In the period between 1200-500 BC, the Olmec culture developed on the Mexican Gulf coast, which is considered the mother culture of the pre-Hispanic cultures in Central and Central America. The Olmecs built the first planned city complexes with public buildings and pyramids; they engaged in long-distance trade, through which they also exerted great influence on remote areas. The cultural impulse emanating from the Olmecs also reached far to the west. Their intellectual creations include the development of characters and a calendar system. The Olmecs left behind not only architectural remains, but also ceramics and stone artefacts. The great appreciation of green stones first became tangible in this culture. Until the Spanish conquest, jadeite, serpentine, quartzite, chalcedony and other green stones, which also had high symbolic value (water, sky, vegetation) due to their colour, were the precious material used by all Mesoamerican peoples to make offerings, religious paraphernalia and such stone figures. (M.Gaida, 2003)