Olmec (Other Keyword)

DOCUMENT Citation Only Michelle Rich. Matthew Robb. David Freidel.

This is an abstract from the "Dancing through Iconographic Corpora: A Symposium in Honor of F. Kent Reilly III" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. From the colossal heads of the Olmec to the severed head of the Maya Maize God in the Popol Vuh, the head and face have been of singular importance in Mesoamerican art and thought. If the human body is an axis mundi, the head and face give that axis a physical manifestation of individuality. A nexus of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Brendan Stanley. Tara D. Smith.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Formerly identified cosmograms for the Olmec culture include the Dallas Plaque and the Las Limas figure. Politically, this vision is centered by Olmec rulers which is visible through the iconographic interpretations of works including La Venta Altar 4, Oxtotlitlan Mural 1, among others. These interpretations build on the work of previous scholars and are...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Roberto Lunagómez Reyes.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Después de una exposición museográfica binacional entre Japón y México en los años 2010 y 2011, se ha podido consolidar una colaboración académica entre instituciones y universidades japonesas con el Museo de Antropología de Xalapa-MAX. Esta ponencia expondrá los logros académicos que han permitido tener una continuidad entre las instituciones mencionadas y...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Arlene Colman.

Offering 4 at La Venta consists of one brownstone and 15 greenstone human figurines arranged in front of six jade celts set on end. This unique offering was placed north of the pyramid in the Ceremonial Court of Complex A as part of a ritual activity that dedicated a new building phase in the court around 600 BC. It was associated with a massive serpentine pavement and a cruciform axe offering. About a century later, Offering 4 was reopened and checked. Offering 4 at La Venta conveys a story in...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Billie Follensbee.

This is an abstract from the "The Ties That Bind: Cordage, Its Sources, and the Artifacts of Its Creation and Use" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. While only small fragments of actual cordage have been recovered in Gulf Coast Olmec excavations, depictions of cordage figure prominently in Olmec and Olmec-related art. Reliefs of string, rope, and knots appear as costume components on Colossal Heads, on figures in the round, and in relief images on...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Frank Reilly. Sean McClure.

Iconographic investigations have revealed how the spread of the symbolism associated with NIGHT and DAY and the liminal space that separates the two were the major focus for the layout of sacred space or ritual precincts throughout the Mesoamerican Formative Period. Night was perceived as the home of much of the spiritual power which the ancient Mesoamericans perceived as inherent within the cosmological structure of the cosmos. In order to control the public and supernatural interface of this...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Marcie Venter.

This is an abstract from the "Olmec Manifestations and Ongoing Societal Transformations in the Tuxtlas Uplands: A View from Matacanela" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this presentation I synthesize recent studies that the Matacanela Archaeological Project has produced as a way of situating the presentations in this session within their broader temporal and spatial contexts, both with the Tuxtlas and the broader Gulf lowlands. One notable aspect...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jillian Mollenhauer.

In Formative Mesoamerica the built environments of San Lorenzo and La Venta became unique topographic assemblages combining local and regional materials drawn from riverbeds, salt domes, nearby hills, and distant volcanic peaks. These sites can be viewed as microcosms of their regional landscapes, incorporating natural forms and geographic referents as a way to manifest elite authority over the natural and human worlds. Integrated into these architectural settings were large-scale sculptures...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Alfredo Saucedo.

Tradicionalmente en la arqueología de la costa del golfo y en específico, dentro de la zona nuclear olmeca se había propuesto que uno de los principales productos que se consumieron durante el preclásico por la sociedad olmeca fue el maíz. Aunado a esto las contantes representaciones de esta planta dentro del sistema de registro olmeca, sugerían una tendencia muy marcada y una preferencia inminente a la producción de este alimento, ya sea con fines ceremoniales o para consumo. Sin embargo,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Alberto Ortiz Brito.

This is an abstract from the "Sculpture of the Ancient Mexican Gulf Coast, Part 1" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation addresses the relation between archaeological patrimony and collective memory using the San Martín Pajapan (SMP) monument as a case study. The SMP monument is an Olmec monument found on the top of the San Martín Pajapan volcano of Los Tuxtlas region. According to ethnographic research done in the 1960s, the local...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Charles Knight.

The use of chipped-stone in domestic Olmec contexts has only recently become a focus of archaeological investigation. With the publication of data on the chipped-stone assemblages from the Olmec centers of San Lorenzo and Tres Zapotes in the last few years, a picture emerges of great diversity in materials consumed and technologies used by commoners and non-commoners alike. The Middle to Late Formative household chipped-stone assemblage from the 2010 excavations at Los Soldados, in the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Carolyn Tate.

This is an abstract from the "The Role of Women in Mesoamerican Ritual" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. One of the most elaborate tomblike deposits at La Venta may commemorate a female ritualist, possibly a midwife. This paper explores the contents and surroundings of Tomb C and relates them to the widespread imagery of women and pre-birth humans at this Middle Formative ritual and pilgrimage site. It uses analogies with Mixe ritual as evidence for...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Billie Follensbee.

While considerable research has been conducted on the importance of textiles in Mesoamerica, little study has been done on textiles among Formative Period cultures such as the Gulf Coast Olmec. This is in great part because direct evidence of early textiles is scanty, consisting only of a fabric-impressed clay sherd, some hand-formed spindle whorls, and fragments of cordage and woven mats. As noted in my recent publications, however, depictions of textiles in Olmec sculpture provide additional...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Erin Sears.

The long-term exploration of Formative fluorescence within the Veracruz region of Mexico has been supported through mid-20th century archaeological excavations and collection management protocols of the Smithsonian Institution’s Natural History Museum Department of Anthropology. The Olmec site of Tres Zapotes has been a focus of archaeological investigation since 1938 by Smithsonian’s Bureau of American Ethnology Director, Matthew Stirling. Research at the site continues to explore the regional...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Billie Follensbee.

This is an abstract from the "Textile Tools and Technologies as Evidence for the Fiber Arts in Precolumbian Societies" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. While considerable research has been conducted on the importance of textiles in Classic and Postclassic Mesoamerica, little study has been done on textiles among Early or Middle Formative period cultures, mainly due to scanty preservation. As noted in previous research, however, depictions of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ana Luisa Izquierdo. Virginia Arieta.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Hay cierto acuerdo entre los arqueólogos que los olmecas integraron verdaderos estados. Aunque se sostiene que eran sistemas centralizados, la naturaleza política de esta organización permanece todavía poco clara, así como sus mecanismos de funcionamiento. Por ahora, los significativos avances en el conocimiento de la más antigua capital olmeca, San...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael D. Glascock. Kylie Gannan. Thomas R. Hester.

This is an abstract from the "2019 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of M. Steven Shackley" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the late 1960s, Heizer and colleagues at UC-Berkeley began to use X-ray fluorescence to measure chemical fingerprints for obsidian artifacts from a number of sites in Mesoamerica. In their study of obsidian artifacts from the Olmec site of La Venta, they found that 93% of the artifacts were explained by five distinct...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Karl Taube.

This is an abstract from the "Decipherment, Digs, and Discourse: Honoring Stephen Houston's Contributions to Maya Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Among the most striking signs of Olmec iconography is the "double-merlon," this being a horizontal form supporting two parallel, upwardly projecting tabs. This presentation examines and discusses where it appears in Olmec imagery during the Middle Formative period (1000-400 b.c.), stressing...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Carl Wendt.

Studies on the Olmec frequently focus on the ostentatious nature of the society such as large centers and monumental works of art, often ignoring the important role of smaller sites in regional hierarchies. In order to remedy this bias, we initiated the Proyecto Arqueológico Arroyo Pesquero, which is investigating sites in the Eastern Olmec Heartland. This project is unique in Olmec studies in that it takes a bottom-up approach to the study of the Middle Formative Olmec by collecting...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Carl Wendt. Kenneth Peters.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Within the Olmec region, resources such as basalt, asphalt, cacao, kaolin clay, and hematite pigment are available in discreet areas. This uneven distribution of raw materials has led some scholars to suggest that Olmec leaders controlled the sources of raw materials and regional trade, from which they derived their economic and political power. The...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Hirokazu Kotegawa.

In 2010, a young man from the Ejido Diaz Ordáz found a Prehispanic clay cylinder eroding out of a road cut in the Olmec site of Los Soldados. Although the exact archaeological provenience is not secure, we consider the object belonging to the Olmec culture through other data obtained by the Proyecto Arqueológico Arroyo Pesquero-Los Soldados. The artifact is of particular importance because of the unique images presented on this artifact, which appears to constitute a domestic scene. We know of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Carl Wendt.

The Olmec are among Mesoamerica’s earliest civilizations and as such they provide a good opportunity to investigate household change in the context of developing social inequalities. Over the past few decades archaeologists have gathered household data that show the ways they transformed and remain unchanged during periods of social evolutionary change. Artifact assemblages and subsistence patterns are examined and together provide valuable insights ...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Luis Hernández Lara.

This is an abstract from the "And They Look into the Mirror for Answers: Mirror Analysis to Understand Its Holder" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the heyday of the Olmec capital of San Lorenzo (1400–1000 cal BC), iron-ore mirrors from nonlocal sources were traded from distant regions. The Central Valleys of Oaxaca have been hypothesized as one of the possible sources, if not the main one. Iron ore was then used by the Olmec to create drill...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Brendan Stanley.

By 900 BCE, a middle formative Olmec influence projected into the central highlands of Mexico. This became apparent with the 1930’s discovery of the regional center of Chalcatzingo and its monumental architecture created in the Olmec style. Additionally, Olmec style symbolism appeared in the modern Mexican state of Guerrero with outstanding examples like the monumental architecture of Teopanticaunitlan and the cave paintings of Oxtotitlan and Juxtlajuaca. This paper will iconographically analyze...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Henri Bernard. Sara Ladrón de Guevara.

In a detailed analysis of some figurines of the offering 4 of La Venta, we observed that some of them were carved wearing a mask. This is hardly visible because the representation of the mask is a realistic human face. It seems to have a close relationship with the stone masks found a few kilometers from La Venta, in the site of Arroyo Pesquero, Veracruz, a site of Olmec offering reported in 1969 by the archaeologist Manuel Torres where a lot of lithic material was discovered. Among these there...