These cultures, such as the Maya, Zapotec, Totonac, and Teotihuacán civilizations have unique art, architecture, and cultures that separate them from each other, but many historians trace all of these cultures back to their shared Olmec heritage. The Olmec Civilization was one of the most influential ancient civilizations of the early Americas, and though its dominance of the region faded in the last centuries before the Common Era, the Olmec civilization is commonly thought to be the “mother culture” of many other cultures that appeared in the region in later years. They also built earthen mounds and pyramids, and ceramics of several types that became common throughout a broad region influenced by the Olmec civilization. They may have been the originators of the Mesoamerican ball game, a ceremonial team sport played throughout the region for centuries. The Olmec created massive monuments, including colossal stone heads, thrones, stela (upright slabs), and statues. Maize and other crops were a later addition to their foodstuffs. The Olmec diet initially included foods from fishing and hunting. Research at these and other sites has led to the following insights. La Venta, east of San Lorenzo and closer to the Gulf Coast (15 kilometers/9 miles) in the modern Mexican state of Tabasco, reached its height in about 900–500 C.E. San Lorenzo, about 56 kilometers (35 miles) south of the Gulf of Mexico in the modern Mexican state of Veracruz, was at its height around 1150 to 900 C.E. Three basalt colossal stone heads were placed at the northern end of the city, and they. There are several Olmec sites thought to be important centers of activity, of which San Lorenzo and La Venta are the most significant. Late in its history, stone monuments were set up as boundary markers. Derived from the Nahuatl (Aztec) word “Olmecatl”, which means “inhabitant of the rubber country”, Olmec is a reference to the rubber production in the area where many of the artifacts have been found. They made carvings of all sizes, from tiny celts and figurines to massive stone heads. The name Olmec was actually invented by scholars. The Olmec were gifted artists who produced stone carvings, woodcarvings and cave paintings. In the case of the Olmec, archaeologists think artifacts found primarily on the northern half of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mesoamerica from 1200–500 C.E. What is known about archaeological cultures is based on artifacts, rather than texts. This means there is a collection of artifacts thought by archaeologists to represent a particular society. Exploring their heretofore understudied centrality to early practices of 'public' art, land art, and various other sculptural trajectories, the talk also examines their enduring and unsuspected imprint on artistic and museological practices revived very recently.The Olmec civilization is what is known as an archaeological culture. Still more interestingly, their expansive, mass-mediated reception also exerted considerable impact on a number of artistic trajectories in the U.S. Showcased in a number of now-forgotten blockbuster exhibitions in museums and World's Fairs pavilions in the early 1960s, the striking heads became a significant presence within official Mexican culture and proved central to diplomatic transactions on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. Heated debates about the dating, production, and ancient transportation of the heads raged for decades thereafter, parallel to racially-charged controversies surrounding the presumed and confusing 'African' traits that these heads evinced. Made sometime between 1500 and 400 BC by the first "urban" culture of the Americas, the striking naturalism of these large and extremely heavy carved heads of volcanic stone mystified scholars, artists, and popular audiences. archaeologist Matthew Stirling in 1939 catapulted the Olmecs and their striking monumental art to mainstream fame in both countries. This talk examines the reception of colossal Olmec heads in the United States and Mexico during the 1960s, their decade of greatest exposure.
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