Archaeology Revealed Archaeology for students, beginners…for everyone Skip to content Home Archaeology 101 Topics Resources Breaking News About Contact Search for: Home > Archaeological Sites > The Power of Ideology: Understanding Olmec Iconography through Archaeology (Part 3) The Power of Ideology: Understanding Olmec Iconography through Archaeology (Part 3) By Karen McCamy November 26, 2010 This is Part 3 of a multi-part article. Click here to go to Part 1, or click here to read Part 2. NOTE: A complete Works Cited list can be found on the the last page of this article. Archaeological Data Areas to the West (continued) Figure 1: Ceramic Vessel, Tlapacoya. Early Formative Period. Museo Nacional de Antropologia, Mexico City. North of Chalcatzingo, the site of Tlapacoya (located just east of modern day Mexico City, in the Basin of Mexico) exhibits its own Olmec influence. Two ceramic examples here (Figures 1 – 3, this page) illustrate the continued use of the Olmec Dragon. Benson (1996:202) describes the vessel pictured in Figure 1 as “covered with symbolic decoration of pure Olmec form.” The vessel, found by Christine Niederberger, dates to the Ayotla Phase, circa 1200 – 1000 BC. Figure 3: Detail, Motif Profile view of "Olmec Dragon." Figure 2: Ceramic Vessel, from Tlapacoya. Formative Period. Featuring the zoomorphic celestial and terrestial dragon motifs, symbolizing ritual connection to "other" realms. The other vessel pictured (Figure 2, this page) from Tlapacoya (Benson 1996: 201, Reilly 1995:36) illustrates the jaguar face in frontal view; the profile ( Figure 3, this page) accentuates the many Olmec iconographic details: cleft forehead crossed bands square “gum” lines cross-hatching flame eyebrows Oaxaca Figure 4: Valley of Oaxaca in relation to Olmec Heartland. The modern-day state of Oaxaca is located in central Mexico, occupying much of the southern portion of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (see location Map, Figure 4). As Figure 4 indicates, the Olmec Heartland, indicated by the black arrow, is considerably distant. (For a refresher of just what constitutes the extent of the Olmec Heartland, take a look back at the Map, Figure 1, in Part 1 of this article series.) While the Olmec Heartland is a low-lying tropical area along the southern portion of the Gulf of Mexico, the Valley of Oaxaca is located in a highland valley. Two examples of small portable objects show below, indicating pure Olmec motifs, are representative of Olmec -period artifacts that have been found in the Oaxaca region. As indicated (in the artifact captions, these two artifacts now reside in the National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City…It is unfortunate that little information (the only documentation from the Museum is “The Mixtec Region“) as to their discovery location has been noted. However, the art styles can be used to place them “in time” to the Middle Formative Period. Figure 4: Were-Jaguar Votive Axe. Oaxaca. Formative Period. Incised Jade. Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico city. The highly polished jade votive axe (Figure 4) bears the Olmec were-jaguar mouth, combined with flame eyebrows and cleft forehead. The ritual nature of this artifact is underscored by the were-jaguar elements on the head and face, combined with the human torso and arms. The piece measures 8.7″ tall x ~4″ across x ½” thick. The jade pectoral (Figure 5), dated to the Middle Formative, lacks the cleft but also exhibits the down-turned (possibly were-jaguar mouth), but with obvious fangs protruding from the upper lip. According to Castro-Leal (1996 Benson and de la Fuente:253) the face has been described as both “were-jaguar” and a bat, which I believe is due to the unique history of the piece: it is reportedly the first jade piece of the Museum’s 1927 jade catalogue and was reportedly obtained by the Museum in 1910 [Castro-Leal (1996 Benson and de la Fuente:253)]. Although unsubstantiated by other Olmec experts, I believe that this ambiguity in “bat vs. ‘were-jaguar‘ ” is due to the early description of the piece, when Olmec imagery was just in its infancy and before many of the later discoveries were available for iconographic comparisons. Figure 5: Were-Jaguar Jade Pectoral. Oaxaca. Middle Formative. Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City. Figure 6: Artist's Sketch of Jade Pectoral, illustrating delicately-incised Olmec Motifs The gray scale sketch (Figure 6) reveals the details of the artist’s incising on the piece that are not visible in the photograph. Also not clearly visible in the photograph but visible to the naked eye are traces of the boring tools used in creating the fine details of the eyes. The pectoral measures ~4″ h x 5.125″ w x 1″ thick. Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Recommend on Facebook Buzz this on Google Share via Reddit Share with Stumblers Share on technorati Tumblr it Tweet about it Buzz this on Yahoo! Email it Print PDF Read more on pages: 1 2 3 Leave a Comment This entry was posted in Archaeological Sites, Ideology, Art, Symbolism and tagged Iconography, Olmec, Prehistoric Art. Bookmark the permalink. Liked this, did you? Be sure to dig into these titles: The Power of Ideology: Understanding Olmec Iconography through Archaeology (Part 2) The Power of Ideology: Understanding Olmec Iconography through Archaeology (Part 1) Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Name * Email * Website Comment You may use these HTML tags and attributes:
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