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Society for American Archaeology

An Olmec Design on an Early Peruvian Vessel


Author(s): Michael D. Coe
Source: American Antiquity, Vol. 27, No. 4 (Apr., 1962), pp. 579-580
Published by: Society for American Archaeology
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/277685 .
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FACTS ANI) CO

(2RIIXENr. J. M. AND IRuINO;Ra sr o


1958-59 An Archeological Chronology of Venezuela, two o
volumes. Social Science Monographs. No. 6. Pan Amer-
ican Union, Washington.
MENGHIN, 0. F. A. v
1952 Fundamentos cronologicos de la prehistoria de Patagonia. H
Runa: Archivo para las Ciencias del Hombre. Vol. 5,
pp. 23-43. Buenos Aires. e
MOHLER, W. F. O
1956 El Milagro Formation. In "Lexico estratigrafico de Vene- t
zuela," pp. 251-2. Boletin Geologico, Publicaci6n especial, i
No. 1. Ministerio de Minas e Hidrocarburos, Caracas.
R
MoVaus,H. L., JR.
1943 The Stone Age of Burma. Transactions of the American 4
Philosophical Society, Vol. 32, Part 3, pp. 341-93. Phil- w
adelphia.
n
RouSE:, IRVING AND J. M. CRUJXENT I
MS An IntToduction to Venezuelan Archeology. In the Yale
Peabody Museum, New Haven. a
E.
SELLARDS, I. p
196C Some Early Stone Artifact Developments in North Amer-
ica. Southwestern lournal of Anthropology, Vol. 16, No. i
2, pp. 160-73. Albuqtierque.
t
INSTITUTO VENEZOLANO D1.
g
I NVESTIGACIONES CIENT1iFICAS v
Caracas, Venezuiela i
july, 1961 o
(
p
AN OLMEC DESIGN ON AN EARLY t
PERUJVIAN VESSEL

MIc}iAEL D. COE

ABSTRACT
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been considered possible that certain
580 AMERICANANTIQUITY [ VOL. 27, No. 4, 1962

impressions. Quite clearly, what is being represented here If the claim that the design on this Peruvian vessel
is an ear of maize within a partly opened husk. is of Olmec origin be admitted as valid, there is a conflict
To turn to the Olmec area, the very same motif is of with our previous statement that the Olmec and Chavin
common occurrence, particularly in the engravings which civilizations were coeval, for the Kotosh bottle is pre-
appear on finely polished jade celts (unfortunately often Chavin. This conflict may be more apparent than real,
of unknown provenience). The usual position is on the for the five charcoal samples which date the earliest
head of a were-jaguar (Fig. 2 d-f), where the intention building phase of Complex A at the great Olmec site of
to show a sprouting plant or ear of maize is quite evident. La Venta average 814 B.C., thus suggesting but not proving
A more abstract representation is shown on the celt that the Olmec span opens at around 800 B.C.; actually,
of Figure 2 b. the oldest radiocarbon date at La Venta is 1154 B.C. ? 300
In Olmec iconography, the U-element is obviously to (M-535) (Drucker, Heizer, and Squier 1959). There
be considered as identical with the well-known cleft is therefore the possibility that Olmec culture may begin
rather disconcertingly present in the head of the were, as early as the 12th century before Christ, or even earlier.
jaguar, whether in infantile or adult form (or more ab- If so, then the chances are very good that all New World
stractly rendered in the mosaic pavements of La Venta). civilizations, including Chavin, have a single point of
One of Covarrubias' many contributions to Mesoamer- origin on the Gulf Coast plain of southern Mexico.
ican research was his demonstration (1957: 60-3, Fig. Acknowledgments. I wish to thank T'oshihiko Sono and Naot-
22) that the familiar Rain God of the Classic and Post- sune Watanabe, both of the University of Tokyo, for their kind-
ness in furnishing information on the Kotosh excavations and for
classic civilizations (Tlaloc to the Nahua; Cocijo among providing the photograph reproduced in Figure 1. The report on
the Zapotec; and Chac to the Maya) was the direct des- the field work carried out at the site by the University of Tokyo
cendent of the Olmec were-jaguar, which thus was a rain will be published in 1962.

god itself. Taking this as a lead, one might suggest that


the cranial cleft of these snarling monstrosities may have COVARRUBIAS, MIGUEL
Central America. Knopf,
1957 Indian Art of Mexico and
been the mark of the sprouting maize, so intimately New York.
connected with the coming of the rains. Thus, the were- DRUCKER. PHILIP
jaguar may have been lord of the maize as well. 1952 La Venta, Tabasco: A Study of Olmec Ceramics and
Art. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 153. Wash-
It should also be noted that the U-element can stand ington.
by itself in the Olmec canon as a very prevalent icono-
PHILIP, R. F. HEIZER, AND R. J. SQUIER
graphic motif, perhaps as a "short-hand" form of the
DRUCKER,

1959 Excavations at La Venta, Tabasco, 1955. Bureau of Amer-


cranial cleft (Fig. 2 c). ican Ethnology, Bulletin 170. Washington.

ISHIDA, EIICHIRo, TAIJI YAZAWA, HISASHI SATO, IWAO KOBORI, MANUEL


CHAVEZ BALL6N AND OTHERS

1960 Andes: The Report of the University of Tokyo Scien-


tific Expedition to the Andes in 1958. Andean Institute,
University of Tokyo, Tokyo.

LOTHROP, S. K., W. F. FOSHAG, AND JOY MAHLER


C
1957 Pre-Columbian Art. Garden City Books, New York.
TELLO, J. C.
1953 Discovery of the Chavin Culture in Peru. American
Antiquity, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 135-60. Menasha.

YALE UNIVERSITY
b I
New Haven, Conn.
November, 1961

PROBLEMSOF URBAN ARCHAEOLOGY*


B. BRUCE POWELL

d e f ABSTRACT
A brief review of the rise of interest in historic sites
FiG.2 [COE]. Comparison of the design on the Kotosh preservation and of the use of archaeological techniques
bottle with Olmec motifs. a, grooved design on the Ko- in this field, is followed by a discussion of the recent
tosh bottle; b, engraved Olmec celt of diopside-jadeite of phenomenon of urban renewal as it applies to an increas-
unknown provenience (redrawn from Lothrop, Foshag, ing necessity for archaeological work in urban areas. Ex-
and Mahler 1957, P1. 10, bottom); c, U-element on hel- perience gained in the archaeological program at In-
met of Olmec colossal head, Monument I at La Venta; dependence National Historical Park, Philadelphia, pro-
d, engraved celt, Olmec, unknown provenience (redrawn vides the basis for a discussion of some of the specific
from Covarrubias 1957, Fig. 34, left); e, engraved Olmec problems encountered in urban sites: excavation costs,
celt from La Venta (after Drucker 1952, Fig. 47 b); f, en-
graving from Olmec celt of unknown provenience (re- * Presented at the 26th Annual Meeting of the Society for
drawn from Covarrubias 1957, Fig. 33, right). American Archaeology, Columbus, Ohio, May 6, 1961.

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