Early Olmec culture, centered around the San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán site, a simple farming village located on the Rio Chiquito near the coast in southeast Veracruz, had emerged by 1600-1500 BCE.

The earliest evidence for Olmec culture is found at nearby El Manati, a sacrificial bog with artifacts dating to 1600 BCE or earlier.

Sedentary agriculturalists had lived in the area for centuries before San Lorenzo developed into a regional center.

The first Mesoamerican civilization, the Olmec lay many of the foundations for the civilizations that follow.

Among other "firsts,” there is evidence that the Olmec practiced ritual bloodletting and played the Mesoamerican ballgame, hallmarks of nearly every subsequent Mesoamerican society.

The Olmec, whose name means "rubber people" in the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs, are strong candidates for originating the Mesoamerican ballgame so prevalent among later cultures of the region and used for recreational and religious purposes.

A dozen rubber balls dating to 1600 BCE or earlier have been found in El Manatí, an Olmec sacrificial bog ten kilometers (six point two miles) east of San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan.

These balls predate the earliest ballcourt yet discovered at Paso de la Amada, circa 1400 BCE, although there is no certainty that they were used in the ballgame.