<P> These villages were located on higher ground and consisted of several scattered houses . A modest temple may have been associated with the larger villages . The individual dwellings would consist of a house, an associated lean - to, and one or more storage pits (similar in function to a root cellar). A nearby garden was used for medicinal and cooking herbs and for smaller crops such as the domesticated sunflower . Fruit trees, such as avocado or cacao, were probably available nearby . </P> <P> Although the river banks were used to plant crops between flooding periods, the Olmecs probably also practiced swidden (or slash - and - burn) agriculture to clear the forests and shrubs, and to provide new fields once the old fields were exhausted . Fields were located outside the village, and were used for maize, beans, squash, manioc, and sweet potato . Based on archaeological studies of two villages in the Tuxtlas Mountains, it is known that maize cultivation became increasingly important to the Olmec over time, although the diet remained fairly diverse . </P> <P> The fruits and vegetables were supplemented with fish, turtle, snake, and mollusks from the nearby rivers, and crabs and shellfish in the coastal areas . Birds were available as food sources, as were game including peccary, opossum, raccoon, rabbit, and in particular, deer . Despite the wide range of hunting and fishing available, midden surveys in San Lorenzo have found that the domesticated dog was the single most plentiful source of animal protein . </P> <P> Olmec culture was unknown to historians until the mid-19th century . In 1869 the Mexican antiquarian traveller José Melgar y Serrano published a description of the first Olmec monument to have been found in situ . This monument--the colossal head now labelled Tres Zapotes Monument A--had been discovered in the late 1850s by a farm worker clearing forested land on a hacienda in Veracruz . Hearing about the curious find while travelling through the region, Melgar y Serrano first visited the site in 1862 to see for himself and complete the partially exposed sculpture's excavation . His description of the object, published several years later after further visits to the site, represents the earliest documented report of an artifact of what is now known as the Olmec culture . </P>

Who were the olmecs and why were they important