put the Olmec culture into context. This first excavation was funded by the National Geographic Society and the Smithsonian Institution and focused on collecting samples using stratipits. In 1955, Drucker led a new excavation, funded again by the National Geographic Society, concentrating on Complex A and finally reaching the subsoil at the site, established stratigraphy to discover the constructional history. They discovered more jade artifacts, which were interpreted as ritual offerings, as well as pottery shards. The findings were published by Drucker, Robert Heizer and Robert Squier, (who were also assisted by Eduardo Contreras and Pierre Agrinier) in 1959. At this point most of the site was still unexcavated and in a strongly worded passage Heizer reported that the site was inadequately protected by the Mexican government and a wave of illegal excavations followed the departure of the archaeologists, as well as damage by urban sprawl, the national oil company, Pemex, and the removal of large monuments to museums (without leaving markers as to their original positions). Several subsequent excavations followed through the 1960s, funded by generous grants from the National Geographic Society. On their return in 1967, Drucker and Heizer saw that, as others had already claimed, the vegetation previously covering the mound, as well as their own assumptions, had led to them previously publishing a completely wrong account of its shape. It was in fact a round fluted cone with ten ridges and depressions around it, rather than the sloping rectangle, leading to a flat platform that they had assumed. Possibly the shape was intended to match or represent the mountains nearby. They also obtained better carbon samples in order to achieve one of the key goals of the excavation of La Venta—proving that the Olmec were a distinct and separate culture that pre-dates the first Maya settlements. Rebecca Gonzalez-Lauck led an INAH (Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia) team on several digs at La Venta in the 1980s. Her team focused on mapping the site and "ended and reversed the urban encroachment on the archaeological site of La Venta and created a program of protection, restoration, and research." Their efforts have opened the site to a new generation of graduate students and other anthropologists, who continue to uncover new evidence about the mysterious Olmec. A ceramic cylinder was recovered from the nearby San Andrés La Venta site that dates to around 650 BCE that brings evidence to