Cosa ci facevano 250 Kg di lastre di asfalto dentro un pozzo nel sito olmeco di Paso los Ortices? E' quanto si รจ chiesto l'archeologo Carl Wendt of California State University at Fullerton, who had discovered the material during excavations in the locality. Flourished in southern Mexico between 1,200 and 400 BC, the Olmec civilization is best known for monumental works like the famous colossal heads of basalt. But while these and other fine works of art are clearly attributable to a small elite, very little is known about the life of the bulk of the population are peasants. Wendt is now proposing that the technology of asphalt was also mastered by the masses. Not only are the sources of bitumen are too diffuse to have been inspected in all elite, but they have found traces of the production of asphalt within residential communities. Wendt has rebuilt his team with the technique, which consisted in mixing local plants with bitumen collected from the ponds, and cook the mixture in a clay oven. The asphalt was used mainly to waterproof boats: the Olmecs lived mostly along waterways, and navigation was essential to their economy. Wendt is trying to identify chemical analysis of the places of origin of the asphalt, to rebuild the Olmec trade routes. Source: Journal "Darwin, bimonthly Sciences, Number 25, May / June 2008, page 13"
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