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Stirling's 1938-39 excavations marked the beginnings of both Tres Zapotes and Olmec archaeology. Under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution of Washington and with funding from the National Geographic Society, he made the first sketch maps of the site and discovered Stelae A, C (Fragment 1) and E; Monuments 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16; Features 1, 2; La Puente Monument 1, Tlapacoya Monument 1, Saltilo Monument 1 and Lirios Monument 1. Stirling directed Weiant's ceramic excavations in Structure 5 (Mound 1E), revealing a stairway with stone risers (Weiant 1943:6), Structure 32 (Mound D, Ranchito Group), which had a casing of sandstone around the upper platform, he also trenched Structures 35, 38, 39 (Mounds F, J and K, Ranchito Group) (Weiant 1943:10-12). Structure 9 (Mound 2C) was trenched, revealing large boulders "at the northeast corner of the mound", Structure 13 (Mound 2G) was also trenched, revealing a stone casing and "Under the south wall ...a polished head of black stone" (Weiant 1943:13). Structures 12, 15 and 16 (Mounds 2F, 2I and 2J) were also trenched (Weiant 1943:14-15). He also directed Drucker's stratigraphic excavations which placed Trench 4 in an unnamed structure of the Ranchito Group, (Structure 32?) (Drucker 1943:17) and trench 22 was placed in "the westernmost of the small flanking mounds of group 2" (Drucker 1943:21). Stewart's photography and Cassedy's sketches were also facilitated by Stirling (Stirling 1939, 1940, 1943, Weiant 1943, Drucker 1934). However, the most important, and therefore the most controversial, results of Stirling's work at Tres Zapotes were Marion Stirling's reconstruction of the fragmentary Initial Series of Stela C as a date in the early centuries BC (Stirling 1939:216), and Stirling's conclusion that the Initial Series evinces a Maya presence far to the west of the traditional "Maya Area" (Stirling 1939:183). Mayanists, particularly J. E. S. Thompson, believed that Mrs. Stirling's reconstructed date was far too early and the location far too westerly for Stela C to be a Maya monument (Thompson 1941).
For more than twenty years Tres Zapotes was all but ignored until Robert Heizer of the University of California at Berkeley initiated a program of Olmec studies which resulted in Tillie Smith's publication of Monument 17 (Smith 1963:128-129). Howel Williams later joined Heizer and Smith in publishing a fuller recording of Monument 17, though they noted that it was not found at the site center and called it Nestepe 1 (Heizer, Smith and Williams 1965). During January of 1960 and 1962 Williams and Heizer conducted further investigations on the petrography of Stela C, Monuments 1, 3, 6 and 17, determining that the stone of Stela C is not indigenous to Tres Zapotes and that the stone of all other sculptures examined is probably from Cerro El Vigia (Williams and Heizer 1965, Heizer Smith and Williams 1965:102). Subsequently Heizer supervised a study of Olmec heads including a detailed analysis of the Tres Zapotes heads, though Monument 17 continued to be called Nestepe 1 (Clewlow, Cowan, O'Connell and Benemann 1967). Stirling's final word on Tres Zapotes correctly identified Monument 17 as a Tres Zapotes sculpture (Stirling 1965).
In 1969 a resident of the village of Tres Zapotes, Esteban Santo, proved Marion (Mrs.) Stirling's reconstruction of the Initial Series date on Stela C correct by discovering its upper fragment complete with the coefficient she had predicted (Stirling 1937:216). Francisco Beverido recognized this new fragment of Stela C as the upper portion of Stirling's Stela C and published it as the Covarrubias Stela (Beverido 1971). During the same year Beverido and Robert Squier discovered Cerro el Vigia Monuments 1, 2? and 3 on the slopes of Cerro El Vigia overlooking Tres Zapotes (King 1971). Beatriz de la Fuente published Hueyapan de Mimindez Monument 2, (as Tres Zapotes Monument R), and Panatlan Monument 1, though she classed only Monuments 1 and 17 as Olmec (de la Fuente 1973). In 1977 Luis Millete and three of his students from the University in Merida discovered Monument 24 though they did not publish it. Monument 29 was discovered by an employee of Petroleos Mexicanos in 1978, though it was not published. During 1979 Angel Garcia C. excavated, but did not publish, the basalt column enclosure with Monuments 31, 32, 33 and 34 (Angel Garcia C. nd.).
Other monuments have been found by inhabitants of Tres Zapotes and its region during the course of their daily activities and have not previously appeared in print. These Monuments include Monuments 18 and 19, discovered by Simon Palma in 1942; Monument 20, discovered in 1950; Monument 22, discovered by Modesto Palma in 1970; Hueyapan de Mimendez Monument 1, discovered by Pancha Samorano in 1970; Monument 21, discovered by Jorge Zapot in 1975; Hueyapan de Mimindez Monument 2, discovered by Manuel Hernandez R. in 1975 or 76; Monuments 25-27, discovered by Felis Pantoja in 1978; Monument 30, discovered by Rolando Solis Galloso in 1978; and Monument 28, discovered by Seferino Hernandez in 1978 or 79.
