San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán

San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán is the collective name of three linked archaeological sites in the tropical lowlands of southern Veracruz, Mexico. Between about 1400 and 900 BCE it was the largest and most powerful center of the Olmec, the earliest complex society of Mesoamerica. The site is famous for its colossal basalt heads, the largest weighing more than 20 tonnes, which were carved from stone hauled from the Tuxtla Mountains. Excavations have revealed earthen platforms, stone drains, workshops, elite residences and monuments, evidence of a stratified society with rulers able to mobilize labor and long-distance trade. San Lorenzo declined after 900 BCE, when La Venta became the leading Olmec center. Its original Olmec name is unknown, and it should not be confused with Tenochtitlan, the later Aztec capital in Mexico City. The site's rulers commanded a network that brought obsidian, jade and marine shell from distant regions, and their monuments proclaim a cosmology of rulers and supernatural beings.