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A stone Olmec werejaguar, showing common werejaguar characteristics including a downturned mouth, almond-shaped eyes, pleated ear bars, [clarification needed] a headdress with headband, and a crossed-bars icon on the chest. The werejaguar was both an Olmec motif and a supernatural entity, perhaps a deity.
Olmec motifs associated with the were-jaguar include a cleft on the head or headdress, a headband, and cross-bars. [22] Most were-jaguar figurines show an inert were-jaguar baby being held by an adult. Olmec eagle transformation figure, 10th–6th century BCE Jade , with cinnabar. Height: 4.5 inches (11 cm).
The bright green varieties may have been identified with the young Maize God. The Olmec were fascinated with the unique blue jade of Guatemala and it played an important role in their rituals involving water sources. The Olmec used blue jade because it represented water, an Olmec iconography representing the Underworld.
One of the most prominent, distinctive, and enigmatic Olmec designs to appear in the archaeological record has been the "were-jaguar". Seen not only in figurines, the motif also may be found carved into jade "votive axes" and celts, engraved onto various portable figurines of jade, and depicted on several "altars", such as those at La Venta .
San Martín Pajapan Monument 1 is a large Olmec basalt sculpture found on top of the San Martin Pajapan volcano, in the Tuxtla Mountains of the Mexican state of Veracruz. It is notable for its original location and its Olmec iconography.
Olmec arts are strongly tied to the Olmec religion, which prominently featured jaguars. [53] The Olmec people believed that in the distant past a race of werejaguars was made between the union of a jaguar and a woman. [53] One werejaguar quality that can be found is the sharp cleft in the forehead of many supernatural beings in Olmec art.
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Altar 5 faces Altar 4 across Structure D-8 (one of the dozens of mounds at La Venta, the remains of platforms). Altar 5 is similar in design and size to Altar 4, except that the central figure holds an inert, perhaps dead, were-jaguar baby. The left side of Altar 5 features bas-reliefs of humans holding quite lively were-jaguar babies. Like the ...