The Olmecs flourished around 1200 BC on the southern Gulf coast of Mexico and spread their influence in Central America from Belize to Costa Rica until around 300 BC when they just disappeared! David Childress has written an interesting article(c) on what little is known about the origin of the Olmecs.
Jacques de Mahieu, the French Nazi, claimed that the Olmecs were descended from refugees that fled from Troy after the Trojan War. He goes further claiming that the Trojans had originally come from Scandinavia!
The Olmecs have been linked by a variety of writers with Atlantis. The first Latin writer of Aztec history was Fernando de Alva Cortes Ixitilxochill, of Aztec lineage, who maintained that the Olmecs had come to Eastern Mexico from the Antilles via Florida.
At the end of the 17th century a former Jesuit, Don Carlos de Sigüenza y Gongora who had befriended the son of Ixitilxochill was allegedly in possession of a remarkable collection of native manuscripts that had escaped the insane mass burnings of the 15th century. He believed that the earliest inhabitants of Mexico had come from Atlantis. The Olmecs who preceded the Toltecs were not identified until the 19th century.
Ivar Zapp and George Erikson use the stone spheres of Costa Rica as the starting point for their controversial book[244] on Atlantis, insisting on a connection between the stones and the Olmecs. Gene Matlock considers the Olmecs to be possible survivors from Atlantis[472] and Clyde Winters holds similar views and has supported them with his book[496]on the subject. However, Matlock elsewhere suggested(d) that the Olmecs were Turkish!
The Negroid features that are clearly to be seen on some of the Olmec carvings are probably evidence of an ancient link with Africa and nothing more. On balance I do not think that a credible case for identifying the Olmecs with Atlantis has yet been made. However, in my opinion, a far more convincing case has been made for linking the Chinese with the Olmecs(a)(b) and in that regard the book by Dr. H. Mike Xu, Origin of the Olmec Civilisation[698], is worth a read.
(a) http://www.chinese.tcu.edu/www_chinese3_tcu_edu.htm
(b) http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-4-17/54224.html
(c) http://atlantisrisingmagazine.com/2007/09/01/who-were-the-olmecs/
(d)http://www.mondovista.com?ancientturks.html
