THE OLMEC

In 1862 a colossal stone head was discovered in the state of Veracruz along the steaming Gulf Coast of Mexico. In the years to come, artifacts from the culture later termed "Olmec" turned up at widespread sites in Mexico and adjacent Central America, with the greatest number of characteristic themes being present in the region of the original discovery.

For decades these findings were misinterpreted. The Maya were thought of as the "mother culture" of Mexico, and therefore the Olmec were either insignificant or Maya themselves, and in any case later in development. Then in 1939 a carving was discovered near the gigantic head with a characteristic Olmec design on one side and a date symbol on the other.

Colossal Heads

This revealed the first inklings of a shocking truth, later confirmed by radiocarbon dating: At least in terms of their comparative antiquity, the Olmec had a far greater right to be considered the mother culture. Hundreds of years earlier than anyone had imagined, simple villages had given way to a complex society governed by kings and priests, with impressive ceremonial centers and artworks. Today some find the term "mother culture" misleading, but clearly the Olmec came first. In his invaluable book The Maya, Michael Coe makes the case that the Maya and many other civilizations were clearly dependent on Olmec achievements. Also on the theme of the cultural continuity between the Olmec and the Maya is Kent Reilly's paper, "Olmec Iconographic Influences On the Symbols of Maya Rulership" (online here at Mesoweb/PARI). One of the best books ever written about the Olmec is available as a free electronic download at the website of Dumbarton Oaks: Click the link under Pre-Columbian Studies for Olmec Art at Dumbarton Oaks by Karl Taube (2004). Other megalithic heads were discovered in the intervening years, all with "African" facial features. While it is unlikely that the founders or leaders of Olmec civilization came directly from Africa, their remote ancestors may well have originated there and migrated to Asia, where many original populations of countries like Cambodia and the Philippines have similar characteristics. These might have been brought along when the first humans entered the Americas. A characteristic motif of Olmec art is a human face with a jaguar mouth, sometimes called a "were-jaguar". To some scholars, this suggests a derivation of Olmec religion from shamanistic shape-shifting. In The Ancient Kingdoms of Mexico, Nigel Davies suggests that there is evidence that the Olmec practiced human sacrifice, including that of infants. No Olmec mythology survives, except for what may be inferred from symbols in art and architecture. But some specialists have deduced from representations of the "were-jaguar" that in Olmec mythology a human mated with a jaguar. This hypothesis is advanced, for instance, in Michael Coe and Rex Koontz's Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs, which presents an excellent introduction to the Olmec. A good in-depth treatment of the Olmec, fully illustrated in color, is The Olmec World: Ritual and Rulership. This handsome volume is the catalog of a 1996 exhibition of the same name, described online by Gillett G. Griffin with a selection of photographs. The jaguar is a potent symbol throughout Mesoamerican cultures. Based on other artworks that they left behind, the Olmec clearly imagined that their shamans transformed on ritual occasions into this ferocious jungle beast. A particularly striking demonstration of the stages of this transformation was presented at the 1996 Olmec exhibition in Washington, D.C. A sculpture of a human in a kneeling ritual position was lined up with another humanoid figure in the same posture but with the ears, muzzle and mouth of a jaguar. Adjacent was a similar hybrid standing erect, and behind this was a long-tailed creature, almost fully a jaguar but for its human fingers, in the stance of a man. Photographs of these sculptures are available in the exhibition catalog, edited by Elizabeth P. Benson and Beatriz de la Fuente. Just as the Olmec is properly described as Mesoamerica's mother culture, it is also identified as the region's first civilization. The distinction between a culture and civilization is touched upon in this quote from Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs by Michael Coe and Rex Koontz: "'By their works ye shall know them,' and archaeologists tend to judge cultures as civilizations by the presence of great public works and unified, evolved, monumental art styles."

Olmec Links

Our page about the Olmec Colossal Heads links to a complete assortment of them on the Web. Also at Mesoweb, see The Cultures of Ancient Mexico, a series of photographs and commentary that begins with the Olmec. (Also see that feature's Index for more Olmec objects.) A selection of Olmec Art from the website of Edgar Martín del Campo.

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