Editing Olmecs (section)

==Alternative origin speculations==
{{main|Olmec alternative origin speculations}}
Partly because the Olmecs developed the first Mesoamerican civilization, and partly because little is known of them compared to later Mesoamerican civilizations such as the Maya or Aztec, a number of Olmec alternative origin speculations have been put forth. Although several of these speculations, particularly the theory that the Olmecs were of African origin popularized by Ivan Van Sertima's book ''They Came Before Columbus'', have become well known within popular culture, they are not considered credible by the vast majority of Mesoamerican researchers and scientists, who discard them as pop-culture pseudo-science.<ref>See Grove (1976) or Ortiz de Montellano (1997).</ref>

As of 2018, mitochondrial DNA studies carried out on Olmec remains, one from San Lorenzo and the other from Loma del Zapote, resulted, in both cases, in the "unequivocal presence of the distinctive mutations of the “A" maternal lineage. That is, the maternal ancestry of the Olmecs is not in Africa but in America, since they share the most abundant of the five mitochondrial haplogroups characteristic of the indigenous populations of the continent: A, B, C, D and X.<ref>{{cite magazine |last= Villamar Becerril |first=Enrique |title= Estudios de ADN y el origen de los Olmecas |url=https://arqueologiamexicana.mx/mexico-antiguo/estudios-de-adn-y-el-origen-de-los-olmecas |magazine=Arqueología Mexicana |language=Spanish |issue=150 |publication-date=March 2018 |publisher= Editorial Raices |location= Mexico City |pages=40–41 |access-date=26 December 2023}}</ref>