El Azuzul is an

Olmec The Olmecs () were the earliest known major Mesoamerican civilization. Following a progressive development in Soconusco, they occupied the tropical lowlands of the modern-day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco. It has been speculated that t ...

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

Veracruz Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, a few kilometers south of the

San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán or San Lorenzo is the collective name for three related archaeological sites—San Lorenzo, Tenochtitlán and Potrero Nuevo—located in the southeast portion of the Mexican state of Veracruz. Along with La Venta and Tre ...

complex and generally considered contemporary with it (perhaps 1100 to 800

BCE Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...

). Named for the ranch on which it is located, El Azuzul is part of the

Loma del Zapote Loma may refer to: Geography United States * Loma, Colorado * Loma, Montana * Loma, Nebraska * Loma, North Dakota Other countries * Loma, Ladakh, a town in Ladakh, India * Loma (woreda), a district in Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peopl ...

complex. The site occupies the higher elevations north of the confluence of two ancient river courses, a part of the

Coatzacoalcos River The Coatzacoalcos is a large river that feeds mainly the south part of the state of Veracruz; it originates in the Sierra de Niltepec and crosses the state of Oaxaca in the region of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, flowing for toward the Gulf of M ...

system. It is upstream of the monumental earthworks at Potrero Nuevo, which is part of the San Lorenzo complex.

Monumental art

El Azuzul is best known for two pairs of monumental sculptures, now on exhibit at the Museo de Antropologia,

Xalapa Xalapa or Jalapa (, ), officially Xalapa-Enríquez (), is the capital city of the Mexican state of Veracruz and the name of the surrounding municipality. In the 2005 census the city reported a population of 387,879 and the municipality of which ...

, Mexico. These statues were found on the south side of the large pyramid/hill on the site, intact and apparently undisturbed since they were placed there in Pre-Classic times. The first pair of statues, described as "some of the greatest masterpieces of Olmec art", are nearly identical seated human figures. When discovered the two statues were facing east, one behind the other (see bottom photo). Some researchers have suggested that these "twins" are forerunners of the

Maya Hero Twins The Maya Hero Twins are the central figures of a narrative included within the colonial Kʼicheʼ document called Popol Vuh, and constituting the oldest Maya myth to have been preserved in its entirety. Called Hunahpu and Xbalanque in the Kʼic ...

from the

Popul Vuh ''Popol Vuh'' (also ''Popol Wuj'' or ''Popul Vuh'' or ''Pop Vuj'') is a text recounting the mythology and history of the Kʼicheʼ people, one of the Maya peoples, who inhabit Guatemala and the Mexican states of Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan and ...

, although their headdresses have led others to describe them as priests. The twin's headdresses have been mutilated, probably to erase identifying insignia. Each twin, like the figure in

San Martín Pajapan Monument 1 San Martín Pajapan Monument 1 is a large Olmec basalt sculpture found on top of the San Martin Pajapan volcano, in the Tuxtla Mountains of the Mexican state of Veracruz. It is notable for its original location and its Olmec iconography. Descrip ...

, is grasping a ceremonial bar with his right hand under the bar and his left over, caught in the act of raising what has been described as an ''

axis mundi In astronomy, axis mundi is the Latin term for the axis of Earth between the celestial poles. In a geocentric coordinate system, this is the axis of rotation of the celestial sphere. Consequently, in ancient Greco-Roman astronomy, the '' ...

'' or

Mesoamerican world tree World trees are a prevalent motif occurring in the mythical cosmologies, creation accounts, and iconographies of the pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica. In the Mesoamerican context, world trees embodied the four cardinal directions, which al ...

. Facing these two humans was a feline-like statue, generally identified as a jaguar. Slightly larger than the humans it faced, the feline is roughly 1.2 meters high. A 1.6 meter version of this feline was found a few meters away, to the northeast. The jaguars show evidence of having been recarved from earlier monuments. The humans are similar to other Olmec sculpture, in particular San Martin Pajapan Monument 1, where a young lord also attempts to lift a ceremonial bar. Despite its "tantalizing hints of lost mythic cycle", it is not known with any clarity what this four statue tableau illustrates.

Structures

In addition to the large pyramid/hill, a long causeway or dike was constructed along the waterway, possibly functioning as a

levee A levee (), dike (American English), dyke (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), embankment, floodbank, or stop bank is a structure that is usually soil, earthen and that often runs parallel (geometry), parallel to ...

and/or wharf.Pool, p. 102 El Azuzul also contains other possible structures, now completely overgrown.

Notes

References

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External links

The Delanges visit El Azuzul, with many photosOblique view of a twin on display at the Museo de Antropologia
{{Coord, 17.7122, N, 94.7492, W, source:wikidata, display=title Olmec sites