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Most of what is known about Olmec religion is speculative, but certain patterns do emerge at La Venta that are certainly symbolic and might have ritual meaning. For example, the crossed bands symbol, an X in a rectangular box, is often repeated in stone at La Venta, other Olmec sites, and continued to have significance to the cultures inspired ...
Curators and scholars refer to "Olmec-style" face masks but, to date, no example has been recovered in an archaeologically controlled Olmec context. They have been recovered from sites of other cultures, including one deliberately deposited in the ceremonial altepetl (precinct) of Tenochtitlan in what is now Mexico City .
Olmec jadeite mask, 1000 to 600 BCE. ... Saturnino drawing, ... possibly more so than geometric patterns in both pre-Hispanic and European designs. They are ...
In this latter book, Indian Art of Mexico & Central America, Covarrubias included a family tree showing the "jaguar mask" as ancestral to all (later) Mesoamerican rain gods. [ 6 ] At about this time, in 1955, Matthew Stirling set forward what has since become known as the Stirling Hypothesis, proposing that the werejaguar was the outcome of a ...
The Olmec (1500–400 BCE), who lived on the gulf coast, were the first civilization to fully develop in Mesoamerica. Their culture was the first to develop many traits that remained constant in Mesoamerica until the last days of the Aztecs: a complex astronomical calendar, the ritual practice of a ball game , and the erection of stelae to ...
Some Olmec art, however, is surprisingly naturalistic, displaying an accuracy of the depiction of human anatomy perhaps equaled in the pre-Columbian New World only by the best Maya Classic era art. Olmec art forms emphasize monumental statuary and small jade carvings. A common theme is to be found in representations of a divine jaguar.
It is also called the La Mojarra script and the Epi-Olmec script ('post-Olmec script'). It has not been conclusively determined whether Isthmian script is a true writing system that represents a spoken language, or is a system of proto-writing .
San Lorenzo and the Olmec heartland.. Matthew Stirling was the first to begin excavations on the site after a visit in 1938. [12] Between 1946 and 1970, four archaeological projects were undertaken, including one Yale University study headed by Michael Coe and Richard Diehl conducted between 1966 and 1968, followed by a lull until 1990.