Final answer:
The Olmec produced colossal stone heads and other monumental sculptures made of basalt rock, which were likely portraits of their rulers, signifying a sophisticated and organized society.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Olmec civilization, which thrived along the Gulf Coast of Mexico from around 1200 to 400 BCE, is renowned for their production of colossal stone heads and other monumental stone sculptures. These sculptures were most likely portraits of powerful Olmec rulers due to their distinctive individual features. The raw material for these sculptures, basalt rock, was quarried from the Sierra de los Tuxtlas Mountains in Veracruz and then mysteriously transported over eighty kilometers to sites like La Venta. Given the vast size and weight of these boulders, with some heads standing four to eleven feet in height and weighing up to fifty tons, the creation and transportation of such objects indicates a highly organized society capable of controlling large labor forces and suggests a high regard for their leaders.