San Martín Pajapan Monument 1
Encyclopedia
Olmec
The Olmec were the first major Pre-Columbian civilization in Mexico. They lived in the tropical lowlands of south-central Mexico, in the modern-day states of Veracruz and Tabasco....
basalt
Basalt
Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...
sculpture found on top of the San Martin Pajapan volcano, in the Tuxtla Mountains of the Mexican state of Veracruz
Veracruz
Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave , is one of the 31 states that, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided in 212 municipalities and its capital city is...
. It is notable for its original location and its Olmec iconography.
Description
Likely carved during the Early Formative periodMesoamerican chronology
Mesoamerican chronology divides the history of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica into several periods: the Paleo-Indian , the Archaic , the Preclassic , the Classic , and the Postclassic...
, before 1000 BCE
Common Era
Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...
, the 1.4 m (5.5 ft) high statue shows a crouching young lord. Caught in the act of raising a large ceremonial bar, his right hand is under one end and his left over the other end. This pose, nearly identical to that of the "twins" at El Azuzul
El Azuzul
El Azuzul is an Olmec archaeological site in Veracruz, Mexico, a few kilometers south of the San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán complex and generally considered contemporary with it . Named for the ranch on which it is located, El Azuzul is part of the Loma del Zapote complex...
, is thought to represent a ruler or shaman (or both) shown in the ritual act of raising the Mesoamerican world tree or axis mundi
Axis mundi
The axis mundi , in religion or mythology, is the world center and/or the connection between heaven and Earth. As the celestial pole and geographic pole, it expresses a point of connection between sky and earth where the four compass directions meet...
, an act that establishes the center of the world and connects the earthly plane with the worlds above and below.
The plump face is proto-typically
Prototype
A prototype is an early sample or model built to test a concept or process or to act as a thing to be replicated or learned from.The word prototype derives from the Greek πρωτότυπον , "primitive form", neutral of πρωτότυπος , "original, primitive", from πρῶτος , "first" and τύπος ,...
Olmec, with "no attempt to represent individuality".
The young lord wears a huge boxy headdress, the front of which is covered with what is apparently a mask. The mask shows the cleft head, the almond eyes, and the downturned mouth characteristic of the Olmec were-jaguar
Olmec were-jaguar
The were-jaguar was both an Olmec motif and a supernatural entity, perhaps a deity.The were-jaguar motif is characterized by almond-shaped eyes, a downturned open mouth, and a cleft head. It appears widely in the Olmec archaeological record, and in many cases, under the principle of pars pro toto,...
supernatural, implying that the human had become, or was acting under the authority and/or the protection of, the supernatural.
Plumes flow backward along the sides of the headdress. From its top, vegetation – perhaps maize
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
– is sprouting. This were-jaguar mask is identified with the Olmec rain god, and the iconography and the location of the statue reflect the widespread Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and...
n belief in mountaintops as the dwelling of rain gods.
Archaeological discovery
Frans Blom
Frans Blom was a Danish explorer and archaeologist....
and Oliver La Farge
Oliver La Farge
Oliver Hazard Perry La Farge was an American writer and anthropologist, best known for his 1930 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Laughing Boy....
in their expedition of 1925. Located on a platform or "level" in the saddle between the two highest peaks of volcano's crater rim, the statue was found surrounded by broken offering vessels, jade offerings, and numerous other objects, dating from ancient times to the 20th century, indicating it had been an object of veneration for millennia. These offerings and the statue itself served to identify the San Martin Pajapan mountaintop as a sacred landscape.
Although well preserved, the face had been particularly ravaged, perhaps intentionally. The statue was further damaged in 1897, when Loya broke off part of the arms trying to move it. The statue, except for the face, has since largely been restored.
In 1929, Marshall Seville, from the Museum of the American Indian in New York, associated the statue with other unattributed artifacts in various collections, based on stylistic similarities and a common iconography. Since it was unlikely the statue had been moved far since its original site, Seville proposed that this "Olmec" artistic style (as he referred to it) originated in southern Veracruz.
The monument is presently on display at the Museo de Antropología de Xalapa
Museo de Antropología de Xalapa
The Museo de Antropología de Xalapa is an anthropological museum in the city of Xalapa, in the state of Veracruz in eastern Mexico.The museum houses the largest collection of artifacts from Mexican Gulf Coast cultures such as the Olmec, the Huastec and the Totonac with more than 25,000 pieces...
in Veracruz
Veracruz
Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave , is one of the 31 states that, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided in 212 municipalities and its capital city is...
.