Ancient civilizations-2

Late Formative Period (300 bce–100 ce)

Probably the most significant features of the Late Formative are (1) the transformation of Olmec civilization in southeastern Mesoamerica into something approaching the earliest lowland Maya civilization and (2) the abrupt appearance, toward the end of the Late Formative, of fully urban culture at Teotihuacán in the Valley of Mexico. Most of the distinctive cultures that were to become the great Classic civilizations began to take shape at this time. There was no unifying force in the Late Formative comparable to the earlier Olmec; rather, regionalism and local cultural integration were the rule. There were, however, horizon traits, particularly in pottery, that were almost universal. Ceramics became elaborate in shape, often with composite or recurved outlines, hollow, bulbous feet, and flangelike protrusions encircling the vessel. The use of slips of a number of different colours as pottery decoration at times approached the elaborate polychromes of Classic times.

The idea of constructing temple-pyramids was probably also a general trait. It was a Mesoamerican custom to bury a dead person beneath the floor of his own house, which was often then abandoned by the bereaved. As an elite class of noble lineages became distinguished from the mass of the people, the simple house platforms serving as sepulchres might have become transformed into more imposing structures, ending in the huge pyramids of the Late Formative and Classic, which surely had funerary functions. The deceased leader or the gods from which he claimed descent, or both, would then have been worshiped in a “house of god” on the temple summit. These pyramids became the focal point of Mesoamerican ceremonial life, as well as the centres of settlement.

ceramic vessel in the shape of a sharkVessel in the form of a shark, slip-painted ceramic, Colima, Mexico, 200 bce–500 ce; in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.Photograph by Joel Parham. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, gift of Constance McCormick Fearing, AC1996.146.25