|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Descendants of Jaguars
The Olmecs are the Mother Culture of Mesoamerica. They were a great influence for the later the great Middle American civilizations. They lived more than 1,500 years before the Maya ruled in Central America and 25 centuries before the Aztecs conquered Mexico.
Starting in 1200 BC until 300 BC they flourished in the steamy jungles of East Mexico's lowlands. It’s widely accepted that like all Native Americans, they descended from Asian hunter gatherers who crossed into the Americas at least 12,000 years ago, at the end of the most recent ice age. A growing number of researchers are coming to the conclusion that they descended from Africa. |
|
|
|
| |
Art
The Olmec produced the earliest sophisticated art in Mesoamerica and that their distinctive style provided a model for the Maya, Aztec and other later civilizations in the region. They left behind some of the finest artworks ever produced in ancient America.
Recurring images in Olmec art are dragons, birds, dwarfs, hunchbacks and most important the "were-jaguar" (human face with a jaguar mouth) |
| |
The most famous Olmec artifacts are 17 colossal stone heads, presumed to have been carved between 1200 BC and 900 BC They are cut from blocks of volcanic basalt. The size of these heads ranged from 5 feet to 11 feet tall and weigh as much as 20 tons. Almost all of these colossal heads bear the same features - flattened nose, wide lips, and capping headpiece. Large symbols are displayed on the 'helmet' of the head appears to be an identification motif for that person. Two stone heads from San Lorenzo had originally been large rectangular altars that were later resculpted into colossal heads. When a ruler died, was he venerated by converting his throne into his colossal portrait head. Others think the large heads portray the elite Olmec ancestors. They have also been interpreted as being warriors or ball players.
|
|
 |
|
| |
Incredible engineers One of the huge Olmec sculptures found at La Venta - This head is approximately 6 feet tall and 5 feet across. The stone it was cut from was quarried more than 50 miles from where it was discovered, prompting speculation about how it was transported to various settlements as far as 80 miles away and, in San Lorenzo, hoisted it to the top of a plateau some 150 ft. high. Much of the Olmec monumental art is found damaged and mutilated. The portrait statues of rulers are decapitated, and massive fragments are missing from the corners of altars. Only the colossal portrait heads survived relatively unharmed. Although that damage was once blamed on invaders or internal revolutions, |
| |
 |
| |
| " It must have been an incredible engineering effort," Joralemon says. "These people didn't have beasts of burden, and they didn't have wheels. We don't know if they floated the blocks on rafts or traveled over land." |
|
|
it was an action that occurred repeatedly throughout the 700 years that the Olmec created monuments.
Therefore, most scholars now believe that monument mutilation was carried out by the Olmec themselves for sacred or ritual reasons. |
|
|
| |
| |
 |
 |
 |
| |
| A shaman in the midst of physical transformation. These great spiritual leaders were supposed to be able to transform and assume the powers of wild animals, most formidably among them, the jaguar. To the right a Shaman's animal spirit companion. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Religion
It was formerly thought that the Olmec worshiped only one god, but study has shown that there were at least 10 distinct gods represented in Olmec art. Surely present were several important deities of the later, established Meso-American pantheon, such as the fire god, rain god, corn god, and Feathered Serpent. The most well-known aspect of the Mesoamerica religion is the ability of the shaman to assume the powers of animals. Such animals are called nahuales, and in Olmec art the most common of these is the jaguar. The shaman would during a sacred ritual transform into a jaguar. In a sense, the optimal spirit would have the spirituality and intellect of man and the ferocity and strength of the jaguar. As a jaguar encompassing the forces of life or at least a dominance in its two strongest categories, with regards to Olmec life: water and earth. They believed that the Jaguar was an Avatar of the living and the dead. The Olmecs are said to have been ancestors of the Jaguar. It was chosen because the Olmecs believed it was the most powerful and feared animal. They believed that the Jaguar was an Avatar of the living and the dead. Often associated with the ruling power of the king, the jaguar was the most sacred beast in the animal pantheon.
The men would sacrifice blood to the jaguar, wear masks, dance, and crack whips to imitate the sound of thunder. This ritual was done in May. The Olmec also made offerings of jade figures to the jaguar. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Writing
The Olmec Writing is Unique. Thesigns are similar to the writing used by the Vai people of West Africa. The Olmecs spoke and aspect of the Manding (Malinke Bambara) language spoken in West Africa. |
| |
 |
|
The Olmec people introduced writing to the New World. There are two forms of Olmec hieroglyphic writing : the pure hieroglyphics ( or picture signs) and the phonetic hieroglyphics, which are a combination of syllabic and logographic signs. Rafinesque (1832) discovered that when the Mayan glyphs were broken down into their constituent parts, they were analogous to the ancient Libyco-Berber writing, used in the Sahara 5000 years ago. The Libyco-Berber writing can not be read in either Berber or Taurag, even though these people use an alphabetic script similar to the Libyco-Berber script.
This offered the possibility that the Mayan signs could be read by comparing them to the Libyco-Berber symbols (Rafineque, 1832). |
|
| |
This was not a farfetched idea, because we know for a fact that the cuneiform writing was used to write four different languages: Sumerian, Hittite, Assyrian and Akkadian. |
More info: The Olmecs |
4-EVER ART e-zine - home CULTURES: Descendant of Jaguars - Art of Sumer - Surinam Maroons HISTORY: Seven Wonders of the Ancient World - Extinct animals MYSTERY: Elixir of Life - Sacred Symbols - Holographic Universe - Hall of Records UNIVERSE: Warped Galaxy - Spiral Galaxy - Search for planet X ART: The Kandinsky color theory - As above, so below - Get into the Creative Act - Collectibility of digital prints POETRY: World Heavyweight Poetry Champion - Mechanics of Poetry - Symbolist Poetry - Sand and Foam - Visual Poetry - Rumi on Love - Landscape as a multiplication table - In Real and Imagined Cities Evert A. Robles: portfolio | info | contact | links | 4-ever art e-zine home |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
