San Martín Pajapan Monument 1 is a large

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 ...

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

sculpture found on top of the San Martin Pajapan volcano, in the

Tuxtla Mountains The Sierra de Los Tuxtlas (Tuxtlas Mountains) are a volcanic belt and mountain range along the southeastern Veracruz Gulf coast in Eastern Mexico. The Los Tuxtlas Biosphere Reserve (Biósfera Los Tuxtlas) includes the coastal and higher elevation ...

of the

Mexican state The states of Mexico are first-level administrative territorial entities of the country of Mexico, which is officially named Mexico, United Mexican States. There are 32 federal entities in Mexico (31 states and the capital, Mexico City, as a sepa ...

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 ...

. It is notable for its original location and its Olmec iconography.

Description

Likely carved during the Early Formative period, before 1000

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 ...

, the 1.4 m (5.5 ft) tall statue shows a crouching young lord. Caught in the act of raising a large ceremonial bar, his right hand is under one end and his left over the other end. This pose, nearly identical to that of the "twins" at

El Azuzul El Azuzul is an Olmec archaeological site in Veracruz, Mexico, a few kilometers south of the San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán complex and generally considered contemporary with it (perhaps 1100 to 800 BCE). Named for the ranch on which it is located, El ...

, is thought to represent a ruler or shaman (or both) shown in the ritual act of raising the

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 ...

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 '' ...

, an act that establishes the center of the world and connects the earthly plane with the worlds above and below. The plump face is proto-typically Olmec, with "no attempt to represent individuality". The young lord wears a huge boxy headdress, the front of which is covered with what is apparently a mask. The mask shows the cleft head, the almond eyes, and the downturned mouth characteristic of the

Olmec were-jaguar The were-jaguar was both an Olmec motif and a supernatural entity, perhaps a deity. The were-jaguar motif is characterized by almond-shaped eyes, a downturned open mouth, and a cleft head. It appears widely in the Olmec archaeological record, an ...

supernatural, implying that the human had become, or was acting under the authority and/or the protection of, the supernatural. Plumes flow backward along the sides of the headdress. From its top, vegetation – perhaps

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

– is sprouting. This were-jaguar mask is identified with the Olmec rain god, and the iconography and the location of the statue reflect the widespread

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. W ...

n belief in mountaintops as the dwelling of rain gods.

Archaeological discovery

The sculpture was first identified by surveyor Ismael Loya in 1897 and re-discovered by

Frans Blom Frans Blom (9 August 1893 – 23 June 1963) was a Danish explorer and archaeologist. He was most associated with his research of the Maya civilization of Mexico and Central America. Biography Frans Ferdinand Blom was born in Copenhagen, ...

and

Oliver La Farge Oliver Hazard Perry La Farge II (December 19, 1901 – August 2, 1963) was an American writer and anthropologist. In 1925 he explored early Olmec sites in Mexico, and later studied additional sites in Central America and the American Southw ...

in their expedition of 1925. Located on a platform or "level" in the saddle between the two highest peaks of volcano's crater rim, the statue was found surrounded by broken offering vessels, jade offerings, and numerous other objects, dating from ancient times to the 20th century, indicating it had been an object of veneration for millennia. These offerings and the statue itself served to identify the San Martin Pajapan mountaintop as a sacred landscape. Although well preserved, the face had been particularly ravaged, perhaps intentionally. The statue was further damaged in 1897, when Loya broke off part of the arms stealing it. The statue, except for the face, has since largely been restored. In 1929, Marshall Seville, from the Museum of the American Indian in New York, associated the statue with other unattributed artifacts in various collections, based on stylistic similarities and a common iconography. Since it was unlikely the statue had been moved far since its original site, Seville proposed that this "Olmec" artistic style (as he referred to it) originated in southern Veracruz.Coe, p. 42. The monument is on display at the

Museo de Antropología de Xalapa The Museo de Antropología de Xalapa ( en, Xalapa Museum of Anthropology) is an anthropological museum in the city of Xalapa, capital of the state of Veracruz in eastern Mexico. The building was designed by the architect Paul Balev at EDSA, 4 ...

Notes

References

* * * * * *

External links

Excerpts from Blom & LaFarge's ''Tribes and Temples''
a
Mesoweb
{{DEFAULTSORT:San Martin Pajapan Monument 1 Olmec art Mesoamerican artifacts