The Epi-Olmec Period

The Epi-Olmec period marks the shift of central power from the declining Olmec societies to emerging political centers, notably in central Mexico, southern Mexico, and the Maya region. Even as the Olmec civilization was waning, the culture of Mesoamerica's "Mother civilization" profoundly influenced artistic, political, religious, and other aspects of later societies. One of these major Olmec contributions was the development of a writing system, a unique invention in the pre-Columbian New World, that the Maya and other societies would adopt and transform toward their own languages. This small sculpture from the Tuxtlas mountain region of southern Veracruz features a human wearing the mask of a boat-billed heron, according to John Justeson and Terrence Kaufman. Its numerical date has been correlated to 162 AD, and one interpretation of its script indicates that a ruler, probably the masked figure here, assumed power from his animal double. Details of the script are visible on both the front and side views.

National Museum of Anthropology and History

While there is little doubt that the Epi-Olmec script represents a full language, controversy persists over which one. Based on the local languages of south Veracruz, the historical linguistic approach pioneered by Justeson and Kaufman argues that the Olmecs spoke a language ancestral to the Mixe and Zoquean languages, whose reconstruction forms the basis for the syllables in the Epi-Olmec script. On the other hand, critics led by Michael Coe and Stephen Houston have pointed that there are too few surviving texts, eight at most, from which to analyze the glyphs. I leave it an open question, but here you can see what the issue is about. The La Mojarra stele is from southern Veracruz. The enlargement at left shows details from the script, which has little resemblance to Classical Mayan glyphs.

Xalapa Museum of Anthropology

Izapa is essential to any discussion of the development of early Maya civilization. This site near the Pacific coast of Chiapas, Mexico, shows clear stylistic borrowings from Olmec predecessors, such as in the low-relief portraits of bedecked human figures. The site itself did not last long, from approximately 200 BC to 100 AD, but its many examples of monolithic art are replete with symbolic and mythical elements. Take Stele 1 here, for example. The detail at left features a costumed man (or god?) standing beneath a celestial band and within a stream, represented by a double-headed serpent. He holds a net out to catch fish. At right, the stele stands behind a toad-shaped altar.

National Museum of Anthropology and History

In this stele the sky is depicted above with outward-curling fangs. The principal figure, in the foreground, has decapitated a victim, probably a human sacrifice. The standing figure is holding the blade in his extended hand, and he holds the severed head in the other. In the background two men are carrying a litter with what appears to be a man inside. Atop the litter is a jaguar, either emblematic or slain, but in either case associated with political power.

National Museum of Anthropology and History

That's right, Stele 50! That should hint at how much art has been discovered at Izapa. There have been different readings of this stele, but the most immediate attention goes to the seated skeletal woman. Is this a skeletal Earth Goddess, like Itzpapalotl of the later Aztecs? There is some weight to this idea. The hipbones are shaped like a four-lobed cave, strengthening the connection between the cavern and the womb as sources of life. The small figure could be either a winged human or a newly born infant, clutching to its umbilical cord.

National Museum of Anthropology and History

And now for some color. Both of these Izapa figures have faces with mouths agape. The greenstone necklace bears a small pendant with a slender human face. Izapa is an important site for the early history of Maya art for not only its sculpture symbolism but also its pottery, which was part of an explosion of new styles coming from the Chiapas coast at the turn of the Classic period. The vase's mouth seems extended, like the mask of the Wind God Ehecatl, and the ears hold spools, typical of nobility.

National Museum of Anthropology and History

This monolithic sculpture is from Izapa. If it is depicting a man in his metamorphosis into a jaguar, then it is one of the earliest examples in Mesoamerican stone sculpture. The upper body is clearly feline, but the lower body is human, especially at the feet. Shape-shifting was an ability that the ancient Mesoamericans, from the Formative to the Postclassic, related to certain gods, priests, and rulers. Contemporary Mesoamerican beliefs in the nagual "spirit double" stem at least in part from this ancient and widespread belief.

Regional Museum of Querétaro