Around 1150 BC about a third of the population of the Valley of Mexico lived in its largest centre, Tlatilco.
Numerous burials here give an interesting picture of the social differences of the time. The majority of burials, of common folk, were provided with few or no grave goods. About one in every eight had distinctive grave goods and some, including infants, were extremely well provided with pottery, figurines, masks and jewellery.
A few female burials were accompanied by sacrificed men and children, implying that women enjoyed high status in the community.
Some graves contained characteristic Olmec white baby-faced figurines and incised pottery along with local materials, but by no means all rich burials had these. The majority who did so seem to have been women: perhaps some local women were intermarrying with Olmec traders.
Furthermore, Olmec objects disappear around 1000 BC, at the time when Olmec trade and power was expanding elsewhere: presumably the local elite was sufficiently powerful to prevent any direct Olmec interference in the region by this stage.
