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The ruins of Tres Zapotes lie on the lower foothills of the inactive volcano Cerro El Vigia in the southwestern Tuxtla Highlands, a small area of volcanic uplift on the otherwise flat gulf coast plane. The site lies at an elevation of between 48 and 50 meters above sea level and is situated on the lands of the village of Tres Zapotes within the municipality of Santiago Tuxtla in southern Veracruz, Mexico. Before being cleared for sugarcane and maize cultivation and cattle raising the site was covered with dense tropical forest (Stirling 1939, 1943). Stirling also provides a summary of the colonial and early modern history of the region (Stirling 1939).
The site consists of some 60+ ruined mounds scattered over a 2 square kilometer area along a stretch of the Arroyo Hueyapan which runs almost due south. Some of the mounds occupy a north-south ridge and two artificially modified terraces on the west bank of the arroyo. Most of the larger mounds occupy a plain between the ridge and the arroyo. A few ruins are found on the east bank of the arroyo, but this portion of the site has not been explored in any detail. The mounds vary greatly in size and height. Dimensions and outlines of structures shown on the map are, in most cases, only approximations. Stirling observed stonework in Structure 1 (Mound A, Cabeza Group), structure 13 (mound G, Arroyo Group) and Structure 35? (Mound F, Ranchito Group) (Stirling 1943). Weiant observed stonework in Structure 13 (Mound G, Arroyo Group), Structure 5 (Mound E, Cabeza Group) and Structure 32 (Mound D, Ranchito Group). Angel Garcia C. found stonework in Structure 58, a previously unknown structure with a basalt column cyst (American Antiquity 1980:625). Unfortunately, available records do not permit a secure correlation between the site's architectural sequence and its sculptural corpus.
The Tres Zapotes sculptural corpus includes more than three dozen sculptures reported from the site and its vicinity prior to 1984. Since that time this number has been brought to a total of more than 55 sculptures. More than 40 of this total are Olmec style sculptures which represent most Olmec sculptural types and themes, excepting only Olmec "altars", however, this category was almost certainly present (Porter 1989:*). Listing only one example of each Olmec type, there are incised boulder reliefs (Saltio Monument 1), low relief carving (Monument 28), high and rounded relief (Stela A) and sculpture in the round (Monument 13). Olmec sculptural types at the site include celtiform stelae (Stela C), proscenium monuments (Stela D), colossal heads (Monument 1), carved stone boxes (Monument 3), tenoned busts (Monument 7), seated figures (Monument 10), potbellies (Monument 12), composite sculptures (Monument 15), columnar heads (Monument 22), bound captives (Monument 26), and bench sculptures (Miscellaneous 3). Further exploration will doubtless increase the present list of Olmec sculptural types at Tres Zapotes. The site's sculpture also includes a small, hitherto unnoticed, component of combinant (Monument 3) and Maya (Stela E) sculptures.
Tres Zapotes is unique among Gulf coast Olmec sites in possessing an Olmec sculptural corpus which, petrographic examination shows, is almost entirely composed of local stone (Friedlaender 1923, Heizer and Williams 1965). Only two pieces, Stela C (Heizer and Williams 1965) and Monument 21 are certainly made of imported stone. This situation is in sharp contrast with the situation at San Lorenzo, where all pieces are made of imported stone (Coe and Diehl 1980), and at La Venta, where only three monumental sculptures made of local stone have been discovered (Stirling 1968).
Tres Zapotes was also an important center of tenon bust carving. Its 11 examples, representing two horizontal and one vertical subtypes, constitute the largest and most varied corpus of this Olmec sculpture category.
