The Olmec World: Ritual and Rulership on Tribalarts.com

	The
	Olmec
	World:
	Ritual and Rulership
1. Figural Ornament Río Pesquero, Veracruz: 900-600 B.C. Jade, H.: 12.3 cm. Collection of Dr. and Mrs. Wally Zollman	by Gillett G. Griffin

In 1862 plantation workers in Huaypan, Veracruz, thought that they had found a large overturned iron kettle buried in the ground. Believing that it might hide a cache of gold, they dug -- and dug -- and dug, eventually revealing a colossal stone portrait head. This was the first Olmec sculpture to be discovered in Mexico. It would be nearly 70 years before a number of extraordinary objects of jade and stone were to be seen as stylistically related and of a culture which nobody had known. That culture was arbitrarily named "Olmec" for the peoples who, at the time of the Spanish conquest, had inhabited the region where the first head had been found.

Now, nearly 135 years after the initial discovery of the relics of Olmec civilization, the first major exhibition of the art of this culture has been organized by The Art Museum of Princeton University. It contains an astonishing assemblage of works which reflect some 700 years of the earliest civilization of Mesoamerica. Olmec culture is the foundation of all subsequent civilizations of Mesoamerica. Within its iconographic vocabulary are themes that re-emerge in later civilizations, such as Zapotec, Teotihuacan, and the Maya. Its architectural layouts, symbolic language and the foundation of a religion with a pantheon of deities establishes a pattern which, with regional styles and variations, lasted until the Spanish conquest. Investigations into this remarkable seminal civilization haveonly gradually materialized over the last 65 years. We now see that Olmec art is the most powerful, appealing and seemingly enigmatic to have appeared in the northern hemisphere.

		2. "Young Lord" El Salvador/Guatemala border region. 900-600 B.C. Serpentine with traces of cinnabar, H.: 65.6 cm. Private collection (far left) 3. Avian Jaguar Mask Tenenexpan, Veracruz 900-600 B.C. Serpentine with traces of cinnabar, H.: 17 cm. Private collection
		4. Crawling Baby Las Bocas, Puebla 1200-900 B.C. Slipped terracotta H.: 30.1 cm. Private collection

Together with this extaordinary exhibition, The Art Museum has produced a remarkable catalogue which documents the over 250 objects shown and reproduces them in color. Related material is presented in black and white photographs and line drawings. Many of these pieces are displayed publically for the first time and will prove a revalation to scholars and connoisseurs. Scholarly essays focus on varying aspects of Olmec art, religion, rulership and symbolism. Mesoamerican artists and the works which they created will be enlightening and, for some controversial. Themes of the catalogue include essays on the archaeology, symbolism, shamanism, rulership and the uses and meanings of the objects displayed. These range in time from 1200 B.C. to 500 B.C. and include materials from the Veracruz heartland, the Mexican highlands, Guerrero and regions as far away as Guatemala, Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica. The scope and range of the objects will be a revelation to many.

Crouching Figure

5. Crouching Figure with Incised Details Tabasco, 1500-800 B.C., Greenstone, H.: 15 cm. Private collection
The Olmec World exhibition commences with several near life-size hollow ceramic babies. Olmec is the only ancient civilization which celebrates, in a monumental and masterful way, the human baby.

Kneeling Figure

6. Kneeling Figure with Jaguar Helmet Chiapas, 900-500 B.C., Serpentine, H.: 12.5 cm. Private collection
Were these the progenitors--the sacred first ancestors--were these the young future rulers, or are these a reflection of infant sacrifice? These figures are masterpieces of ceramic technology, probably constructed by the simplest means--coil and slab, cooked in an open fire and finally finished with a highly burnished kaolin slip. Some have symbols incised or cut into them which may indicate clan or family. They are a powerful introduction to the world of Olmec perception and thought.

Olmec art is created to give power to the shaman and the shaman/ruler. It is crafted as sacred work and the time and energy expended by the artist added to its power. The pieces are made of natural elements, such as clay or stone, which were transformed by the artist in a manner similar to the transformation of the shaman into a different being. Ceramics, for example, were fashioned of clay, which was coaxed into meaningful forms which would become the property and the containers of sacred substances of the important shamans. Then it was subject to fire and metamorposed into vessels infused with sacred power and life--vessels used to aid special persons to attain the power to cross into other realms.

Supernatural riding a Jaguar

7. Supernatural Riding a Jaguar Río Pesquero, Veracruz 900-600 B.C. Jadeite, H.: 8.9 cm. Private collection
Themes of the catalogue include essays on the archaeology, symbolism in art, shamanism, rulership and the meaning and uses of the objects shown. The themes are amplified by the objects selected, which include many aspects of Olmec art and belief. The authors posit that the Olmecs believed that the human body, itself, and especially that of the ruler, divided itself inot and represented the three cosmic levels: the celestial or heavenly, the terrestrial, the earth's surface and the watery underworld, reachable through caves and sacred accesses. The head represented the celestial realm and hence the colossal heads found in Veracruz and Tabasco were probably ancestral portraits depicting the seat of the mind and the most exalted part of th emost important rulers. The bodies, standing, sitting or kneeling, represent our environment in different aspects. And the lower parts, like the limbs and feet, as the roots of a tree, penetrate inot the underworld and contact its forces.

The shaman and the shaman/ruler depended upon journeys into other realms above and below to contact ancestors and forces and to achieve power. The ruler was considered the axis mundi --the world tree. He was a conduit from natural to supernatural--the watery underworld, the terrestrial and the celestial. The ruler or the shaman could do this through ritual transformation into his nagual, his animal spirit companion. Shown are depictions of this transformation in various stages. There are splendid examples of these naguals--animals, birds and fish--fashioned as containers in early Olmec art (1200-900 B.C.). For the later period (900-500 B.C.) we find a jade canoe.

Maskette, Tabasco

8. Maskette, Tabasco, 900-600 B.C. Greenstone, H.: 8.5 cm. Private collection

Mask, Veracruz

9. Mask, Veracruz, 900-600 B.C. Jade, H.: 15.5 cm. Private collection
Many figurines represent supernaturals--composit beings which in later civilizations might be interpreted as gods. These are shown and their iconographies and probable functions posited. These are depicted on symbolic and ceremonial axes, celts, bloodletters and pottery. the celt also stood for the axis mundi. Many pieces reflect, or were part of ruler's regailia. All were fashioned to further his control of power. The ballgame was a part of the Olmec world. The ballcourt was a portal into the underworld and there are depictions of ballplayers from the earliest times. Masks were an aspect of transformation and the exhibition presents an extraordinary selection of superb masks--mostly worked in jade, some over lifesize.

One of the most striking and important works in the exhibition is a tall serpentine figure of a youth wearing a harpy eagle mask. He clutches two symbolic scepters against his body. His arms and legs are incised with markings which refer to aspects of his power and rulership. He is the world tree--the axis mundi. The sculpture gives us insights into the beliefs ot the late Olmec: it is a sort of a Rosetta stone for Olmec iconography. The "young lord" has a gallery all to himself, the designs on his body have been enlarged on the surrounding walls and interpreted so that one can read the sculpture. This is the first time that this great and important work has been displayed publicly.

Vessel, Santa Cruz, Morelos

10. Vessel in the Form of a Kneeling Skeletonized Woman Santa Cruz, Morelos 1200-900 B.C. Slipped terracotta H.: 21.6 cm. Raymond and Laura Wielgus Collection

Two Standing Figures

11. Two Standing Figures Las Bocas, Puebla 1200-900 B.C. Slipped terracotta with traces of red and black pigment, H.: 5.1 cm. Private collection

The Olmec world has remained out of reach to the general public until now. The Olmec World: Ritual and Rulership is the first major exhibition of Olmec art and the first important catalogue to concentrate on this seminal civilization. Olmec art, like that of Shang China, the Indus Valley civilizations, Mesopotamia, Early Dynastic Egypt, Minoan civilization and that of Chavin, established rulership, religion and iconography. Because of its primacy and its power it forged a dynamic art which must now be placed among the highest creative and artistic peaks of the ancient world.

The Olmec World: Ritual and Rulership was exhibited at The Art Museum, Princeton University from December 16-February 25, 1996, and at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston from April 14-June 9, 1996.

Photos: Justin Kerr: 1, 5, 8, 9; John Bigelow Taylor: 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 11; Michael Cavanagh and Kevin Montague: 10.