Olmec
Culture
I.
Who were the Olmecs? The
record suggests short and prone to obesity.
A. Located in modern Southern Vera
Cruz/ Northern Tabasco on the Gulf Coast (1200B.C. - 200 A.D.). Dense tropical
rainforest with over 200 inches of rain per year.
Shifting -agriculture. swidden farming.
B. They had the first documented
written language and calendar in the Americas.
C. Olmec is the name of the people
who lived in the La Venta area in historic times. We have no idea what their
name for themselves was.
D. Peaceful people who coexisted
with other cultures. Although
they may have sacrificed babies.
Olmec-style jade
mask
E. Traded directly or indirectly for
hard jade, jadeite, serpentine.
a. Balsas River area - blue green
jade.
b. Motagua River - apple-green jade
- most highly valued.
F. Homes were outlying with
ceremonial centers.
II.
What was their art like? - This is the first culture to exert artistic
influence on a wide scale and has been found as far south as Costa Rica
(winged-bat). It is called the “Mother Art” which influenced the great
MesoAmerican Classic Art of Aztec and Mayans and most other cultures which
followed the Olmec.
A. Monolithic basalt heads (largest
over 9’ tall; mouth 3’ wide), There are five known.
Go to Villahermosa and visit “Parque Olmeca.”
Cleaning head after the
hurricane.
1. Transported south over 60 miles
from the Tuxtla Mountains. Roads,
basalt rollers?
2. Imagery of heads believed to be
of priest/rulers.
3.Flattened features, helmeted,
thick lips, down curving mouth, finely lined eyes and lips.
Asianesque?
4. Were originally plastered and
painted.
B.
Hollowware pottery of humans- primarily from Las Bocas -6” - 1 ½
‘.
Naturalistic forms in clay.
1. All have pudgy baby-like bodies
and faces, and swollen joints.
2. Most are sculpted in full round.
3. Made of Kaolin, a type of white
clay.
4. Thick walled
5. Dendrites for dating
C. Small-scale stone carving
1. Frequently carved of jade, with fine incised lines made with cactus thorn & sand.
2. Figures are usually human, many
with cranial deformation.
3. Celts or axes are also
frequently made but never used as axe.
a. Made of exotic materials.
b. Found in burials and ceremonial
caches.
4. Many of the figures show the
attributes if the were-jaguar, the curled upper lip and fangs, and flame
eyebrow.
a. Were-jaguar was the result of a
mating between a human woman and a jaguar.
b. Children are thought to have
been sacrificed to the were-jaguar. Babies
tears were thought to bring rain, the more tears the more rain.
c. Many are found as offerings in
graves and ceremonial locations.
d. Some suggestion of Down’s
syndrome.
5. Copies of yokes.
6. Polished, convex, gazing mirrors
of obsidian, magnetite, and pyrite.
Jade earspools worn through enlarged
holes in the ear lobe.
a.
Used by Shamans for predicting future.
b. Sometimes worn on chest
7. Buccal-masks.
8. Necklaces and ear spools.
D. Low relief carvings
1. Soft-sandstone sarcophagus -
much worn were-jaguar motif.
2. Stelae - long upright block of
stone depicting an individual and various surrounding activity.
E. Cave paintings at Oxotitlan
depicts original were-jaguar coupling.
F. Massive offerings made in central
ceremonials centers between 800-500 B.C.
1. Lots of labor to dig pit 16’
deep (15,000 cubic feet of soil moved).
2. Used exotic materials like fired
clay and carved serpentine blocks to line bottom and walls of pit.
3. In the bottom of the pit on the
mosaic floor in the pattern of a jaguar mask were arranged.
a. The mosaic floor was dug up and
an offering was cached beneath the floor, and covered with special powdered
clay.
b. Fifteen smooth jade or
serpentine figures (9”h.) face a coarse stone figure who’s back is to a
wall of 6 axes (10”).
c. The floor was replaced and the
pit was immediately filled with more than 1,000 tons of earth..
III.
Three major ceremonial centers, San Lorenzo (1,200 - 900 B.C.), La Venta
(1,160 - 580B.C.), Tres Zapotes (1,000 B.C. - 200 A.D.).
A. La Venta on an Island in a swap
on Rio Tonolá.
1. Has a manmade mound (still 240 x
420 x 110’) which emulates Tuxtla Mountains cinder cones?
2. No known burials so probably a
temple substructure.
3. Cave tomb found with a huge
sandstone sarcophagus with a much worn low-relief carving.
Established “were-jaguar” concept.
4. Center was richly painted and
surface were covered with mosaics of colored clay and serpentine.
5. Has four monolithic heads.
B. San Lorenzo is sited on a
half-mile strip on ridge tops.
1. People produced monolithic heads
here, best preserved samples.
2. Shows two distinct periods of
occupation.
a. First occupation made heads.
b. Second occupation didn’t like
heads and rolled them down off the ridges.
3. No ceremonial mounds like la Venta.
C.
Tres Zapotes
1. One head found here.
2. The oldest written date in the
Americas is here, 31 B.C.
3.
This is the last Olmec stronghold.