The heads, and their inspiration, have been the cause for much debate throughout history. The heads were each carved from a single basalt boulder which in some cases were transported km or more to their final destination, presumably using huge balsa river rafts wherever possible and log rollers on land.
The principal source of this heavy stone was Cerro Cintepec in the Tuxtla Mountains. No accompanying torsos or bodies have ever been found so it is widely believed that the Olmec heads were created as stand-alone carvings. The Olmec are probably best known for the statues they carved: 20 ton stone heads, quarried and carved to commemorate their rulers. The name Olmec is an Aztec word meaning the rubber people; the Olmec made and traded rubber throughout Mesoamerica.
To date, 17 colossal Olmec heads have been discovered in various locations associated with the ancient Olmec civilisations; ten thought to be the oldest were found in San Lorenzo, Veracruz, four in La Venta, Tabasco, two in Tres Zapotes, Veracruz and one in La Cobata. Andrzej Wiercinski claims that some of the Olmecs were of African origin. He supports this claim with cranial evidence from two Mesoamerican sites: Tlatilco and Cerro de las Mesas.
Tlatilco is a site in the Valley of Mexico. Although outside the Olmec heartland, Olmec influences appear in the architectural record. The Olmecs were polytheistic, believing in many gods who controlled the natural forces of life. These gods took on human-like forms but had a more frightful quality through also showing mixtures of feline, reptile, and bird-like features. I contend that Olmec monumental art illustrates the opposite, and suggest that the Olmecs most appreciated the anthropomorphic statues that incorporated feline features, and disliked the very naturalistic style of the colossal heads.
The latter represented the severed heads of opponents who probably were losers in ritual battles. Therefore they could not claim the divine patronage of the jaguar, and had to appear just as « plain », ugly people. De lo bello y de lo feo en las esculturas monumentales olmecas. Propongo que los olmecas apreciaban las estatuas antropomorfas que incorporaban rasgos del jaguar y despreciaban el estilo muy naturalista de las cabezas colosales.
Naturalism or realism is often seen as the top end of the evolution of any art; as a consequence, it is also assumed that conventional, conceptual, stylized or abstract art came first, before developing into realism. When naturalism and conventionalism coexist, it is then expected that the most important subjects will be given naturalistic treatment, while the lesser ones will be expressed through conventions.
The purpose of this paper is to show that this is not always the case, especially in the pre-Columbian civilizations of Mesoamerica, such as the Olmec and the Maya. It was innovative in many areas, playing an important part in the elaboration of Mesoamerican calendar and arithmetic, and maybe in the invention of writing. The Olmecs developed monumental architecture and urban planning, and performed collective works that could have been produced only by strongly stratified societies.
They had a very specific, easy-to-recognize artistic style, well illustrated in monumental stone sculpture, small portable jade sculpture, and ceramic vessels and figurines. The geographical distribution of small objects allows one to evaluate the expansion of the Olmec style, from Costa Rica to Michoacan, while most monumental sculptures are limited to the Gulf of Mexico area in politico-ceremonial sites such as La Venta, San Lorenzo, Laguna de los Cerros or Tres Zapotes.
Also depicted in small objects, they are anthropomorphic creatures with emphasized feline features Figure 8c.
Some scholars for instance Cyphers interpret these images as transformation figures, that is men — supposedly shamans — transforming themselves into jaguars, an early case of what will be later called tonalism. Is it a dynamic image of transformation or a static representation of the combination of human and feline essences? Combinations of different beings are extremely common in « primitive » art without any indication of a possible « transformation ».
To come back to were-jaguars, I have shown elsewhere that they are images of lightning, the force that brings rain and fertility but also strikes enemies and, as such, is an emblem of power in the hands of rulers Baudez Of colossal size are the sculptures first interpreted as altars, then as thrones, and that are probably neither. They are huge rectangular pieces with a scene of emergence carved in high relief on one broad side.
These emergence monuments are of two kinds; on one, the person emerging from a niche representing the maw of the earth monster with feline attributes holds on his lap a were-jaguar baby, while dignitaries are depicted in low-relief on the sides of the sculpture.
On the other kind of emergence monument, the emerging personage holds ropes that restrain captives depicted on the sides. They measure from 1,47 to 3,40 m in height, and weigh from 6 to 50 tons. At San Lorenzo, Coe and Diehl have the heads dated from to BC, preceding the supposed destruction of the ceremonial center; this dating however is not accepted by other scholars who criticize the stratigraphic placement of the monuments see Hammond ; reply by Coe and Diehl ; rejoinder by Graham ; the critics also find puzzling « that […] Olmec sculpture [were] violently destroyed and buried at San Lorenzo by BC, Olmec sculpture in closely neighboring sites continued to be produced for many centuries to come… » Graham , p.
Its closest source lies in the Tuxtla mountains, not so far from Tres Zapotes, but at some 60 km and km as the crow flies, from San Lorenzo and La Venta, respectively.
In the absence of any draught animals, the transportation of these blocks, on rafts in waterways and dragged over logs on earth, required considerable and well coordinated human efforts. At La Venta, Stirling discovered three heads at the extreme north of the ceremonial center Mon.
They formed a line oriented east-west Figure 1a , and faced north, that is away from the area of monumental architecture. At the opposite end of the site south , on Str.
D-7, three very eroded sandstone figures — 2,60 m to 3,80 m high — were found together Mon. Figure 1b. They are squatting and seem to support a very important helmet with both hands. On the other hand, the stelae and altars are concentrated south of the main pyramid, not far from the center. Map of La Venta; b.
La Venta, Mon. According to this hypothesis, the great majority of the colossal heads had been carved out of them. Some heads — like San Lorenzo Mon.
Basalt being in the Gulf area a rare and expensive material, it may have occurred in a few instances that an obsolete monument was turned into a sculpture of a different type.
Much harder to believe and justify would be the custom — spread on a vast territory and many centuries — of transforming all the so-called altars into heads.
Besides, it may be observed on San Lorenzo Mon. Ht: 1,78 m after Coe and Diehl , fig. Ht: 1,78 m after ibid. Ht: 2,69 m after ibid. Ht: 1,83 m after ibid. They are spheroid with a flat back, either left plain or carved only at the top.
The headgear often carries insignia on its front, such as parrot heads on San Lorenzo head 2 Figure 2c , two paws or talons on San Lorenzo head 5.
The narrow space between the eyes is anvil-shaped; the eyes, framed by two heavy eyelids, are large, almond-shaped and drooping; they are wide open, except on the head from La Cobata Figure 3b , where they are closed. Round pupils are indicated as relieves or hollows and, to some scholars, the heads are squinting.
The nose is broad even at its base and, at the end, it is flattened with two nostrils indicated by round depressions. Deep seams flank the nose. Cheeks and chin are slightly prominent. The lips are thick, sometimes parted, showing teeth. San Lorenzo, Mon. Ht: 2,85 m after Coe and Diehl , fig. La Cobata, Mon. La Fuente , p. I wonder how Grove can determine as personal and not social, the attributes shown on the insignia. Cyphers from the same source , p. Pasztory begins her paper « The portrait and the mask: invention and translation » with: « The Olmec portrait heads astonish Westerners… », a sentence not open to discussion.
With the only exception of Cyphers, who hardly half-opens the door to doubt, the general belief is that the heads are portraits of rulers. The implicit syllogism goes as follows: the heads are realistic, and since portraits are realistic, therefore the heads are portraits.
If they are actually portraits, it is assumed that rulers were the most probable models. In the rare occasions when the subject is dealt with, portraiture is mistaken for naturalism and is not demonstrated but perceived as obvious.
Unlike Spinden , p. He notices that the « sculptor distinguished rounder juvenile head and body forms from mature elongation and articulation ». I would say that the same can be observed on Copan Stela C, a monument where a young ruler with a round juvenile face very similar to the face on Quirigua Stela J, succeeds his father depicted with an elongated face and beard.
When Kubler ibid. Was it written on it? Later they refer to « a handsome plaster head of a man… remarkable for the intensity of emotion [my emphasis] expressed in the face » ibid. Once again, they mistake naturalism for portraiture, since a face may express emotion without being an individual portrait 4. Pasztory , p. A naturalist portrait is individual as far as the artist seeks to reproduce the idiosyncratic features of a persona. The reproduction of these features allows the viewer to recognize instantly Nero, Augustus or Stalin.
Generally, these idiosyncrasies are irregularities or defects in shapes or proportions of individual features. Naturalistic portraits differ from psychological and imaginary portraits such as those of Homer and Socrates by Lysippe, or Pericles by Cresilas Charbonneaux , p. The idealized faces of Classical Greek sculpture are realistic and perfectly human but are not portraits in the sense that they do not refer to individuals, even if models were used by the artists who made them.
These idealizations suited warriors and athletes as well as gods. Since the La Cobata head is said to represent a dead person, the other heads are implicitly « alive ».
This is misleading since severed heads are often shown open-eyed. Some Danzantes do not seem to have closed eyes and the heads held by the seated ceramic figures from Monte Alban IV Burials 58 and , are open-eyed.
The trophy heads from Costa Rica and Panama also have open eyes. Lifelikeness, verisimilitude, or emotional expressions are not criteria for portraits. The latter must not be assumed; they have to be demonstrated through the recurrence of individual features.
It is a very important issue inasmuch as true portraits demonstrate the perception of a human being as an individual. There is no doubt that the colossal size of these monuments, the amount of hardship involved in their transport seem to be only suitable to rulers. I think the heads were indeed ordered by rulers for their greatest glory, not to represent themselves but their enemies, defeated and sacrificed thereafter. In Mesoamerica, more importance is oftentimes given to captives or victims, than to their victors.
Some slabs were brought over, dressed, carved with a generally naked and emasculated sacrificial victim, then set on the terraces of pyramidal structure L. While no corresponding victorious figure was found with them, slabs showing severed heads were displayed in the same context, and a few colossal heads are known from the area ibid.
This building was graced with dozens of slabs depicting falling ritual fighters presented as losers and future victims. All of the sculptures depict a helmeted man but each individual sculpture has its own set of unique facial characteristics. The sculptures are estimated to weigh about 40 tons and stand between feet tall. All but two heads were composed of basalt boulders from the Tuxtla Sierra mountains which were as far as miles away from where the heads were discovered.
The two heads that did not utilize the basalt were the San Lorenzo heads and they were repurposed from earlier stone thrones. Traces of pigments and plaster on one of the heads suggests that the heads may have been painted at one point.
There are numerous theories about the inspirations, motivations, and uses of these Olmec sculptures. Previous theories had suggested that the heads depicted Olmec gods, athletes, or even early black civilizations due to the heads possessing what appear to be African features.
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