The Olmec: Mother of Mesoamerican Civilisations

The Ancients

History Hit

History

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 7 August 2025

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Iconic monumental stone heads, the intriguing Lord of Las Limas, the enigmatic 'were-jaguar' figures, so much survives from the ancient Olmec civilisation.

Tristan Hughes is joined by Dr. Jillian Mollenhauer to unravel the Olmec's sophisticated artistry, the symbolic significance of greenstone, and the blend of naturalistic and supernatural portrayals in their work. They discuss how the Olmec set the foundation for Mesoamerican cultures and their undying legacy that influenced civilizations like the Maya and Aztec.

Olmec Art:

https://smarthistory.org/americas-before-1900/north-america-to-1500/mesoamerica/olmec-art/

Olmec Heads

https://shows.acast.com/the-ancients/episodes/ancient-americas-the-olmec-heads

The Maya Collapse

https://open.spotify.com/episode/56rb6VA4Ey9bMX9CrhCfRR

Presented by Tristan Hughes. Audio editor is Aidan Lonergan and the producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds

The Ancients is a History Hit podcast.

LIVE SHOW: Buy tickets for The Ancients at the London Podcast Festival here: https://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/words/the-ancients-2/

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

You can take part in our listener survey here:

https://insights.historyhit.com/history-hit-podcast-always-on

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey guys, Tristan here, and I have an exciting announcement. The Ancients will be returning to the
0:06.0	London Podcast Festival. Now, last year tickets, they sold out at record speed. So this time,
0:12.6	we've been upgraded. We've got a bigger room. And you, you can be there too on Friday the 5th of
0:18.8	September at 7pm at King's Place.
0:21.6	Now I've invited Friend of the podcast, the fabulous Dr. Eve MacDonald, to join me on stage
0:27.6	where we will be exploring the gripping story of ancient Carthage.
0:32.6	Carthage, the Phoenician city that became a superpower, an empire that rivaled Rome for control in the
0:38.9	Western Mediterranean, and ultimately had a terrible traumatic demise.
0:44.8	Of course, the ancients is nothing without you, so we want you to be there in the audience
0:49.5	taking part and asking us your burning questions. Tickets for the festival always sell fast.
0:56.1	So book yourself a seat now at www. kingsplace.co.uk forward slash what's on. We'll click
1:03.0	the link in the show notes of this episode. The team and I cannot wait to see you there.
1:10.7	Hey guys, I hope you're doing well. Welcome to the ancients on this quite rainy morning that I'm doing this intro on my way to work in London.
1:19.0	Today's episode is all about the Olmec, this extraordinary ancient Mesoamerican culture and the art that they left behind.
1:27.0	Now, all the art that we're going to be talking about in this episode will put links to images
1:30.3	of them in the description.
1:32.3	What I found most fascinating about this chat, heads and all, was how the Olmec distinguished
1:37.3	between portrayals of elite humans, of their rulers, and the supernatural.
1:42.3	It's really, really interesting.
1:48.6	Our guest today is the Professor of Art History, Dr. Jill Mollenauer.
1:51.3	Jill, she's the leading expert on Olmec Art,
1:53.0	and I really hope you guys enjoy.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Hit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of History Hit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.