Epi-Olmec culture

[2] Tres Zapotes and eventually Cerro de las Mesas were the largest Epi-Olmec centers though neither would reach the size and importance of the great Olmec cities before them nor El Tajín after them.

And daily life for the non-elites continued much the same: subsistence farming with opportunistic hunting and fishing, wattle-and-daub houses, thatched roofs, and bell-shaped storage pits.

[9] Based on the decentralized placement of mounds groups and monumental sculpture at Tres Zapotes, the Epi-Olmec hierarchy is assumed to have been less centralized than its Olmec predecessor, perhaps featuring a factionalized ruling assembly rather than a single ruler.

[10] (See also Tres Zapotes site layout and societal organization) While the depiction of what appear to be historical events can be seen in La Venta Stela 3 ("Uncle Sam") and Monument 13 ("The Ambassador"), Olmec sculpture was more pre-occupied with the portraits of rulers, as is shown for example in the 17 colossal heads.

In contrast, Epi-Olmec monuments show a dramatic increasing concern with historicity, culminating in the eventual appearance of dated transcriptions.

By 250 CE, Cerro de las Mesas, Remojadas, and other sites further north along the Veracruz coast had eclipsed Tres Zapotes.