Olmec , First elaborate pre-Columbian culture of Mesoamerica. The Olmec lived on the lowland coast of the Gulf of Mexico in what is now southern Mexico. They developed a wide trading network, their cultural influence spreading north to the Valley of Mexico and south to Central America; later native religions and iconography throughout Mesoamerica have Olmec roots. Their oldest known building site, San Lorenzo, which dates to c. 1150 bc, is remarkable for its colossal stone sculptures of human heads. The dominant motif in Olmec art is the figure of a god that is a hybrid of a jaguar and a human infant. A later Olmec ceremonial centre, La Venta, is marked by great mounds, a narrow plaza, and several other ceremonial enclosures. In the 21st century, inscribed carvings suggestive of later Mayan glyphs also were found at La Venta. Olmec buildings, monuments, and art style all indicate a complex and nonegalitarian society.