![]() ![]() However, the San Lorenzo heads were buried by 900 BC, indicating that their period of manufacture and use was earlier still. The colossal heads cannot be precisely dated. Two thirds of Olmec monumental sculpture represents the human form, and the colossal heads fall within this major theme of Olmec art. These evocative stone face masks present both similarities and differences to the colossal heads. Together with these, of particular relevance to the colossal heads are the "Olmec-style masks" in stone, so called because none have yet been excavated in circumstances that allow the proper archaeological identification of an Olmec context. The figurines have been recovered in large numbers and are mostly in pottery these were presumably widely available to the population. Very fine Olmec art, much clearly made for an elite, survives in several forms, notably Olmec figurines, and larger sculptures such as The Wrestler. The nature and degree of the control exercised by the centres over a widespread rural population remains unclear. The city of San Lorenzo was succeeded as the main centre of the civilization by La Venta in about 900 BC, with Tres Zapotes and Laguna de los Cerros possibly sharing the role other urban centres were much less significant. Some of the Olmecs' rulers seem to have served religious functions. Pottery Olmec figurine of an "infantile figure", a common and distinct Olmec type 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. 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. ![]() 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. San Lorenzo Colossal Head 4, now at the Museo de Antropología de Xalapa ![]()
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