THE OLMECSPre-Classic 1200 BC-400BC

Intro to Olmecs• First known Mesoamerican civilization

• They are referred to as the “mother culture” because they are the earliest civilization

• Olmec sites are located in the Southern states of Mexican in Veracruz and Tabasco

• The Nahuatl (Aztec) name for these people, Olmecatl, or Olmec in the modern corruption, means “rubber people” or “people of the rubber country.”

• That term was chosen because the Olmecs extracted latex from Panama rubber trees growing in the region and mixed it with the juice of a local vine to create rubber.

Olmec SocietyOlmec society flourished next to the Coatzacoalcos River basin. This environment was very similar to the Nile, Indus, Yellow River valleys and Mesopotamia.

Highly productive environment- densely concentrated population= the rise of an elite class.]The elite class created the demand for the production of the symbolic and sophisticated luxury artifacts that define Olmec culture.

Many of these luxury artifacts were made from materials such as jade, obsidian, and magnetite, which came from distant locations and suggest that early Olmec elites had access to an extensive trading network in Mesoamerica.

The source of the most valued jade, for example, is found in the Motagua River valley in eastern Guatemala, and Olmec obsidian has been traced to sources in the Guatemala highlands] distances ranging from 200 to 400 km (120–250 miles) away!

We are able to see the result of this stratified society through the study of its art.

Art indicates how people lived and what certain aspects of life/society they valued.

The Olmec Most of the elements of Mesoamerica art and architecture can be seen to have an Olmec origin

• Rubber balls• Ball courts• Pyramid building• Jade working• Mirror-making• Human portraiture • Worship of the Maize God• Worship of the jaguar and eagle • Jaguar as the most regal creature in

the jungle seen as a symbol of power and fertility

• Chocolate drinking

They were the first Mesoamerican civilization, and laid many of the foundations for the civilizations that followed.

Among other "firsts", the Olmec appeared to practice ritual bloodletting and played the Mesoamerican ballgame, hallmarks of nearly all subsequent Mesoamerican societies.

San Lorenzo is the first major city in Mesoamerica

a big emphasis on animal worship and shaman interaction

The Olmecs were great traders, warriors and artists, and they developed writing systems and calendars which were perfected by later cultures.

Olmec Art Characteristics

Art as a vehicle for religion and power Monumental sculpture Use of blue-green translucent jade “were-jaguar” ½ human and ½ jaguar Sharp cleft indicates emergence from

the earth, especially as seen in the head of the Maize god from whose cleft emerges the tender maize plant

Olmec art very realistic and personal Common themes: religion, rulers,

religious transformations

The major centers of the Olmec heartland.

SAN LORENZO TENOCHTITLÁN,

VERACRUZPre-Classic: 1200-900 BC

Olmec Colossal Heads

• 17 heads have been found in total • Bits of colored stucco on one of the heads

suggest that they were once painted. • Mesoamerican people believed that all

experience and emotions, along with the soul, resided in the head alone.

• The heads are different sizes 6 tons to 50 tons. 1 ton= 2,000 pounds.

• May have been posthumous records of the great kings who led them

• They were ceremonial ball game helmets • Jaguar paws on Head 5 &10 probably

emblematic of family lineage, feline pelt as a lineage title or symbol of office.

• No use of metal tools

Colossal Head #5, Olmec, Basalt, San Lorenzo, 1200-900BC

Colossal Head #10, Olmec, Basalt, San LorenzoPreClassic 1200-900BC

Olmec Twins San LorenzoPre-Classic Period1200-900 BC• Stories of twins and jaguars

abound in mythology and literature from Mesoamerica suggesting that these trends started here.

• Twins were an essential heroic part of Mesoamerican religion.

• What part the heroic twins played in Olmec religion is unknown, but in the Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the Maya, two heroic sets of twins journey to the underworld to do battle with the lords there.

The WrestlerSan LorenzoBasaltPre-Classic1200-900BC• The Wrestler,” as it’s called (or el

Luchador Olmeca in Spanish) is prized for its lifelike form and beauty.

• Highly realistic + personal

• Not ideal looking

• Movement captured of movement

LA VENTA, TABASCO900-400 BC

Site of La Venta

Complex C “Great Pyramid” in La Venta, Tabasco 394 B.CThe First pyramid in Mesoamerica

The Great Pyramid was the largest Mesoamerican structure of its time.

Even today, after 2500 years of erosion, it rises 34 m (112 ft) above the naturally flat landscape.

Buried deep within La Venta lay opulent, labor-intensive "offerings" – 1000 tons of smooth serpentine blocks, large mosaic pavements, and at least 48 separate deposits of polished jade celts, pottery, figurines, and hematite mirrors

Colossal Head #1, La Venta, 1000BC-600BC

Altar #4, La Venta, 1000 BCNote the rope that winds along the ground, held by the figure.

Note also the eyes and the fangs on the cornice above the figure,

implying that the figure is seated in that creature's mouth.

.

Altar #5La Venta, 1000

BC• Altar showing Ruler and Maize God

coming from a cave. Why is this an important thing to show?

• A ruler is coming fron the interior of a cave bringing a baby figure that represents the Maize God. This is an act of the role of the ruler as a provider of sustenance.

• Perhaps a ruler’s concern with a legitimate heir– why is this important?

• Ruler It’s sides show bas-reliefs of humans holding lively were-jaguar babies

Stela #2 representing a ballgame player. La Venta,1000BC-200BCStela: is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected as a monument,

very often for funerary or commemorative purposes

Las Limas monument #1

• greenstone figure of a youth holding a limp were-jaguar baby

• Represents a youth (neither male nor female) holding an Olmec rain deity in his lap

• The infant has the monstrous face of the Olmec rain deity

• The knees, shoulders, and face of the larger individual are incised with the faces of other supernaturals

• The incision may reflect the tradition of body paint, which may have been Mesoamerica’s first art form.

• considered by some a "Rosetta stone" of Olmec religion

• The largest known greenstone sculpture

Figure of a Werejaguar Human

Being1000BC-200BC

• In this transformation figure the human and feline are brilliantly fused.

• The head and ears remain human, the features of the face flow into one another.

• The expression of the face indicates the emergence of the jaguar from the human shell.

• As Peter T. Furst has so perceptibly observed, "We are dealing not with a stylistic aberration but with a well-defined mode of representing a phenomenon."

Monument #9700-500 BCChalcatzingo

Mouth of the jaguar as a portal to the underworld

The large open mouth of this jaguar-monster is formed by a cruciform hollow that passes completely through the carving. The lower portion of this opening is worn and indicates not only that this sculpture was erected as a vertical panel but also that persons could have crawled through the mouth as a ritual passage through the earth-monster's mouth related to death and entrance into the underworld.

From the clefts on the exterior of the mouth, bromeliad-like plants again grow.

Seated Figure of A Priest

10th-6th Century BC In addition to being a truly outstanding example of Olmec sculpture, this figure is one of the best preserved ever found.

This stocky man sits cross-legged with his hand resting on his knees.

His body proportions are as correct as they ever get in Olmec art but, even so, his legs appear larger than in real life.

The sculptor made little attempt to accurately delineate his subject's limbs and muscles.

The face is a realistic adult portrayal despite the downturned mouth so common on Olmec faces.

Monument #19La VentaPre-Classic

• La Venta Monument 19 depicts a rattlesnake with wings coiled around a man who might be a warrior or ballplayer.

• The feathered serpent was not commonly depicted in Olmec art, but was more common in later Mayan and Aztec art.

• The earliest images of the feathered serpent are attributed to the Olmec.