[Bernard Marx]

"La Venta was inhabited by people of the Olmec Culture from around 800 BC to about 400 BC after which the site seems to have been abandoned."

I was posting from memory. La Venta was Intermediate Olmec and new radiocarbon data push the date back about 200 years to 1,000 B.C. ("The Olmec World, Ritual and Rulership," Page 12.

[blam]

"I was posting from memory. La Venta was Intermediate Olmec and new radiocarbon data push the date back about 200 years to 1,000 B.C. ("The Olmec World, Ritual and Rulership," Page 12."

Something I read this year said they were thinking even further back, 1400BC. That early date starts to conflict with the Shang Chinese theory though.