When it comes to the ancient civilizations in the Americas, well the Amerindians like the Anasazi at Mesa Verde come to mind; even more so the Aztecs, the Incas, and the Mayans. But perhaps the most interesting of all, a culture that normally registers on the peripheral vision of our knowledge of all things Mesoamerican, is that of the Olmecs. Olmec society, civilization and culture is famous for several things: their mysterious origins and demise; their obsession with jade; their cult of the Were-Jaguar; and last, but not least, those monumental ‘African’ stone head carvings.
Continued from yesterday’s blog…
OLMEC WRITINGS
The Olmecs left behind no written history that we can understand. Their glyphs carved into their stone monuments, sculptures, monoliths, etc. remain indecipherable. We need an Olmec equivalent of the Egyptian Rosetta Stone! Further, there are no parallels with the writings of later Mesoamerican cultures. We’re stuck between that rock and that hard place. So, alas and alack, there’s nothing comprehensible to tell us, for example, how they carved, transported and built their megalithic monuments/stone heads or why they did so.
OLMEC STONE HEADS
Olmec culture is probably most famous for all those nearly round-as-a-ball stone heads of the masculine gender that always tend to feature prominently whenever you read about the Olmecs. These were not small stone statues of the head only, but massive sculptures up to over three meters (over 10 feet) in height and weighing over 20 tons (though I’ve seen estimates of up to 50 tons for the largest of the large). Over 20 stone heads, or parts of heads, are now known; there’s probably more still buried within the jungle. Further, no two heads are clones. While they all appear similar, each is unique in its own way. Though bland today, in their heyday, they were apparently painted and brightly decorated.
These stone heads are made of basalt, a rather dense and hard volcanic rock. Not the easiest of material to carve. Further, the raw parent multi-ton basalt blocks had to be imported from the Tuxtlas Mountains – hauled over land and water presumably by human muscle power from roughly 37 miles to over 90 miles away, depending on what eventual site they had to go to, and they have been found at all four major Olmec politico-religious sites. It would have been no easy task muscling multi-ton stone blocks by hand through steamy, swampy tropical jungle, though nobody knows for absolute certain how those blocks got from source to site, since the Olmecs left behind no ‘how-to’ manuals.
The immediate first, through to at least the tenth impression you get when viewing these Olmec stone heads is without question ‘African’. That of course doesn’t make the impression correct, but first impressions are lasting ones and usually have some sort of logical basis behind them.
Now the standard model of traditional Mesoamerican archaeology nixes any interaction between Central America and Africa before the birth of Christ (and for quite some considerable time thereafter too). Yet these heads still look ‘African’. There’s no getting around that.
Further, these Olmec stone heads have facial images that look nothing like the jade masks or heads of various carved figurines, etc. (see below).
Regardless, whose heads and faces are they? Are they portraits in stone of Olmec rulers? While that’s the generally accepted idea, no one really knows for absolute sure. And though many other cultures have carved, transported and erected massive statues, like the Easter Islanders and obviously the ancient Egyptians and Greco-Romans, they didn’t focus on exclusively chin-up statues. The Olmecs seem to be pretty unique in monumental head-only representations.
OLMECS’ JADE CULTURE
Some ancient civilizations are known for their works of stonemasonry or artifacts of silver and gold (or electrum – an amalgamation of both) or perhaps amber, textiles/weaving, metallurgy, pottery/ceramics, etc. The Olmecs were a jade culture. However, they had to trade for jade over long distances, obtaining over time vast quantities which they then carved into all sorts of ornamentations, masks, small sculptures and figurines, etc. However, as noted above, carvings in jade of masks or facial features are not similar to those of the very large basaltic stone heads. That’s just yet another puzzle when it comes to figuring out what made the Olmec’s tick.
When it comes to art works, the Olmecs were also known for their complex cave paintings.
OLMEC RELIGION: THE WERE-JAGUAR CULT
Like all societies, the Olmecs had their deities. Olmec gods tended to be a hybrid combination of human, avian, reptilian but most of all feline forms, especially the jaguar, in various and often bewildering combinations. Most prominent of these was the Were-Jaguar, often depicted as human babies with jaguar-like faces. Now that’s weird! Many Olmec images show humans (shamans presumably) shape-shifting into jaguars and vice versa. It was their ability to perform a transition from the natural world to the supernatural and back again. At least that’s the acceptable interpretation.
There’s no question that the jaguar was the major animal predator in Mesoamerica , and thus it’s not surprising that the jaguar featured prominently in pre-Columbian societies, and adoption of jaguar motifs by the ruling elite was probably used to reinforce or validate leadership. However, that alone hardly explains the Were-Jaguar cult and the possible origins of the cult have engaged scholars for over a half century. The issue has yet to be resolved.
Apart from the cult of the Were-Jaguar, Olmecs were the first to sculpture a ‘feathered serpent’, made a prominent cult deity figure in its own right as Quetzalcoatl by the Aztecs.
THE OLMECS: SUMMARY
*Where did they come from and where did they vanish to?
*Why did Mesoamerica ’s ‘Mother’ culture apparently vanish into thin air, and very suddenly at that?
*Why so few Olmec bodies and no kitchen middens?
*Will we ever figure out their ‘writings’? That would surely shed much needed light on their society.
*That shape-shifting Were-Jaguar religious cult has no real further parallels in Mesoamerica . What was their philosophy behind the cult?
*Most obviously, what were the ways and means of carving and transporting those massive ‘African’ stone heads? And why just heads from the chin up instead of fully fledged human statues like one finds in other ancient cultures?
*What’s the African connection, if indeed there is any African connection?
As I said, the Olmecs are indeed an enigma wrapped up in a mystery.
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