La Joya (archaeological site)

The site, discovered and registered in 1935, is known as "La Joya de San Martín Garabato" and comprises several earthen structures from an alleged early Olmec origin.

[2] This city probably was an important political center in Veracruz, similar to Cerro de las Mesas, with monumental stamped earthen architecture.

and show how nomadic hunters and gatherers eventually became sedentary farmers, building more complex societies, even before the rise of the city of El Tajín.

Theories vary, including a fringe speculation which lacks scientific credibility in which Africans arrive in Campeche then northward to Veracruz over 3,500 years ago.

Here the Olmecs constructed permanent city-temple complexes at San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, La Venta, Tres Zapotes, and Laguna de los Cerros.

The rise of civilization here was assisted by the local ecology of well-watered alluvial soil, as well as by the transportation network that the Coatzacoalcos River basin provided.

[10] Many of these luxury artifacts, such as jade, obsidian and magnetite, came from distant locations and suggest that early Olmec elites had access to an extensive trading network in Mesoamerica.

[2] Ongoing exploration shows a complex building sequence, with evidence of refined architecture, and human burials with ceramic vessels and figurines offerings.

[1] The excavations show that the solution to this problem was alternating fill blocks (approximately 1 m high and more than 6 m on the side) made from clays and sandy loams, readily available in the site surrounding areas.

This platform contains five buildings, from the second constructive stage; these were part of one of the palaces and probably were used for administrative purposes, with restricted access, with some residential and ceremonial areas.

[2] Two structures surround the east plaza; these are believed to have been elite residences (palaces), suggesting an organized type of government, at least by 100BCE–100CE, providing new information on the late preclassical (epi-Olmec) and classical period society.

There are two deposits of human bones and a skull covered by a bowl, a complete vessel buried upside down, and lenticular patches of carboniferous earth.