Cerro de las Mesas

Cerro de las Mesas, meaning "hill of the altars" in Spanish, is an archaeological site in the Mexican state of Veracruz, in the Mixtequilla area of the Papaloapan River basin.

[1] Located about 50 km (31 mi) due south of Veracruz City, Cerro de las Mesas is on the west edge of what had been the Olmec heartland.

These mound groups were likely built during the epi-Olmec period, 400 BCE to 300 CE.

Sometime later, during the Classic period, a cache of some 800 jade items, some dating from Olmec civilization hundreds of years earlier, were buried at the base of the large mound of the central group.

[3] Cerro de las Mesas is home to many stele — artistic stone slabs — several of which contain portrait carvings.

Stela 6, from Cerro de las Mesas . Note the Long Count date of 9.1.12.14.10 (April 468 CE ) at the lower left. The glyphs above the date are one of the few, and latest, Epi-Olmec script texts yet discovered.
Cerro de las Mesas and other important Classic Era settlements.