Olmec trade

It seemed to us that the whole problem of Olmec trade and the interrelationship of the preclassic sites in Mesoamerica offered an unusually favorable case for the method of grouping via paste-compositional patterns based on neutron activation analysis. As a start on this program we include here the analysis of six preclassic Tlatilco figurines, and we compare their analyses with those of two modern specimens and touch upon the archaeological conclusions possible. 

The question of these stylistic relationships and, more generally, of trade during Olmec (i.e., 1300-400 B.C.) times is one of crucial importance to the correct formulation of the whole concept of an Olmec presence, empire, or influence in Mesoamerica. For example, Tolstoy and Paradis (9), in describing their most recent work in the Valley of Mexico, state that this (Olmec) presence has been linked to trade by many (Coe, Flannery, Grove, and Jimenez Moreno), though the products ex-... 

Applications have included identifying the origin of archeological ceramics obsidian can be fingerprinted and the trade patterns of the Olmec civilization can be followed by identifying the area from which the clay they used in their pots originated and the source of contamination in semiconductors can be traced at the 1 ppb level. 

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