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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).
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 .
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.
“Few Olmec objects have the history, aesthetic quality, and iconographic significance of this superb jade figure.” Fort Worth’s Kimbell Art Museum acquires Olmec statuette described as a ...
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 ...
The mask shows the cleft head, the almond eyes, and the downturned mouth characteristic of the Olmec were-jaguar supernatural, implying that the human had become, or was acting under the authority and/or the protection of, the supernatural. [4] Plumes flow backward along the sides of the headdress.
Both almond-shaped eyes and snarled mouths are characteristic of the were-jaguar motif common in Olmec art. Olmec alternative origin speculations are non-mainstream pseudohistorical theories relating to the formation of Olmec civilization which contradict generally accepted scholarly consensus, which holds that Olmec civilization is entirely ...