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Art of the Americas to World War I
Olmec mask (Olmec-style mask)
The Aztecs, based in Central Mexico, revered and collected artifacts from ancient cultures like the Olmecs and Teotihuacán. This small green Olmec mask, found in the Templo Mayor, shows their respect for history. It also highlights the vast trade networks throughout Mesoamerica.
Olmec mask (Olmec-style mask), c. 1200 - 400 B.C.E., jadeite, 4 x 3-3/8 x 1-1/4 inches found in offering 20 buried c. 1470 C.E. at the Aztec Templo Mayor (Museo del Templo Mayor, Mexico City)
Olmec mask (Olmec-style mask), c. 1200 - 400 B.C.E., jadeite, 4 x 3-3/8 x 1-1/4 inches found in offering 20 buried c. 1470 C.E. at the Aztec Templo Mayor (Museo del Templo Mayor, Mexico City)
Speakers: Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank and Dr. Steven Zucker
.Want to join the conversation?
- Do you think it's possible the Olmec's traversed to China?
I ask because, Jade was also popular in China. But what I find more interesting is- I was watching a documentary on ancient Egypt, and found it interesting they said traces of coca plant alkaloids were found in the stomachs of pharaohs.
My thought was maybe Olmec's and China met via travel by Pacific ocean, and exchanged cultures, alas the sharing of Jade, which isn't common in many other cultures that I know of (maybe India?). Further I wonder if Egypt had trade ties with China, after all, it's not so hard to imagine a trade route from Egypt to China, or India.
So, thoughts on whether the Olmecs by mere presence of Jade in both cultures ? were ever in contact ?
I also forgot - obsidian was used by Egyptians in medicine, in Ancient Greece it was illegal to 'cut' the body in medicine, so Cairo is where Greeks went, Plotinus makes reference to this. So here we have Obsidian in Egypt AND with Olmecs and presence of coca alkaloids. I'm thinking Olmec's brought coca.
I also forgot - the pyramids too- here you have this in Egypt and Olmecs as well. There just has to be a link or establish trade route on the Pacific - yes? no?(13 votes)- Yes Egypt had trade ties with China, there is evidence that they have had some of the oldest international trade ties in history. They traded by sea way before the Europeans ever made it to America because of Chinese and African boating technologies and long established trade routes. The Chinese had trade ties with not only the Egyptians but many other African tribes on the Eastern coast of Africa and modern day middle east.(10 votes)
- I'm wondering also of the Toltecs and, I think Zapotecs...Did they precede the Olmecs? I can't remember.(3 votes)
- No, the Olmecs were the "mother culture" of Mesoamerica. They preceded the Toltecs, Zapotecs, and all of the others.(3 votes)
- What was the mask made out of(2 votes)
- The Olmec Mask is made of jadeite.(2 votes)
- Who made the Olmec mask?(1 vote)
- Who honored this mask?(1 vote)
- Onwhat are the faces made of? 2:12(0 votes)
- The Olemec masks were made out of Jade. (Jadite)(3 votes)
- What is the Teotihuacan mask suppose to be.(1 vote)
- Did anyone else notice the 2 pieces of shiny stone/metal coming out of the top sides of the Olmec mask?(1 vote)
- In the description at the bottom of the video, it says what Olmecs were known as rubber people. Why are the Olmecs known as rubber people?(1 vote)
- Maybe they were known to harvest rubber and use it to waterproof things like pots and roofs?(1 vote)
- why did they have specific spots to bury stuff?(1 vote)
- Communities bury their stuff (whether chewed pig bones, fruit peels, old pottery or dead ancestors) in specific spots. The Olmec were just following a standard pattern.(1 vote)
Video transcript
(jazzy piano music) - [Voiceover] We're in the
museum of the Templo Mayor, the main Aztec temple in
what is now Mexico City, looking at a small, green, stone sculpture of a human face. And although this was found
buried as a kind of offering in the temple precinct, what
we're looking at is something from a far older culture,
older even than the Aztecs. - [Voiceover] This mask actually belonged to the Olmec culture, which
started thriving somewhere between 1500 and 1200 B.C.E. So, more than 1500
years before the Aztecs, the Olmecs were thriving along
the Gulf Coast of Mexico, not even Central Mexico, where the Aztecs are later building their capital city. - [Voiceover] So this
is distant both in terms of geography, but it's also
really distant in terms of time. For the Aztecs, looking back
to the Olmecs is something akin to us in the modern era looking
back to the ancient Romans. - [Voiceover] This mask is
not much bigger than the palm of my hand. It's a traditional Olmec
mask, and it's made in this beautiful green stone. It's polished. It's a great example of Olmec
features, like upturned lips, this almost-baby face, almond
eyes, the cleft in the head. And what's remarkable is
that the Aztecs were actually collecting these objects, and
then ritually burying them at certain points, and this
object would've been one of many buried in a specific offering. - [Voiceover] It shows us that
the Aztecs had a reverence for the ancient cultures
that came before them, that they were thinking historically. - [Voiceover] And that's true, not only that they were looking to the Olmec, the kind of "mother
culture" of Mesoamerica, but they were also looking to,
say, the city of Teotihuacán and its inhabitants, that
was flourishing hundreds and hundreds of years before the Aztec. - [Voiceover] That's the city famous because of its enormous pyramids. - [Voiceover] And it was
where the Aztecs thought the Fifth Era, or the Sun,
was born, and they called it "The City of the Gods." That's what "Teotihuacán" means. And as we look here around the galleries, we can see other masks
that were buried in some of these offerings. They were taken from the
city of Teotihuacán as well. - [Voiceover] So the Aztecs
were collecting objects from both Central Mexico, but
also from quite a distance. They were importing materials
from what is now the southwest of the United States. They were bringing objects
up from the Yucatán. The divisions that we think
of in the modern world did not exist in the same way. - [Voiceover] It's a
great example, not only of their archaeizing or
their looking to the past, but also these vast trade
networks throughout Mesoamerica. (jazzy piano music)