Las Limas Monument 1

Infobox Artifact
name = Las Limas Monument 1


image_caption = At highest resolution, the shallow incisons on the shoulders, legs, and face can be clearly seen in this photo.
material = Greenstone
created = Middle Formative Period (1000 BCE – 600 BCE)
discovered = 1965 near Jesús Carranza, Veracruz, Mexico
location = Xalapa Museum of Anthropology, Veracruz

Las Limas Monument 1 is a greenstone figure of a youth holding a limp were-jaguar baby. Found in the Mexican state of Veracruz in the Olmec heartland, the statue is famous for its incised representations of Olmec supernaturals and is considered by some a "Rosetta stone" of Olmec religion. [Diehl, p. 101.] The largest known greenstone sculpture, [Miller, p. 31.] it is also known as the Las Limas figure and the Señor de las Limas.

Interpretation

Sculptures of headdressed figures holding inert were-jaguar babies appear often in the Olmec archaeological record, from .

What these sculptures symbolised to the Olmecs is not clear. Some researchers, focusing on the symbolic cave surrounding the figure on Altar 5 believe that these sculptures relate to myths of spiritual journeys or human origins. Others find that the limp depiction of the were-jaguar baby denotes child sacrifice. [Pool, p. 116.]

Incisions

The faces of four supernaturals are incised onto the shoulders and shins of Monument 1. Further tattoo-like incisions, but more abstract, cover the youth's face around the mouth and in bands alongside the face.

The four supernaturals show several common Olmec motifs, in particular the cleft head.

Las Limas Hypothesis

Monument 1's iconography has led noted Olmec scholar Michael D. Coe to develop the "Las Limas Hypothesis". Coe believes that the four supernaturals, along with the were-jaguar baby, are representatives of the Olmec pantheon. [Coe (1968).] Coe's student, Peter Joralemon, added three more deities to the five in his widely-cited 1971 paper on Olmec iconography. [Joralemon (1971).]

History

The statue is 55 cm (22 in) high, 42 cm (16 in) wide, and weighs an estimated 60 kg (132 lb). It was probably carved during the Middle Formative Period, some time between 1000 to 600 BCE). [Pool, p. 116.]

The statue was discovered in 1965 near Jesús Carranza, Veracruz, by two local children, Rosa and Severiano Paschal Manuel. Dug out and taken to their nearby home, it was declared the "La Virgen de las Limas" and set up on its own altar. Word of the find reached archaeologists in Xalapa. After promising to keep the statue on display — and to build a local school — the archaeologists moved the sculpture to the Xalapa Museum of Anthropology. [Diehl, p. 58.]

Five years later, in October 1970, the statue was stolen from the museum, only later to be found in a motel room in San Antonio, Texas, apparently too famous to be sold on the black market. [Navarro. See also "Journal of Field Archaeology", p. 217.]

It is presently on display at the Museo de Antropología de Xalapa, in Veracruz.

Footnotes

References

*aut|Coe, Michael D. (1968) "Discovering the Olmec", American Heritage.
*"The Antiquities Market", in "Journal of Field Archaeology", Vol. 1, No. 1/2 (1974), pp. 215-224.
*es aut|López Navarro, Raúl, " [http://swadesh.unam.mx/actualidades/Actualidades/10/texto10/limas.html El Señor de las Limas] ", Actualidades Arqueológicas, Número 10 Enero-Febrero 1997.
*cite book |author=aut|Miller, Mary Ellen |authorlink=Mary Miller |year=2001 |title=The Art of Mesoamerica |edition=3rd ed.|location=London |publisher=Thames & Hudson |isbn=0-500-20345-8
*aut|Pool, Christopher (2007) "Olmec Archaeology and Early Mesoamerica", Cambridge University Press, UK.
*aut|Reilly, F. Kent (1995) " [http://www.famsi.org/reports/94031/index.html Olmec-style Iconography] ", [http://www.famsi.org Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc.] , accessed March 2007.

Further reading

*aut|Joralemon, Peter David (1971) "A Study in Olmec Iconography", in "Studies in Pre-Columbian Art and Archaeology No. 7", Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.