Giant stone Olmec heads

The giant stone heads of the Olmecs are at least seventeen monumental stone sculptures in the form of human heads made of large basalt boulders. The age of the statues dates from at least 900 BC. e., and they themselves are considered a distinctive attribute of the ancient Mesoamerican civilization of the Olmecs. All sculptures depict the heads of mature men with fleshy cheeks, flat noses and a slight squint; their physical characteristics correspond to the type of appearance, which until now is widespread among the inhabitants of Tabasco and Veracruz. The backs of the monuments are often flat. Boulders were brought from the Veracruz Sierra de los Tuxtlas mountains. Considering that the stone slabs used in their creation were very large, but they were moved over long distances, which required considerable human effort and resources, it was suggested that the monuments are sculptural portraits of individual prominent Olmec rulers. Each of the famous head sculptures has a characteristic headpiece. The heads in large urban Olmec civilization centers are located differently: in line or in groups, but the methods and means used to transport the stone to these places remain unclear.

The discovery of giant stone heads at Tres Zapotes in the 19th century gave impetus to the first archaeological research of Olmec culture by Matthew Stirling in 1938. To date, seventeen confirmed samples are known in four centers of the “Olmec country” on the Gulf of Mexico coast in Mexico. Most of the giant heads were made of spherical boulders, but two of San Lorenzo-Tenochtitlan were again carved from massive stone thrones. In addition, there is a monument in Takalik Abah in Guatemala, which is a throne that may have been carved from a giant head. This is the only known example of them outside the territory of the “Olmec country”.

Determining the age of the monuments is still difficult, since many of them were moved from their original locations before the start of archaeological research. Most of the goals were dated to the early preclassical period (1500-1000 BC), some to the middle preclassical period (1000-400 BC). The smallest of the heads weighs 6 tons, while the largest, according to various estimates, is from 40 to 50 tons, although it was abandoned by its creators and remained unfinished directly at the quarry used to create it.