Giant Olmec heads. Special sculpture of the Olmecs

Three millennia ago, the territory of modern Mexico was inhabited by the Olmecs, which means "rubber people" in the Aztec language. These inhabitants got their name because of their location, rubber was produced in their area. But do not confuse the Olmecs, who lived during the time of the Aztecs, and the ancient inhabitants of this coast. Gulf of Mexico. It is with these first Indian people that the concept of Olmec culture is now associated, and the main thing that comes to mind when they are mentioned is the giant stone heads of the Olmecs.

Ancestors of modern Americans?

The time of the civilization of the ancient Olmecs is estimated between the 2nd millennium BC and the beginning of our era. The Olmecs disappeared one and a half millennia before the Aztecs arrived here. It is sometimes believed that it was these Olmecs who became the progenitors of civilizations in Central America.

But in fact, we know little about what the Olmecs were like. Nowhere in Mexico and America are traces of their appearance and development found, it seems that this people arose here from the air. Their way of life, faith and religion are not known either. There is no data on their origin, language, distribution. Humid climate even destroyed all the skeletons of representatives of this civilization. The Olmecs are still shrouded in deep mystery.

But what is well known about these people is that they were excellent stone makers. Among their works are detailed carvings on jade, the manufacture of altars from huge monoliths, and, of course, the famous stone heads of the Olmecs. These heads, the size of which exceeds the height of a person, are now a huge mystery for researchers and give rise to reflection.

African sitters of stone heads

The heads are carved from basalt blocks. The largest head has total weight about 50 tons at a height of 3.4 meters. But what is most surprising is that the heads depict people of the Negroid race. These Africans are depicted in helmets, pierced earlobes, thick lips at the corners are bent down, their eyes are slightly cross-eyed. In general, it remains a mystery who the ancient Olmecs portrayed in their gigantic works of art.

There are big secrets in the manufacture of heads. Considering that this people did not have carts and experience in using animal traction, the question arises of the delivery of monoliths, which could take place a hundred kilometers. In their conditions, it remained only to roll the heads by hand, although perhaps we greatly underestimate this civilization. The question arises about the processing of basalt blocks. Among the people of the Stone Age, the hardest material was ... basalt. Or maybe everything is much simpler, and the heads were made in much late period? In general, scientists will have to puzzle over the secrets of this people for a long time.

The head was first discovered by Matthew Stirling in 1930. In his description, he noted the basalt origin, the presence of a foundation of stone blocks, a frightening appearance, careful processing and unique proportions. And, of course, he did not forget to mention the Negro origin of nature.

Racial Encounters in America

Other Olmec monolithic structures also contain depictions of humans. So on the Olmec stelae meetings are depicted different races, including Africans. On the Indian pyramid near the city of Oaxaca, steles again come across with scenes of the capture of whites and Africans by the Indians.

Of course, the presence of Africans in Central America raises many questions. Now there are hypotheses that during the migration that took place around 15,000 BC, a group of the Negroid race could indeed enter the territory modern America. Then it turns out that Africans have become one of the indigenous races of the New World, which again causes a lot of controversy in the scientific community.

There are assumptions relating to a more recent time. So the studies of Thor Heyerdahl and Tim Severin showed that the ocean was not a barrier between the Old and New Worlds, but was perhaps the medium of exchange and the first ancient travels long before Columbus.

And although the Olmecs disappeared without a trace, their culture continues to amaze and raise many questions today, especially with regard to African stone heads.

The highly cultured people - the Olmecs - created a peculiar and original sculpture, which became the basis for the development of the art of sculpture and architecture throughout the territory. Central America.

Heads of stone

However, the study of the Olmec civilization began with the discovery in 1869 by H.M. Melgar in the state of Velacruz of an amazing stone head of an “African”, completely unlike the previously discovered sculptures. In the future, archaeologists unearthed many more such heads that stood right on the ground.

Scientists have found that the stone heads were created about 3,500 years ago. These are the oldest monuments of world sculpture. Their dimensions are striking: the largest is 3.4 m high and 50 tons of weight. The faces of the statues are round in shape with thick lips, almond-shaped eyes, round cheeks, and a flat and wide nose. The forehead is usually high, covered with a helmet that is pulled over the eyes and covers the ears. If the front of the head is carved carefully, then the back of the head is either made carelessly or not processed at all. This suggests that the main thing for the masters was to portray the face. And the faces of the ancient Olmecs were embodied vividly and realistically, conveying the character and individual expressions physiognomy of a person.

The heads were not made in place. Having cut down in the Las Tustlas mountain range, they were transported 60-125 km to the place of permanent exposition. The Olmecs figured out how to move giant sculptures: they cut down a single piece of basalt in a quarry, put it on skids, delivered it to the river, and along it on rafts they rafted a stone block to its destination. And there the master gave the head unique features.

Stella

Other Olmec monuments were also created, among which steles stand out. They can be found throughout the territories inhabited by the ancient people. They decorated giant altars, the largest of which was 4 meters long, 1.5 meters wide and 1.8 meters high.

Near the base of one of the hills in Tres Zapotes, the largest, but badly destroyed stele was found. In the center of it is carved in full height figure of a man, 2 more smaller figures are carved on the right and left sides. One of the people is holding a severed human head. An unusual deity, depicted in the form of a mask, hangs over the heroes of the scene.

Huge stone sculptures in the form of heads, found in the territory of the former "country of the Olmecs" in Mexico, still raise many questions. Scientists cannot determine their exact age, the reliable reason for their construction, and some even see in them the features of the representatives of the Negroid race. However, many other secrets are connected with the civilization of the Olmecs, whose writing has not yet been deciphered.

In total, 17 sculptures were found in Mexico, weighing from 6 to 40 tons. All sculptures are in the form male heads from basalt rocks, and one of them was not even completed and did not leave the quarry, where it was discovered. The sculptures were found in the mountains in the Mexican state of Veracruz on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. All places are part of the so-called "Olmec country" - the territory on which the ancient civilization Olmec Indians.

According to research, the Olmec civilization is the oldest in Mesoamerica, and its heyday falls on 1500-400 BC. IN further civilization The Olmecs disappeared, leaving a legacy of pyramids, plumbing, writing, which still cannot be deciphered, and huge sculptures in the form of heads. It is assumed that the ancient Maya borrowed their calendar from the Olmecs, with whom they lived in the neighborhood. In the chronicles of the Aztecs, the Olmecs are also mentioned, which indicates the contacts of these cultures with each other.

The first basalt head in Mexico was discovered in the 60s years XIX century near the village of Tres Zapotes in the state of Veracruz, where two more black basalt sculptures were later found. The weight of these statues ranges from 5 to 40 tons. According to archaeologists, the sculptures perpetuate the memory of the ancient Olmec leaders, but how they ended up in the jungle a few tens of kilometers from the basalt deposit is not yet clear. Later, other sculptures were found in the same state, which were called "Olmec heads". The sculptures were supposedly made during the heyday of the Olmec civilization. All of them are made in the same style, they wear a semblance of helmets or caps on their heads, but at the same time each of them has individual person. Many scientists, not without reason, point to the obvious Negroid facial features of the sculptures, although the rest of the statues and sculptures of the Olmec civilization period have Mongoloid facial features characteristic of Mesoamerica.

The famous traveler and explorer Thor Heyerdahl pointed to the possibility of contacts between the civilizations of the Mediterranean and the peoples of the New World. It is these contacts, in his opinion, that can explain some similarities in the Egyptian and American civilizations, as well as the fact that the Olmec civilization arose in a short period, as if borrowing its knowledge from a more advanced civilization. It is likely that the mysterious heads are also a reflection of this contact and depict not Olmec leaders, but navigators from Africa, who have visited the jungles of the Gulf of Mexico more than once.

Be that as it may, the Olmec civilization disappeared as suddenly as it appeared on the American continent, and scientists are still trying to unravel their secrets.

All these heads are carved from solid blocks of basalt. The smallest have a height of 1.5 m, the largest - about 3.5 m. Most of the Olmec heads are about 2 m. Accordingly, the weight of these huge sculptures ranges from 10 to 35 tons!

When looking at the heads, many questions immediately arise, to which the omniscient science wants to get a clear answer. The facial features of each of the 17 giant heads are not individual and they all have one common feature- characteristic negroid signs. Where did the Negroes come from in pre-Columbian America, if, according to official science, there could not have been any contacts between Africa and America before Columbus? And the Olmecs themselves did not look at all like blacks, which follows from other numerous figurines and figurines. And only these 17 heads are endowed with Negroid features.

With what tools in the absence of metal (again, according to official version) with such precision and detail was processed basalt, one of the most durable stones from which the heads are made? Is it another stone?

How were multi-ton blocks, some up to 35 tons in weight, delivered to the processing site 90 km from their place of extraction through the jungle over rough terrain? Despite the fact that (according to the same version) the Olmecs did not know the wheels (by the way, it has already been proven that they knew).

Why make them so big? After all, the Olmecs have many other sculptures, including heads, of quite normal size and completely American (Indian) appearance. And only these 17 black faces are an exception. Why are they so honored? Or is it life size?

Now let's try to answer these questions...

Photo 2.

The Olmec civilization is considered the first, "mother" civilization of Mexico. Like all other first civilizations, it arises immediately and in a “ready form”: with developed hieroglyphic writing, an accurate calendar, canonized art, and developed architecture. According to the ideas of modern researchers, the Olmec civilization arose around the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. and lasted for about a thousand years. The main centers of this culture were located in the coastal zone of the Gulf of Mexico in the territory of the modern states of Tobasco and Veracruz. But cultural influence Olmecs can be traced throughout Central Mexico. Until now, nothing is known about the people who created this first Mexican civilization. The name "Olmec", meaning "rubber people" is given by modern scientists. But where did this people come from, what language did they speak, where did they disappear after centuries - all these main questions remain unanswered after more than half a century of research into the Olmec culture.

Olmec is the oldest and most mysterious civilization Mexico. These peoples settled along the entire coast of the Gulf of Mexico, around the third millennium BC.
Coatsecoalcos was main river Olmecs. Its name means " Sanctuary of the Serpent».

According to the legends, it was in this river that the farewell to the ancient deity Quetzalcoatl took place. Quetzalcoatl or the Great Cuculan, as the Mayans called him, was a feathered serpent and mysterious person. This serpent had a powerful physique, noble features, and, in general, a completely human appearance.
I wonder where he came from among the redskins and beardless Olmecs? According to legend, he came and went on the water. It was he who taught the Olmecs all the crafts, moral principles and counting time. Quetzalcoatl condemned sacrifice and was against violence.

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by the most major monuments The Olmecs are considered to be San Lorenzo, La Venta and Tres Zapotes. These were real urban centers, the first in Mexico. They included large ceremonial complexes with earthen pyramids, an extensive system of irrigation canals, city blocks and numerous necropolises.

The Olmecs achieved real perfection in the processing of stone, including very hard rocks. Olmec jade products are considered to be masterpieces of ancient American art. monumental sculpture The Olmecs included multi-ton altars made of granite and basalt, carved steles, sculptures in human growth. But one of the most remarkable and mysterious features of this civilization are the huge stone heads.

The first such head was found back in 1862 in La Venta. To date, 17 such giant human heads have been found, ten of them come from San Loresno, four from La Venta, the rest from two more monuments of the Olmec culture. All these heads are carved from solid blocks of basalt. The smallest are 1.5 m high, the largest head found at the Rancho la Cobata monument reaches 3.4 m in height. The average height of most Olmec heads is about 2 m. Accordingly, the weight of these huge sculptures ranges from 10 to 35 tons!

Photo 6.

All heads are made in a single stylistic manner, but it is obvious that each of them is a portrait of a particular person. Each head is surmounted by a headpiece, most reminiscent of an American football player's helmet. But all hats are individual, there is not a single repetition. All heads have elaborate ears, decorated with large earrings or ear inserts. Piercing of the earlobes was a typical tradition for all the ancient cultures of Mexico. One of the heads, the largest one from Rancho la Cobata, depicts a man with eyes closed, all the other sixteen heads have their eyes wide open. Those. each such sculpture was supposed to depict a specific person with a characteristic set of individual features. We can say that the Olmec heads are images of specific people. But despite the individuality of the features, all the giant heads of the Olmecs are united by one common and mysterious feature.

Photo 7.

The portraits of the people depicted on these sculptures have pronounced Negroid features: a wide flattened nose with large nostrils, plump lips and big eyes. Such features do not fit in with the main anthropological type ancient population Mexico. In Olmec art, whether it be sculpture, relief or small plastic, in most cases the typical Indian appearance characteristic of the American race is reflected. But not on giant heads. Such Negroid features were noted by the first researchers from the very beginning. This has led to the emergence of various hypotheses: from assumptions about the migration of people from Africa to claims that such racial type was characteristic of ancient inhabitants South-East Asia who were among the first settlers to America. However, this problem was rather quickly "released on the brakes" by representatives of official science. It was too inconvenient to think that there could have been any contacts between America and Africa at the very dawn of civilization. official theory did not mean them.

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And if so, then the Olmec heads are images of local rulers, after whose death such original memorial monuments were made. But the Olmec heads are really a unique phenomenon for ancient America. In the Olmec culture itself, there are still similar analogies, i.e. sculptural human heads. But unlike the 17 "Negro" heads, they depict portraits of people of a typical American race, are smaller and made in accordance with a completely different pictorial canon. In other cultures ancient mexico there is nothing like it. In addition, one can ask a simple question: if these are images of local rulers, then why are there so few of them, if we talk about the thousand-year history of the Olmec civilization?

And what about the problem of negroid traits? Whatever the ruling in historical science theories, besides them there are also facts. IN anthropological museum In the city of Xalapa (Veracruz), an Olmec vessel in the form of a seated elephant is kept.

It is considered proven that elephants in America disappeared with the end of the last glaciation, i.e. about 12 thousand years ago. But the elephant was known to the Olmecs, so much so that it was even depicted in figured ceramics. Either elephants still lived in the Olmec era, which contradicts paleozoological data, or Olmec masters were familiar with African elephants, which contradicts modern historical views. But the fact remains, you can, if not feel it with your hands, then see it with your own eyes in the museum. Unfortunately, academic science diligently bypasses such awkward "trifles". In addition, in the last century, in different parts of Mexico, and on monuments with traces of the influence of the Olmec civilization (Monte Alban, Tlatilco), burials were discovered, the skeletons in which anthropologists identified as belonging to the Negroid race.

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Giant Olmec heads ask researchers a lot of paradoxical questions. One of the heads from San Lorenzo has an inner tube connecting the sculpture's ear and mouth. How could such a complex internal channel be made in a monolithic basalt block 2.7 m high using primitive (not even metal) tools? Geologists who have studied the Olmec heads have determined that the basalt from which the heads at La Venta were made came from quarries in the Tuxtla Mountains, which, measured in a straight line, are 90 kilometers away. How did the ancient Indians, who did not even know the wheel, transported stone monolithic blocks weighing 10-20 tons over rough terrain. American archaeologists believe that the Olmecs could use reed rafts, which, along with the cargo, were floated down the river to the Gulf of Mexico, and already along the coast they delivered basalt blocks to their urban centers. But the distance from the Tuxtla quarries to the nearest river is about 40 km, and this is a dense swampy jungle.

Photo 14.

In some myths about the creation of the world, which have survived to this day from various Mexican peoples, the emergence of the first cities is associated with newcomers from the north. According to one version, they sailed in boats from the north and landed at the Panuko River, then went along the coast to Potonchan at the mouth of Jalisco (in this area is located ancient center Olmec La Venta). Here the aliens exterminated the local giants and founded the first of those mentioned in the legends. Cultural Center Tamoanchan.

According to another myth, seven tribes came from the north to the Mexican highlands. Two peoples already lived here - the Chichimecs and the Giants. Moreover, the giants inhabited the lands to the east of modern Mexico City - the regions of Puebla and Cholula. Both peoples led a barbaric way of life, obtained food by hunting and ate raw meat. Newcomers from the north expelled the Chichemecs, and exterminated the giants. Thus, according to the mythology of a number of Mexican peoples, the giants were the forerunners of those who created the first civilizations in these territories. But they could not resist the aliens, and were destroyed. By the way, a similar situation took place in the Middle East and it is described in sufficient detail in the Old Testament.

Photo 15.

Mentions of a race of ancient giants that preceded historical peoples, are found in many Mexican myths. So the Aztecs believed that the earth was inhabited by giants in the era of the First Sun. They called the ancient giants "kiname" or "kinametine". The Spanish chronicler Bernardo de Sahagun identified these ancient giants with the Toltecs and believed that it was they who erected the giant pyramids at Teotehuacan and Cholula.

Bernal Diaz, a member of the Cortes expedition, wrote in his book "The Conquest New Spain", that after the conquistadors entrenched themselves in the city of Tlaxcala (east of Mexico City, Puebla region), the local Indians told them that in very ancient times people settled in this area huge growth and strength. But since they had bad temper and bad customs, the Indians exterminated them. In support of their words, the inhabitants of Tlaxcala showed the Spaniards the bone of an ancient giant. Diaz writes that it was a femur and its length was equal to the height of Diaz himself. Those. the growth of these giants was more than three times the height of an ordinary person.

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In the book The Conquest of New Spain, he describes how the Indians told them that in ancient times people of enormous stature settled in these places, but the Indians did not agree with their characters and killed everyone. Quote from the book:
« They also reported that before their arrival the country was inhabited by giants, rude and wild, who then either died out or were destroyed. As proof, they showed the femur of such a giant. Indeed, it was the size of my full height, and I'm not small. And there were a fair number of such bones; we were amazed and horrified at such a breed of past times and decided to send samples to His Majesty in Spain».
Russian translation of the book: http://www.gramotey....140358220925600
the quote is taken from the chapter "Friendship with Tlaxcala".

There was no point in lying to the author, matters were discussed much more important than long-extinct and non-dangerous giants, and it was said and shown by the Indian in passing, as a matter of course. And yes, the book is about something else. And if a modern TV channel can still be suspected of falsifying facts in order to raise the rating, then a person who publicly promises to send “non-existent” giant human bones to the king 500 years ago can only be suspected of idiocy. Which, having read his book, is very difficult to do.
Traces of giants were found in this area and in the manuscripts of the Aztecs (Aztec codices), who later lived in the same places, in the form of drawings, and in many Mexican myths.

Drawing from an Aztec manuscript. Judging by how many people pull one big man, it is also very heavy. Maybe it's his head imprinted in stone?

Photo 17.

In addition, from different sources it can be seen that the ancient giants inhabited a certain territory, namely eastern part central Mexico up to the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. It is quite legitimate to assume that the giant heads of the Olmecs symbolized the victory over the race of giants and the winners erected these monuments in the centers of their cities in order to perpetuate the memory of the defeated predecessors. On the other hand, how can such an assumption be connected with the fact that all giant Olmec heads have personality traits faces?

Photo 18.

Maybe those researchers who believe that giant heads were portraits of rulers are right? But the study of paradoxical phenomena is always complicated by the fact that such historical phenomena seldom fit into a system of habitual logic. That's why they are paradoxical. Moreover, myths, like any historical source exposed to the influences dictated by the current political situation. Mexican myths were written down by Spanish chroniclers in the 16th century. Information about events that happened dozens of centuries before that time could be transformed several times. The image of the giants could be distorted to please the winners. Why not assume that the giants were rulers in the Olmec cities for some time? And why not also assume that this ancient people giants belonged to the Negroid race?

The ancient Ossetian epic "Tales of the Narts" is all imbued with the theme of the struggle of the Narts with the giants. They were called Waigi. But, what is most interesting, they were called black waigs. And although the epic never mentions the skin color of the Caucasian giants, the adjective "black", in relation to the waigs, is used in the epic as a qualitative, and not as a figurative concept. Of course, such a comparison of facts relating to ancient history so remote friend from a friend of nations, may seem too bold. But our knowledge of remote epochs is too scarce.

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It remains only to recall the great poet A.S. Pushkin, who used the rich heritage of Russian folklore in his work. In "Ruslan and Lyudmila" main character collides with the head of a giant, standing alone in an open field and defeats it. The same theme of victory over the ancient giants and the same image giant head. And such a coincidence cannot be a mere coincidence.

Graham Hancock in the book "Traces of the Gods" writes: "The most amazing thing was that Tres Zapotes was not a Mayan city at all. It was completely, exclusively, undeniably Olmec. This meant that it was the Olmecs, and not the Maya, who invented the calendar, that it was the Olmec culture, and not the Maya, that was the "progenitor" of the cultures of Central America ... Olmecs much older than Mayan. They were a skillful, civilized, technically advanced people, and it was they who invented the calendar with dots and dashes, in which the starting point is a mysterious date. August 13, 3114 BC

Most Olmec stone heads depict a person with Negroid features. But 2000 years ago there were no black Africans in the New World, the first of them appeared much later than the conquest, when the slave trade began. However, there is solid evidence from paleoanthropologists that, as part of one of the migrations to the territory of the American continent during the last ice age really got people of the Negroid race. This migration took place around 15 thousand years BC

At San Lorenzo, the Olmecs built an artificial mound more than 30 meters, as part of a huge structure 1200 meters long and 600 meters wide. Archaeologist Michael Coe during excavations in 1966, he made a number of finds, including over twenty artificial reservoirs connected by a very complex network of gutters lined with basalt. Part of this network was built into the watershed. When this place was excavated, the water again began to pour from there in a stream in heavy rains, as it had done for more than three thousand years. The main drainage line ran from east to west. Three were embedded in it. auxiliary lines, and the joints were made very competently from a technical point of view. After carefully examining the system, archaeologists were forced to admit that they could not understand the purpose of this complex system conduits and other hydraulic structures.

Olmecs still remain a mystery to archaeologists. It was not possible to find any traces of the evolution of the Olmecs, as if this people appeared from nowhere. Nothing is known about social organization, rituals and belief system of the Olmecs, what language they spoke, what ethnic group they belonged, not a single Olmec skeleton has been preserved.

The Maya inherited their calendar from the Olmecs, who used it a thousand years before the Maya. But where did the Olmecs get it from? What level of technical and scientific development civilization to develop such a calendar?

September 12th, 2015

When looking at the heads, many questions immediately arise, to which the omniscient science wants to get a clear answer. The facial features of each of the 17 giant heads are not individual and they all have one thing in common - characteristic negroid features. Where did the Negroes come from in pre-Columbian America, if, according to official science, there could not have been any contacts between Africa and America before Columbus? And the Olmecs themselves did not look like blacks at all, which follows from numerous other figurines and figurines. And only these 17 heads are endowed with Negroid features.

With the help of what tools, in the absence of metal (again, according to the official version), was basalt processed with such accuracy and detail, one of the most durable stones from which the heads are made? Is it another stone?

Now let's try to answer these questions...

Photo 2.

The Olmec civilization is considered the first, "mother" civilization of Mexico. Like all other first civilizations, it arises immediately and in a “ready form”: with developed hieroglyphic writing, an accurate calendar, canonized art, and developed architecture. According to the ideas of modern researchers, the Olmec civilization arose around the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. and lasted for about a thousand years. The main centers of this culture were located in the coastal zone of the Gulf of Mexico in the territory of the modern states of Tobasco and Veracruz. But the cultural influence of the Olmecs can be traced throughout Central Mexico. Until now, nothing is known about the people who created this first Mexican civilization. The name "Olmec", meaning "rubber people" is given by modern scientists. But where did this people come from, what language did they speak, where did they disappear after centuries - all these main questions remain unanswered after more than half a century of research into the Olmec culture.

The Olmecs are the oldest and most mysterious civilization in Mexico. These peoples settled along the entire coast of the Gulf of Mexico, around the third millennium BC.
Coatzecoalcos was the main river of the Olmecs. Its name means " Sanctuary of the Serpent».

According to the legends, it was in this river that the farewell to the ancient deity Quetzalcoatl took place. Quetzalcoatl or Great Kukulan, as the Maya people called him, was a feathered serpent and a mysterious person. This serpent had a powerful physique, noble features, and, in general, a completely human appearance.
I wonder where he came from among the redskins and beardless Olmecs? According to legend, he came and went on the water. It was he who taught the Olmecs all the crafts, moral foundations and timekeeping. Quetzalcoatl condemned sacrifice and was against violence.

Photo 3.

Photo 4.

The largest monuments of the Olmecs are San Lorenzo, La Venta and Tres Zapotes. These were real urban centers, the first in Mexico. They included large ceremonial complexes with earthen pyramids, an extensive system of irrigation canals, city blocks and numerous necropolises.

The Olmecs achieved real perfection in the processing of stone, including very hard rocks. Olmec jade products are considered to be masterpieces of ancient American art. The monumental sculpture of the Olmecs included multi-ton altars made of granite and basalt, carved stelae, and human-sized sculptures. But one of the most remarkable and mysterious features of this civilization are the huge stone heads.

Photo 6.

All heads are made in a single stylistic manner, but it is obvious that each of them is a portrait of a particular person. Each head is surmounted by a headpiece, most reminiscent of an American football player's helmet. But all hats are individual, there is not a single repetition. All heads have elaborate ears, decorated with large earrings or ear inserts. Piercing of the earlobes was a typical tradition for all the ancient cultures of Mexico. One of the heads, the largest one from Rancho la Cobata, depicts a man with his eyes closed, all the other sixteen heads have their eyes wide open. Those. each such sculpture was supposed to depict a specific person with a characteristic set of individual features. We can say that the Olmec heads are images of specific people. But despite the individuality of the features, all the giant heads of the Olmecs are united by one common and mysterious feature.

Photo 7.

The portraits of the people depicted on these sculptures have pronounced Negroid features: a wide flattened nose with large nostrils, plump lips and large eyes. Such features do not fit in with the main anthropological type of the ancient population of Mexico. In Olmec art, whether it be sculpture, relief or small plastic, in most cases the typical Indian appearance characteristic of the American race is reflected. But not on giant heads. Such Negroid features were noted by the first researchers from the very beginning. This led to the emergence of various hypotheses: from assumptions about the migration of immigrants from Africa to statements that such a racial type was characteristic of the most ancient inhabitants of Southeast Asia, who were part of the first settlers to America. However, this problem was rather quickly "released on the brakes" by representatives of official science. It was too inconvenient to think that there could have been any contacts between America and Africa at the very dawn of civilization. The official theory did not imply them.

Photo 8.

Photo 9.

And if so, then the Olmec heads are images of local rulers, after whose death such original memorial monuments were made. But Olmec heads are really a unique phenomenon for ancient America. In the Olmec culture itself, there are still similar analogies, i.e. sculpted human heads. But unlike the 17 "Negro" heads, they depict portraits of people of a typical American race, are smaller and made in accordance with a completely different pictorial canon. There is nothing similar in other cultures of ancient Mexico. In addition, one can ask a simple question: if these are images of local rulers, then why are there so few of them, if we talk about the thousand-year history of the Olmec civilization?

And what about the problem of negroid traits? Whatever the theories prevailing in historical science assert, there are also facts in addition to them. An Olmec vessel in the form of a seated elephant is kept in the Anthropological Museum of Xalapa (Veracruz).

Photo 11.

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Photo 14.

In some myths about the creation of the world, which have survived to this day from various Mexican peoples, the emergence of the first cities is associated with newcomers from the north. According to one version, they sailed in boats from the north and landed near the Panuco River, then went along the coast to Potonchan at the mouth of Jalisco (the ancient center of the Olmecs, La Venta, is located in this area). Here the aliens exterminated the local giants and founded the first cultural center of Tamoanchan mentioned in the legends.

Photo 15.

Mentions of a race of ancient giants that preceded historical peoples are found in many Mexican myths. So the Aztecs believed that the earth was inhabited by giants in the era of the First Sun. They called the ancient giants "kiname" or "kinametine". The Spanish chronicler Bernardo de Sahagun identified these ancient giants with the Toltecs and believed that it was they who erected the giant pyramids at Teotehuacan and Cholula.

Bernal Diaz, a member of the Cortes expedition, wrote in his book “The Conquest of New Spain” that after the conquistadors entrenched themselves in the city of Tlaxcala (east of Mexico City, Puebla region), the local Indians told them that in very ancient times people settled in this area great stature and strength. But because they had a bad temper and bad customs, the Indians exterminated them. In support of their words, the inhabitants of Tlaxcala showed the Spaniards the bone of an ancient giant. Diaz writes that it was a femur and its length was equal to the height of Diaz himself. Those. the growth of these giants was more than three times the height of an ordinary person.

Photo 16.

Drawing from an Aztec manuscript. Judging by how many people pull one big man, he is also very heavy. Maybe it's his head imprinted in stone?

Photo 17.

In addition, from various sources it is clear that the ancient giants inhabited a certain territory, namely the eastern part of central Mexico up to the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. It is quite legitimate to assume that the giant heads of the Olmecs symbolized the victory over the race of giants and the winners erected these monuments in the centers of their cities in order to perpetuate the memory of the defeated predecessors. On the other hand, how can such an assumption be reconciled with the fact that all giant Olmec heads have individual facial features?

Photo 18.

Maybe those researchers who believe that giant heads were portraits of rulers are right? But the study of paradoxical phenomena is always complicated by the fact that such historical phenomena rarely fit into the system of customary logic. That's why they are paradoxical. Moreover, myths, like any historical source, are subject to influences dictated by the current political situation. Mexican myths were written down by Spanish chroniclers in the 16th century. Information about events that happened dozens of centuries before that time could be transformed several times. The image of the giants could be distorted to please the winners. Why not assume that the giants were rulers in the Olmec cities for some time? And why not also assume that this ancient people of giants belonged to the Negroid race?

The ancient Ossetian epic "Tales of the Narts" is all imbued with the theme of the struggle of the Narts with the giants. They were called Waigi. But, what is most interesting, they were called black waigs. And although the epic never mentions the skin color of the Caucasian giants, the adjective "black", in relation to the waigs, is used in the epic as a qualitative, and not as a figurative concept. Of course, such a comparison of facts relating to the ancient history of peoples so remote from each other may seem too bold. But our knowledge of remote epochs is too scarce.

Photo 19.

It remains only to recall the great poet A.S. Pushkin, who used the rich heritage of Russian folklore in his work. In "Ruslan and Lyudmila" the protagonist collides with the head of a giant standing separately in an open field and defeats it. The same theme of victory over the ancient giants and the same image of a giant head. And such a coincidence cannot be a mere coincidence.

Most Olmec stone heads depict a person with Negroid features. But 2000 years ago there were no black Africans in the New World, the first of them appeared much later than the conquest, when the slave trade began. However, there is solid evidence from paleoanthropologists that as part of one of the migrations to the territory of the American continent during the last ice age, people of the Negroid race did indeed fall. This migration took place around 15 thousand years BC

At San Lorenzo, the Olmecs built an artificial mound more than 30 meters, as part of a huge structure 1200 meters long and 600 meters wide. Archaeologist Michael Coe during excavations in 1966, he made a number of finds, including over twenty artificial reservoirs connected by a very complex network of gutters lined with basalt. Part of this network was built into the watershed. When this place was excavated, the water again began to pour from there in a stream in heavy rains, as it had done for more than three thousand years. The main drainage line ran from east to west. Three auxiliary lines were cut into it, and the junctions were made very competently from a technical point of view. After carefully examining the system, archaeologists were forced to admit that they could not understand the purpose of this complex system of water conduits and other hydraulic structures.

Olmecs still remain a mystery to archaeologists. It was not possible to find any traces of the evolution of the Olmecs, as if this people appeared from nowhere. Nothing is known about the social organization, rituals and belief system of the Olmecs, what language they spoke, what ethnic group they belonged to, not a single Olmec skeleton has been preserved.

sources

http://lah.ru/text/zhukov/olmeki.htm

http://www.bpclub.ru/topic/43686-%D0%B7%D0%B0%D0%B3%D0%B0%D0%B4%D0%BA%D0%B8-%D0%B4%D1% 80%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%BD%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8/page-2

http://zhitanska.com/content/olmeki-potomki-atlantov

http://interest-planet.ru/blog/South_America/459.html

Let's continue the theme of giants: here we discussed well, and here's a plus as proof and. In general, you might be interested in knowing The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy is made -