The facial expressions of the statues are incredibly graceful and lifelike.
In 1938, the head of the American Bureau of Ethnology, Matthew Stirling, was ᴀssigned to research several archaeological sites. Among them was Tres Zapota, a site that was considered to contain many traces of prehistoric people.
The search was also ᴀssisted by William Duncan Strong, head of the Anthropology Department at Columbia University, and Clarence Wolsey Weiant, a graduate student who was doing his doctoral thesis on this mysterious land.
Unexpected discovery from the advice of local people
During the 4 months of exploring human history, the team of archaeologists encountered countless difficulties. Such as swampy terrain, constant rain, and “annoying” spiders, snakes, and insects.
However, they still achieved some results, including the oldest stone slabs of Mesoamerican civilization, a religious statue, and 15 U-shaped sculptures.
By chance, one day, Clarence heard a story told by a local, according to an expedition a few years earlier, about a mysterious site in the jungle. He led the expedition to the indicated location. They dug a deep trench and discovered a giant human head statue 1.8m high. The giant human head statue was lying face up to the sky, looking like a Buddha statue. Surprisingly, the lines on the statue’s face were very clear, graceful and delicate.
So the big questions are: Who made this giant statue and how old is it? What historical figure does it represent?
They then found 16 more giant heads at 4 locations: Tres Zapota (2 heads), Rancho la Cobata (1 head), La Venta (4 heads) and San Lorenzo (10 heads).
After a period of research, archaeologists determined that these statues were created by the Olmec people and named them Cabeza Colosal heads.
The Olmec are known as the first Mesoamerican civilization that existed between 1,400 and 300 BC. They lived mainly on the lowland coast of the Gulf of Mexico, now the states of Veracruz and Tabasco of this country.
The Olmecs developed a trade network from the Valley of Mexico in the north to Central America in the south. This network allowed them to share innovations such as writing, human sacrifice, calendars, Mesoamerican ball games and a writing system of horizontal bars and dots with the later Mayan and Aztec civilizations.
A miracle from thousands of years ago
Experts have put forward two main hypotheses about the figures carved on the stone heads:
– The first hypothesis (the most popular): The Olmecs carved statues of their great military generals.
– The second hypothesis: Based on the hats on the heads of the statues, it is believed that these could be statues depicting the heads of executed soccer players of that time. It is known that in Mesoamerican times, after a soccer match, the loser would be beheaded.
Based on the images of the found statues, scientists found common characteristics: All are male, from young to middle-aged, with large, fat faces, flat and wide noses, thick lips, and fan-like lines above the eyes.
Each statue wears a type of helmet-like hat that fits well, tied under the chin, some statues have normal or ʙuттoned ears, a sign of their status as elite people in ancient Central America.
From the front, the statues’ heads often appear spherical, but in fact the statues are carved flat from front to back, with many parts of the back unpolished. None of the statues appear to have been painted.
