Olmecs
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The Olmecs or Olmec were an early major Mesoamerican civilization, flourishing in the modern-day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco from roughly 1200 to 400 BC during Mesoamerica's formative perio
Olmec Head No. 3 from San Lorenzo-Tenochtitlán; 1226 –900 BC; basalt; height: 1.8 m, length: 1.28 m, width: 0.83 m; Xalapa Museum of Anthropology (Xalapa, Mexico)
El Señor de las Limas; 1000–600 BC; greenstone; height: 55 cm; Xalapa Museum of Anthropology
The Wrestler; 1200–400 BC; basalt; height: 66 cm, from the Arroyo Sonso area (Veracruz, Mexico); Museo Nacional de Antropología. Olmec artists are known for both monumental and miniature portrayals of what are assumed to be persons of authority-from six-ton heads sculptures to figurines.
Great pyramid in La Venta, Tabasco
Olmec colossal heads
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The Olmec colossal heads are stone representations of heads sculpted from large basalt boulders. They range in height from 1.17 to 3.4 metres. The heads date from at least 900 BCE and are a distinctiv
Olmecs
…ballgame, hallmarks of nearly all subsequent Mesoamerican societies. The aspect of the Olmecs most familiar now is their artwork, particularly their colossal heads. The Olmec civilization was first defined through artifacts which collectors purchased on the pre-Columbian art market in the late 19th and early 20th…
San Lorenzo Colossal Head 4, now at the Xalapa Museum of Anthropology
La Venta Monument 1, c. 1960
"Olmec-style" face mask in jade
Pottery Olmec figurine of an "infantile figure", a common and distinct Olmec type