I have to say that I was really excited to see the Anthropological Museum in the state capital of Veracruz, the city of Xalapa. They did not disappoint and are quite impressive. The first colossal head was found in the mid-nineteenth century and because only the top was sticking up out of the ground, it was believed to be the base of a huge kettle. Since then, sixteen more were found so there are 17 in all (and some of them had been defaced, buried or mutilated in some way). 10 of the heads were found in San Lorenzo, four in La Venta (state of Tabasco), the largest one was found in Cobata and two were found in Tres Zapotes, another site in the state of Veracruz. The first picture is of colossal head #8 from San Lorenzo (state of Veracruz) and is the very first thing that one notices at the entrance of the museum. The second one is #5 from San Lorenzo (they're numbered by the sequence in which they were found) and the other one in front of which Paloma, her mom Eileen and I are standing is #1 from San Lorenzo (the very first one found!!). I believe that it's the second largest one of the 17 known colossal heads. Well, here are some of the highlights of my visit to this museum. I had a great three hours here and would love to go back.
This first figure (which has the big spool like objects in his ears) is the ancient god Huehueteotl, the god of fire. That, of course, is his name in Nahuatl, the language of the Tenochca Mexica (part of the "Aztecs"). But he is an ancient god and the Olmecas did have certain deities that SEEM to have been carried into other cultures and times within Mesoamerica. The second sculpture is the Potrero Nuevo Monument from the early Formative Period (Formative Period was from about 2000BCE to 250CE-some people use different time guidelines but this is a general timeline). These "altars" are now seen as thrones (David Grove was able to convincingly demonstrate their true function as thrones based on evidence from an Olmec cave painting at Oxtitlan in Guerrero). These two distinct Atlantean dwarves hoist up the throne towards the heavens; someone must maintain the heavens as being apart from the land of the earth but their images also bring to mind the fact that twins were are somewhat ubiquitous in the San Lorenzo region (the monument was found in Potrero Nuevo which is situated in Loma del Zapote which is located in the San Lorenzo hinterland). And of course, the last pictures are of a set of twins sitting in front of a jaguar personage. These twins were found in El Azuzul at Loma del Zapote, sitting just as they are displayed so scholars believe that this represents either an anthropomorphic transformation OR as can be seen up close, the twins are each holding a kind of stick or bar in their hands and the theory is that these twins are in the process of hoisting the world tree, the axis mundi that keeps this world balanced (the world tree can be found throughout Mesoamerican cultures and times and is a basic precept upon which the Mesoamericans viewed the creation of the world- five basic directions- East, West, North and South and of course, the axis mundi, the world tree being the fifth direction).
This is the La Mojarra Stela 1, from the site of La Mojarra which is located on the Acula River in the state of Veracruz. The site was actually pretty small (about 1 sq. km-or .4 sq miles) and the stela was found in the river shallows of the site. The text has not yet been deciphered (definitively) but there are two dates that do occur within the text: one is the 21st of May in 143CE and the other is the 13th of July in 156CE. It is speculated that perhaps the glyphs refer to this personage on the stela but we need to have better information and a larger body of recovered examples of the text in order to place it within its cultural context.
These last few images are of various sculptures, carvings and craneal modification. The cross-legged figure that is seated was decapitated and no head was ever found. There are a few more decapitated sculptures from the site of San Lorenzo. The face mask and statue found in the blue case picture perhaps depict real people and it has been speculated that they appear so happy because of their recent consumption of psychotropic drugs (found in different plants around Mesoamerica), hence they might be in a trance (or they could just be naturally happy). I wanted to also show what the inside of the museum looked like. It was a pretty big building and some of it was closed; one colossal head had even been wrapped up in covering so we didn't get to see that one. It was a memorable experience being there and I would love to go back but it also inspired me to try and see more museums around Mexico.
