Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index

Olmec figurine

Olmec figurines of Mesoamerica describe archaeological finds of clay and ceramic figurines used for ritual purposes.

The first figurine was found in the archaeological site of Tlapacoya and was dated around 2300 BC. The discovery of figurines marked the beginning of Mesoamerican art. The Olmec civilization began to flourish at the same time. Tlapacoya and Tlatilco both in the Valley of Mexico, and Las Bocas in Puebla are sites where figurines were abundant. Usually figurines were found in grave sites, near monuments, at the foot of walls, in crop fields and under stairways. This signifies that the figurines were used to create ritual scenes because the construction of the positions of the figurines was also of the most common burial position or they could have served as a ritual to bring about prosperity. Figurines were also found in "massive offerings" starting at the second phase (1000-800 BC) in this period. It could be assumed that the Olmec people belonged to figurine cults.

Figurines were usually made in pottery workshops out of molds. The Teotihuacan Valley is a main site for the pottery workshops. Clay was often used to create figurines but you could still find figurines made from jade, terra cotta, serpentine, and volcanic stone. Most figurines at the time depicted women. There were primarily two types of figurines: one was a large hollow figure usually "baby faced" and painted red; the other was a small solid figure with detailed workmanship (these usually represented girls with roller stamp applied patterns of black, white and red colors). The figures were of many different genres, some depicted deities, others depicted dancers, women carrying dogs or children, ball players and many others. The figurines that were dropped in graves were always nude and had the Olmec features of slanting eyes and frowning mouths, but they also had special hair designed from clay strips that were added to the figurines.

The most odd discovery of figurines was the discovery of Offering No. 4 at La Venta. Here archaeologists found figurines buried in a hole beneath three layers of clay, which had been dug up previously and then covered again. There were sixteen male figurines positioned in a semi-circle in front of six jade celts, two of the figurines were made from jade, thirteen from serpentine, and one of a reddish volcanic stone (this one was positioned with its back to the columns). All of the figurines had classic Olmec features and also had bald deformed elongated heads, small holes for earrings, and their legs were slightly bent. Archaeologists think this particular formation resembles a “council” of some sort because the fifteen figurines seem to be listening to the one figurine and they all were undecorated (which would be unusual if the figurines were gods or deities).