El Azuzul

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 Museo de Antropologia, Xalapa, 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", [Pool, p. 118.] 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 from the Popul Vuh, ["The physical arrangement and characteristics of human figures and felines bear uncanny symbolic resemblances to later period myths from the Maya and Central Mexican cultures about twins and jaguars." Cyphers (1999), p. 174] although their headdresses have led others to describe them as priests. [Solis: ". . . una pareja de sacerdotes"."] The twin's headdresses have been mutilated, probably to erase identifying insignia. [Cyphers (1999), p. 19.]

Each twin, like the figure in San Martín Pajapan Monument 1, 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" or Mesoamerican world tree. [Pool, p. 143. Cyphers refers to a sense of "imminent movement", p. 19.]

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. [Pool, p. 121; Cyphers (1999).]

tructures

In addition to the large pyramid/hill, a long causeway or dike was constructed along the waterway, possibly functioning as a levee and/or wharf. [Pool, p. 102] El Azuzul also contains other possible structures, now completely overgrown.

Notes

References

*aut|Cyphers, Ann, and Botas, Fernando, "An Olmec Feline Sculpture from El Azuzul, Southern Veracruz", "Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society", Philadelphia, 1994, 138 (2): pp. 273–283.
*aut|Cyphers, Ann, "From Stone to Symbols: Olmec Art in Social Context at San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán", in "Social Patterns in Pre-Classic Mesoamerica", Dumbarton Oaks, 1999, pp. 155-181.
*cite book |author=aut|Pool, Christopher A. |year=2007 |title=Olmec Archaeology and Early Mesoamerica|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-78882-3
*aut|Solis, Felipe, [http://mexicodesconocido.com.mx/espanol/historia/prehispanica/detalle.cfm?idcat=1&idsec=1&idsub=5&idpag=3806 "Las culturas del Golfo"] , "en Español".

External links

* [http://www.delange.org/ElAzazul/ElAzazul.htm The Delanges visit El Azuzul, with lots of photos]
* [http://www.flickr.com/photos/yaxchibonam/162196971/ Oblique view of a twin on display at the Museo de Antropologia]