Olmec colossal heads carved at San Lorenzo
- Date
- c. 1200 BCE
- Category
- Culture, arts & philosophy
- Region
- Gulf Coast, Mexico (Veracruz)
- Era
- Ancient Civilizations
- Significance
From about 1200 BCE the Gulf Coast site of San Lorenzo became the first great centre of the Olmec, the earliest elaborate civilisation of Mesoamerica and a 'mother culture' whose art, religion and political forms influenced all later Mesoamerican peoples.
San Lorenzo's most celebrated monuments are its colossal stone heads, portraits up to about 2.8 metres tall and weighing many tonnes, carved from single basalt boulders quarried in the Tuxtla Mountains and transported tens of kilometres, partly by raft, without metal tools or wheeled vehicles. Each head wears a distinctive close-fitting helmet and bears individualised features, and they are generally interpreted as portraits of specific Olmec rulers, advertising dynastic power and the labour a ruler could command. Ten of the seventeen known colossal heads come from San Lorenzo; the site took on a fully Olmec character by about 1150 BCE before declining around 900 BCE, with several monuments deliberately defaced and buried. The heads testify to centralised political authority, long-distance organisation of labour and a monumental sculptural tradition unmatched in the contemporary Americas.
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Empires active in c. 1200 BCE
- New Kingdom of Egypt1550 BCE – 1077 BCE
- Shang Dynasty1600 BCE – 1046 BCE
- Hittite Empire1650 BCE – 1178 BCE
- Phoenician City-States1200 BCE – 539 BCE
- Elamite Kingdom2700 BCE – 539 BCE
Related culture, arts & philosophy events
- Oracle-Bone Script: Earliest Attested Chinese Writingc. 1250 BCE
- Merneptah Stele: earliest mention of 'Israel'c. 1208 BCE
- Tomb of Fu Hao: An Undisturbed Shang Royal Burialc. 1250 BCE
- Great Hypostyle Hall and temple-building at Karnakc. 1290–1213 BCE
- Compilation of the Zhouyi (Core of the I Ching)c. 9th century BCE
- Composition of the early Upanishadsc. 800–500 BCE
Further reading
The wider story
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