 years ago,

This was a thriving metropolis
Built almost entirely from mud.

♪♪

Thousands of years
Before the ancient maya

And aztec build cities
In north america,

The olmec created
The first civilization here.

♪♪

This jungle landscape
Was once covered

With millions of tons
Of earthen mounds.

Scores of basalt columns
Marked out a ceremonial core.

A huge 100-foot-high mound
Dominated the mud city

That stretched for 200 acres

With thousands of
Thatched homes.

Who were the ancient olmec,

And why were they the first-ever
To build a true city here?

♪♪

Archaeologist carl wendt is
On a hunt for answers.

What were they doing
To allow them to transform

This tropical lowland,
Hot, humid area

Into one of the most incredible
Civilizations at the time?

Narrator:
But he faces a huge obstacle.

La venta's secrets lie
Buried under thick jungle

And 3,000 years
Of soil deposits.

But clues do exist, giant ones
That could finally reveal

Who the olmec really were.

♪♪

Buried beneath the ground
At the heart of the city,

Archaeologists unearthed
An enormous stone head,

Entirely carved
From a single boulder.

♪♪

Nearby,
They discovered two more.

Each statue stands
Over seven feet high,

Weighs up to 20 tons,

And wears
The same mysterious headgear.

♪♪

Who are these people?

Were they gods
Or the masterminds

Behind mesoamerica's
First civilization?

♪♪

Wow, when you walk up
To these things,

It's right there in your face.

They're -- they're massive.

You can stare right
Into their eyes,

And, I mean, you can really tell
That this was an individual.

This was a person.

Narrator:
Carl believes the material

The heads are made from

Is a clue
To revealing their identities.

They're all basalt, a type of
Rock not found at la venta.

Wendt:
Why would they carve this stone?

You can't find this stuff
Anywhere around here.

Bringing this stuff in
For a prior to reason,

This was important, and where
They actually got this rock from

Is gonna tell us a lot.

♪♪

Narrator: to investigate where
The olmecs sourced the stone,

Carl travels 60 miles north
Of la venta

Into the tuxtla mountains.

[ cow moos ]

Today, it's a short ride
On a highway.

♪♪

But for the olmec, it was
A three-day, uphill hike.

Wendt: wow. That's hot, man.

Narrator: here, giant basalt
Boulders cover a vast area.

Carl scours the site for proof
La venta's heads

Came from this spot.

Pushing deeper into the jungle,

He makes
An extraordinary discovery.

Wendt: oh, man.

I've never seen anything
Like this before.

This is one-of-a-kind.

This is a preform
Of an olmec colossal head.

They would've carved
The headdress.

Then you could come down
To the face to the nose

And finally, the mouth.

This is the exact same size

As some of the colossal heads
At la venta.

I mean, it's a dead ringer.

With a few more weeks' work,

This stone could've ended up
At la venta.

Narrator: carl thinks how this
Rock was formed is a clue

To the identity
Of the carved faces.

Basalt is the product
Of volcanic eruptions,

A natural event the olmec
Considered the work of the gods.

Mountains, and volcanoes
Especially,

Are significant
In olmec religion,

And for these boulders, then,
To be thrown out of the volcano

And strewn
Throughout this area,

The material itself
Would've had symbolic,

Religious significance.

And the people whose images were
Carved into these monuments,

They were aligning themselves
With the deities.

Narrator: carl believes only
La venta's elite

Could've been
Given this honor.

Wendt:
These are almost certainly

The faces of the priest-kings,

The leaders of the site
Of la venta.

Narrator: incredibly, there is
Evidence these people

Could've been the first
Royal family in the americas.

While the faces are different,

We have a certain template
That all these heads follow --

The ears pierced,
The headdress, the helmet.

And for the similarities
Designed,

It could be that
These individuals were related

And represent not just
A secession of rulers

But possibly
The first dynasty.

Narrator:
Carving and transporting

Such huge stones
Was a massive undertaking.

Dragging them through 60 miles
Of dense jungle

Would've been impossible,

So how did the olmec do it?

Could a local natural resource
Provide a clue?

♪♪

Carl examines pieces
Of ancient bitumen

Excavated from the banks
Of rivers that led to la venta.

He believes
They're evidence the olmec

Floated the giant heads
Downriver to their city.

This could be the missing link

To how the olmec transported
Their colossal heads.

What's really neat
About this one here

Is that you can see,
Actually, little striation marks

That were formed as it
Was affixed to a piece of wood.

♪♪

Narrator: carl thinks
The bitumen is all that remains

Of a huge ancient raft.

By using this material to fill
In the gaps of their watercraft,

Say rafts, all sealed
With this bitumen,

That would've allowed them,
Then, to drag the colossal heads

Onto these rafts
And transport them

Via water
To the site of la venta.

♪♪

Narrator: 3,000 years ago,

60 miles of thick jungle
And winding rivers

Stood between the basalt
Boulder fields and la venta.

♪♪

Archaeologists believe that
The olmec used trees and vines

To construct sledges
To transport the giant rocks.

A huge workforce hauled
Each sledge

Along wooden rollers
To a nearby river

And onto bitumen-sealed rafts
To float the head downstream.

They skillfully navigated
The coast

Before dragging the stones
Into position at la venta.

♪♪

Centuries before the maya
And aztec civilizations,

The people of la venta
Exploited natural resources

To immortalize their ruling
Dynasty in sacred stone,

But what was this jungle city

Where the heads
Were being taken,

And why was the first pyramid
In north america built here?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: la venta --
The capital city of the olmec,

Ancient mexico's
Oldest civilization

Once ruled by a powerful
Dynasty of priest-kings.

Today, most of their city lies
Hidden under thick jungle,

But its greatest
And most mysterious structure

Still dominates the landscape --

A great clay pyramid that towers
100 feet over the jungle canopy.

♪♪

3,000 years ago,

It was the largest man-made
Monument in mesoamerica.

Why did the olmec build it?

The pyramid of la venta
Is full of mysteries,

And if you know where to look,
You will find its purpose.

♪♪

Narrator: archaeologist
Rebecca gonzález lauck

And her team have unearthed
Giant limestone blocks here.

They form a strange ring
Around the pyramid,

Part of what rebecca thinks
Is an intricate, hidden design.

Lauck:
Our excavations have revealed

Hundreds of limestone slabs

Embedded into the clay surface.

You can just imagine
The weight they carry.

Narrator:
Rebecca believes exposing

The pyramid's original design

Can reveal why
The olmec built it.

Her team strips back
The thick vegetation.

[ speaking spanish ]

So we're standing on a ridge,
Which we're clearing

So that it reveals
The ravines and the ridges.

As you can see, this is
One ridge here that goes down

And to the right,
And to the left, the ravine.

Narrator:
Rebecca launches a drone

To investigate the feature
From a more revealing angle.

Lauck: so you can very clearly
See the ravines.

It is obviously
An architectural feature

That goes from the top to
The bottom in a straight line.

♪♪

Narrator:
Rebecca surveys the site.

She combines her data

With existing
Topographical information

To create a relief map
Of the entire pyramid.

Lauck:
A series of ridges and ravines

That circle around it.

Here are probably corners,

And the ravines
Are probably staircases.

The data reveals an elaborate,
Ancient olmec design.

♪♪

Concealed under the soil
Is the outline

Of what was
The pyramid's true shape.

The ridges, ravines
And inset limestone blocks hint

That it once had a much
More complex structure,

An extraordinary geometric shape

With four huge staircases,

And set into a massive
Earthen platform

Once stood a line
Of ceremonial stones.

It's a 200,000-ton
Engineering marvel,

But why did the olmec build it,
And what was it for?

Lauck:
When the elites needed to talk

To the general population,

They probably climbed up
These staircases

To address them from
The summit of the pyramid.

You can imagine a large
Gathering of people

In this plaza.

For people coming
From elsewhere,

It would've
Totally blown them away.

It transmits power.

It transmits status.

It transmits strength.

Narrator: but la venta's
Statement of power

Has one big flaw.

It is made from mud.

How did its engineers stop such
A huge, heavy pile of dirt

From collapsing
Under its own weight?

A clue lies in la venta's
Archaeological vaults...

♪♪

...Soil samples taken from deep
Inside the pyramid.

They had a very sophisticated
Combination of materials.

So the main component is clay,
But they also used sand,

Which has a function
A bit like temper

That avoids making it crack,

And it holds together very
Plastic but still very strong.

♪♪

Narrator:
As a building material,

Dense clay sets hard,

But it's brittle
And crumbles easily.

[ cracking sound ]

This is because when clay dries,

The water particles
Trapped inside evaporate.

The clay shrinks and splits.

Mixing sand into the clay
Gives it added support,

So now, when the clay dries,
It shrinks less,

Preventing cracking.

By pounding this mixture
Into layers,

The olmecs shaped
A lasting monument

At the heart of la venta.

♪♪

The first pyramid
In north america

Was the focus
Of this olmec metropolis.

Home to tens of thousands
Of people,

This was the first planned city
In mesoamerica,

But the mighty pyramid
Is not the only mystery

The olmec left behind.

They laid this strange
Stone structure in a hole

In the ground
And buried it completely.

What was this for, and will
The answer reveal what drove

The olmec to build la venta here
In the first place?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: la venta, mexico --

The ancient
Olmecs' pioneering city,

A place where north american
Civilization sparked into life.

♪♪

It was dominated by
The continent's first

Stepped pyramid,
Once the stage for ceremonies

Conducted
By powerful priest-kings.

♪♪

But the reason for la venta's
Genesis remains a mystery.

What drove people to leave
Their small settlements

And come together
To live in a planned city for

The first time?

And why did they choose
To build it here?

♪♪

Archaeologist carl wendt
Hunts for answers.

For tens of thousands of years,
People had been living here

Scattered throughout the jungle,

And then the olmec came
And changed everything.

They built cities out of mud
Like nothing else

That has been seen
On the planet at the time.

Narrator: he believes a unique
Find from beneath la venta

Could be a clue
To why this site was chosen.

Wendt: when archaeologists
Discovered this,

There wasn't anything like this

In the archaeological record
In the entire world.

♪♪

Hidden 13 feet beneath
The ground,

Archaeologists unearthed
A strange stack of stones

Made from 28 layers
Of precious serpentine slabs.

On top of this platform,
A mosaic of 485 polished rocks

Arranged into a cryptic pattern,

And buried on the other side
Of the plaza,

A second, identical mosaic.

Incredibly, both were covered up
As soon as they were finished.

Could the reason the olmec
Buried all these extraordinary

Artworks reveal why civilization
Took off here at la venta?

♪♪

Wendt: most archaeologists,
We thought that this was a mask,

But as you look at it,
It's not that intuitive.

This could be various layers

With organic elements
At the top.

This could be plants sprouting.

These could be roots
In the ground.

What was really puzzling is why
They had brought

In thousands of tons of stone
From hundreds of miles away

And buried it for no one to see.

Narrator:
Decoding the mosaic's pattern

Could shed light on the mystery,

But what does this strange
Design represent?

♪♪

Could the answer lie in
The remains of another

Mysterious olmec settlement

Just seven miles upriver
From la venta?

♪♪

The river cuts into
The mud banks here,

Revealing traces of life
3,000 years ago.

Oh, yeah, look at this.
You can see.

Obviously, this is really
Dense occupation.

I mean, just material,
There's tons of it.

Narrator:
One find stands out...

Wendt: hola.

Narrator: ...An ancient olmec
Kitchen tool

That could help explain
The mosaic's design.

This is an actual olmec
Grinding stone,

And you can see
By the shape of it,

They actually ground seeds
Here on the surface.

Narrator: carl believes
The plant they processed

With these grinding stones

Is a clue
To decoding the mosaic --

Corn, known as maize here
In mexico.

So this is the maize
That the people use today,

And they used to use
In the past in olmec time

For thousands of years,

But we found remnants
Of these particular seeds,

These maize seeds, at our
Excavations under the ground

Dating to the olmec period.

Narrator:
Carl thinks corn became

The most important food source
For the olmec,

Important enough to be honored
On the buried mosaic.

He thinks the plant-like shapes
On its top layer

Depict this vital crop.

This is maize here
With the leaves is very similar

To what we see
On the mosaic at la venta.

♪♪

Narrator: carl's convinced
The mosaic's maize symbolism

Means they were buried
As offerings to a fertility god.

Given how important
The environment

Was to the olmec,

We start to understand
Why they would bury the mosaic,

So now the mosaic seems to me
As sort of a debt of gratitude

Or a veneration
To the earth god.

♪♪

Narrator: but the use of so much
Precious stone

Suggests these mosaics are
No ordinary religious offering.

It's evidence the olmec knew
Their success

Depended on their environment.

♪♪

La venta had it all --

Fertile soils for growing crops,

Rich fish stocks, and forests
For sourcing building materials.

♪♪

Because the area was packed
With so many resources,

Fewer people were needed to
Produce food to feed the city.

♪♪

For the first time,
People could do new jobs,

Manufacturing,
Building, and trading.

Armed with new skills,

The olmec built
A thriving metropolis

To support their
Growing population.

La venta became mexico's
Very own cradle of civilization.

♪♪

Wendt:
Living in this garden of eden,

They would've been
Devoted to the land.

They captured and harnessed
Their environment

In ways never before done.

Narrator:
This huge offering reveals

Why the olmec chose la venta

To revolutionize
North american civilization.

♪♪

But they could be responsible

For even more
Incredible innovations.

Does this strange wooden object

Prove the olmec
Were the first in mesoamerica

To believe in life after death,

And did their legacy
Lay the foundation

For some of
The greatest civilizations

The world has ever known?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: 3,000 years ago,

The city of la venta
Thrived on mexico's gulf coast.

The olmec that lived here
Dedicated their lives

To building huge mud monuments,

Faithfully following
Powerful priest-kings,

And worshipped mysterious
Gods of the earth.

But what did the people
Of la venta believe

Happened to them in death?

2,500 years
Before the native americans

Built totem poles
To honor spirits of the dead,

The oldest tomb in mesoamerica
Could reveal the olmec

As the creators as a pioneering
Concept of the afterlife.

♪♪

Deep beneath the ground
At la venta,

Archaeologists unearthed
A massive stone tomb.

30 basalt columns
Formed the walls,

And nine more made a roof.

Inside they found no skeletons,

Just beautiful jewelry
And stone carvings.

Among the haul,
One find stood out,

A rare, jade figurine
Wearing a gleaming, iron mirror,

And in nearby burials,

Archaeologists found seven more
Polished, reflective stones.

Why were mirrors buried
Under the ground,

And what did they
Represent for the olmec?

The answers could lie
With incredible finds

Discovered at another
Olmec burial site.

♪♪

At el manatí, 70 miles
Southwest of la venta,

Experts have unearthed
Carved wooden heads

And the bones of an infant.

Ponciano ortiz
Leads the excavation.

[ speaking spanish ]

Narrator:
Ponciano believes the reason

Why these artifacts survived

Is the clue to solving
The mystery of the mirrors.

♪♪

These precious items
Weren't buried in the ground.

They were placed
Into an ancient lake.

Narrator: la venta is built
On high ground.

This means the bones
Found in the tomb here

Were buried in earth
That contains pockets of air.

Exposed to oxygen,
They decomposed over time,

But conditions at el manatí
Are different.

A natural spring keeps soils

Below the ground
Submerged in water,

So when the olmec threw bodies
And organic artifacts

Into the spring,

They sank into the mud

And were sealed off
From the air.

With no oxygen to decompose
The organic items,

They stayed preserved
For millennia.

♪♪

Why did the ancient olmec
Put human remains into water?

♪♪

It seems they believed what lay
Beneath the water's reflective

Surface was a different world,

One that could only be
Accessed in death.

♪♪

Ponciano thinks the ancient pool
At el manatí symbolized

An entrance
Into this afterlife,

Just like the mirrors found
Among burials at la venta.

Narrator: if the olmec believed
It was possible to transition

Magically between this world
And the next,

Then they were the first
People in mesoamerica

To develop
The revolutionary idea

That life exists after death.

♪♪

The evidence indicates
That the ancient people

Who built this continent's
First cities

Also forged a religion here.

Led by mighty priest-kings,

They worshipped gods
Of the earth

And created a concept
Of the afterlife.

For decades, archaeologists
Believe the olmec did all this

Without a written language,
But a mysterious object

Could now turn
That theory on its head.

Does this clay cylinder
Prove the olmec were

The first people in the americas
To invent writing,

And did these symbols
Communicate ideas

So powerful that they lasted
For thousands of years?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: la venta, mexico --
The greatest achievement

Of the ancient
Olmec civilization,

The builders
Of a mighty mud city

And followers of
A revolutionary religion.

Many experts believe
They achieved all this

With no written language

Because what some believe

To be the earliest writing in
North america

Is on a huge rock
Carved 300 years

After the olmec disappeared.

♪♪

Over 100 miles from la venta,

Archaeologists unearthed
Half of a three-ton stone.

Chiseled into it
Is a strange design.

When investigators found
The missing half 30 years later,

The complete stone reveals

The carving is
An elaborate mask,

But then they spotted
A puzzling inscription

On the stone's other side,

A curious code of symbols,
Lines, and dots.

Did the people who carved
This stone invent

Writing in the americas,
Or does a new discovery prove

It started centuries
Earlier at la venta?

♪♪

Archaeologists excavating
An ancient suburb of the city

Have discovered
A strange clay object

600 years older
Than the giant split stone.

It's a cylindrical seal,

An ancient olmec
Printing device.

Is the pattern it prints
Just decoration or, incredibly,

Could this be north america's
First-ever written message?

♪♪

And what would decoding
It reveal?

Unfortunately, the seal
Is too fragile to test.

Dipping it in ink
Could damage it beyond repair.

So christopher von nagy
And a team

From florida state university
3-d print an exact replica.

♪♪

Christopher dips the seal in ink
And rolls it on his skin,

Just as the olmec
Would've done.

It reveals a bizarre design,

But is it writing?

Coming out of the bird's beak
Are two speech scrolls,

Which are kind of
Like mesoamerican versions

Of the speech bubble
We see in modern cartoons,

At the end of which
We have two sets of signs.

The bird is actually speaking,
And we believe

That the signs here
Are written speech, writing.

♪♪

Narrator:
If this is a written message,

What does it say?

Christopher believes decoding it
Could reveal a rare glimpse

Into life at la venta
2,500 years ago.

He compares the characters
With their closest match,

Ancient mayan script.

Von nagy: what's interesting is
That there's a similarity

Between the cylinder
With this u-shaped element

That almost looks like a mouth
And the maya symbol,

Where you have something
Similar going on.

You have a little face with a u
For a mouth and dots for eyes.

The central part of
The olmec symbol

Is an early version of
The maya word for king or lord.

♪♪

Narrator:
The message on the seal

Reveals a long-lost vision

Of royal life at la venta.

A person in a ceremony
Could have a name of a king

From la venta
Inked on themselves,

And then, therefore,
The cylinder seal

Could record some event
Related to his reign,

An accession to the throne.

It could mark a birth.

It could mark a victory
In a military battle.

Narrator: but christopher thinks
The seal is also proof

The olmec developed
North america's first calendar.

♪♪

These dots signify
The number three in mayan.

Similar dots appear on the split
Stone carved 300 years later.

♪♪

Like maya kings, olmec rulers
Were named after the day

On which they were born,
So combining a number with a day

Means the olmec were
The first civilization

In the americas
To record time.

This isn't just among
The earliest evidence

For writing in mesoamerica.

This is the earliest evidence
For a date in mesoamerica.

♪♪

Narrator:
What started with simple dots

On this seal at la venta

Evolved into a system that
Recorded long stretches of time.

♪♪

Learning from the olmec,

The carvers of the split stone
Recorded a date --

September 3, 31 b.C.

The maya developed the system
Into calendars

To track religious days,

The solar year,
And maya history.

They divided time into eras.

The last of these ended
On december 23, 2012,

Which some believed would mark
The end of the world.

♪♪

For christopher,
The cylinder seal is proof

That writing in the americas

Began with the civilization
At la venta.

This is the spark that
Transforms mesoamerica,

The revolution that begins
With the olmec.

Narrator: but 600 years after
North america's first

Planned city was founded,

Traces of olmec life at la venta
Suddenly disappear.

♪♪

Why was this city abandoned,

And did la venta's legacy
Draw the blueprint

For all later
Civilizations in the americas?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: 2,500 years ago,
The olmec mud city of la venta

Thrived in southern mexico.

It gave rise to
North american civilization,

The continent's first pyramid,

And a belief in life
After death,

But 600 years
After it was founded,

The city was abandoned.

Why did olmec civilization
Suddenly collapse?

♪♪

Rebecca gonzález lauck is on
A quest to solve this mystery.

♪♪

She believes a nearby river
Is a vital clue.

Rivers can change courses,
And through thousands of years,

The landscape changes very fast.

You can see in this is map
How far the river

Has moved to the west.

♪♪

Narrator: rebecca thinks
The olmecs' intensive

Farming clogged
The water with silt.

The river changed course
Away from la venta.

This triggered devastating
Consequences for the city.

♪♪

Lauck:
The river to the north silted in

And ceased to function

As a transportation venue
And for fish and foods.

In the case of la venta,
You could see that people

Abandoned the habitation
Of the sites on the riverside.

♪♪

Narrator:
Food production dwindled as

People left the fields.

Faced with starvation,

La venta's citizens
Abandoned their city.

Olmec civilization was finished.

♪♪

But does their story end there?

♪♪

It's possible key elements
Of olmec civilization

Lived on for thousands of years.

This is teotihuacan
In central mexico,

Mesoamerica's mightiest city.

It lasted for 1,700 years

Before it fell
To the spanish conquistadors,

But would this place even exist

If it weren't for the olmec?

Rebecca explores the city's
Massive structures for clues.

This ancient city is the home

To some of the largest
Pyramids of the world,

Which share, amazingly, features

That were determined 1,000 years
Earlier in la venta

With the step platforms
And the central staircase.

Narrator: at teotihuacan,
Ancient engineers

Supersized la venta's
Mud-pyramid design in stone.

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Lauck: it's incredible to think
That all this started

In la venta
1,000 years earlier.

La venta was such
An impressive city for its time

That the idea of the planned
City persisted

Through generations.

Narrator: the olmecs' pioneering
Innovations

Became the blueprint
For this metropolis,

And their influence
Runs deeper still.

Everywhere
Rebecca looks at teotihuacan,

There are echoes of the olmec.

Ancient paintings
Of portal mirrors

Like the ones unearthed
At la venta

And images of corn
Similar to those the olmec

Pictured
On their mosaic offerings.

Rebecca believes this
Is evidence the culture

The olmec invented influenced
Mesoamerica for millennia.

At la venta, the olmec created
Monumental architecture,

Spectacular arts,
And the first planned city.

It represents a transformation
In the way of life

In ancient mexico.

The olmec legacy inspired
Millions of people

For thousands of years.

Narrator: the olmec at la venta
Were true pioneers,

The first people in
North america to build cities.

Their ideas laid the foundations

For civilizations
Like the maya and aztec.

The olmec at la venta were
Central in the story of kings,

Central in ritual in a way
That is revolutionary

And absolutely different
Than what came before.

Wendt:
The olmec should be remembered

For their sophistication.

They removed hundreds of tons
Of stone

Through tropical rainforests.

They built cities out of mud.

They developed a sophisticated
Religion and symbol system.

The more we learn
About the olmec,

The more we're learning
About the foundations

Of mesoamerican society.

Narrator: a mud metropolis home
To tens of thousands of people,

Ruled by america's
First royal dynasty

Who presided over
A new, revolutionary religion.

The olmec built the first
Pyramids here

For spectacular ceremonies

And wrote the rules
For mesoamerica.

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