The following are the achievements of the Olmec civilization:
1. Water Drainage
- This civilization was able to construct an extensive drainage system that is made up of conduits. This was discovered by the archaeologists in the town of San Lorenzo, the largest city of Olmec cities. These was carved into a U type shape and covered by capstones. This was believed to be used as aqueduct to provide water throughout the cities.
2. Calendar system
- It was discovered that Olmecs have their own calendar system. They are using shells to represent numbers in their calendar which starts with zero. This is one of the first uses of zero as starting point of a number.
3. Ulama
- This is a game of the Olmecs with the objective of knocking the ball through the hole with the use of hips. The sap of a rubber tree was utilized to produce balls that was used before.
4. Writing system
- They are usually credited as one of those civilizations to be the first to have their own writing system in America. Their writing is mostly symbols rather than letter representation.
5. Compass
- They are the one to first create compass that existed in America with the basic understanding of gravity and magnetism.
They built numerous cities with the buildings and temples of stone, as well as the immense "heads" that are their renowned legacy. They have also developed a written system of pictographs even quicker than the civilization of Mayan that followed them. The Mayans inherited religious beliefs, artistic skills, agricultural technology, some metallurgy, mathematics from the Olmec. They are usually considered as the first civilization that was ordered in the Americas and is considered to have even changed the Mayans and the Aztecs.
