![]() ![]() It has been known for some time, however, that these miniature stelae derive from halves of incised celts cut along the central long axis. According to Shang scholar Han Ping Chen, one of the miniature jade stelae from La Venta Offering 4 contains a readable Chinese text (Fenyvesi 1996). A particularly egregious example appeared in the U.S. Arguments for Old World contacts are frequently based on superficial visual resemblances. To this day, the Olmec continue to be traced to such distant regions as Africa and China (González Calderón 1991 Thompson 1989 Van Sertima 1976 Xu 1996). Subsequently, Alfredo Chavero (1887) also identified the head as Africoid, but additionally noted that a motif on the brow resembled certain Asian signs. However, Melgar y Serrano saw "Africoid" features and linked the figure to Africa, rather than recognizing it as a product of the Pre-Columbian Americas. ![]() Decades earlier, José María Melgar y Serrano (1869) published the first account of an Olmec monument (Monument A), a colossal stone head, at the site of Tres Zapotes (Figure 0.1). In fact, when Bliss purchased this jade sculpture ( PC.B.014), it was described as Aztec. The smallest weigh 6 tons, while the largest is variously estimated to weigh 40 to 50 tons, although it was abandoned and left uncompleted close to the source of its stone.In 1912, when Robert Woods Bliss acquired a fine Olmec statuette as his first Pre-Columbian object, little was known of the Olmec and their relation to other cultures of ancient Mesoamerica. Most have been dated to the Early Preclassic period (1500–1000 BC) with some to the Middle Preclassic (1000–400 BC) period. This is the only known example from outside the Olmec heartland.ĭating the monuments remains difficult because of the movement of many from their original contexts prior to archaeological investigation. An additional monument, at Takalik Abaj in Guatemala, is a throne that may have been carved from a colossal head. Most colossal heads were sculpted from spherical boulders but two from San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán were re-carved from massive stone thrones. Seventeen confirmed examples are known from four sites within the Olmec heartland on the Gulf Coast of Mexico. The excavation of the same colossal head by Matthew Stirling in 1938 spurred the first archaeological investigations of Olmec culture. The discovery of the first colossal head at Tres Zapotes in 1862 by José María Melgar y Serrano was not well documented nor reported outside of Mexico. Stone representations of human heads from the Olmec civilization San Lorenzo Colossal Head 4, now at the Museo de Antropología de Xalapa They all display distinctive headgear and one theory is that these were worn as protective helmets, maybe worn for war or to take part in a ceremonial Mesoamerican ballgame. The heads were variously arranged in lines or groups at major Olmec centres, but the method and logistics used to transport the stone to these sites remain unclear. Each of the known examples has a distinctive headdress. Given that the extremely large slabs of stone used in their production were transported over large distances (over 150 kilometres (93 mi)), requiring a great deal of human effort and resources, it is thought that the monuments represent portraits of powerful individual Olmec rulers. The boulders were brought from the Sierra de Los Tuxtlas mountains of Veracruz. The backs of the monuments often are flat. All portray mature individuals with fleshy cheeks, flat noses, and slightly-crossed eyes their physical characteristics correspond to a type that is still common among the inhabitants of Tabasco and Veracruz. ![]() The heads date from at least 900 BC and are a distinctive feature of the Olmec civilization of ancient Mesoamerica. They range in height from 1.17 to 3.4 metres (3.8 to 11.2 ft). The Olmec colossal heads are stone representations of human heads sculpted from large basalt boulders. ![]()
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