Compactly proportioned figure, possibly a dwarf,

1000–400 BCE

One of the first civilizations of present-day Mexico, the Olmec distributed their ceramics widely. With the shift of the center of Olmec culture from San Lorenzo, Veracruz, to La Venta, Tabasco, around 1000 BCE, however, Olmec-style ceramics became much less pervasive. They were replaced by fine small-scale greenstone sculptures, especially blue-green jadeite and serpentine. In part, this shift may have resulted from increased focus on maize agriculture; the blue-green color of jadeite symbolized successful crops, and the subject matter often involved maize iconography. Incised jewelry, masklike faces, and complexly modeled animal, human, and super-natural figures, all from the Middle Formative period and made in Olmec style, have been discovered throughout most of Mesoamerica and beyond, from Costa Rica to the central Mexican highlands to the southwest Mexican coast in the present-day state of Guerrero.