Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T06:10:23.528Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An Olmec Stela from San Miguel Amuco, Guerrero

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

David C. Grove  and
Louise I. Paradis
David C. Grove
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois
Louise I. Paradis
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Yale University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A recently discovered stela in Guerrero represents the north-westernmost extension of monolithic sculpture in the Olmec style yet known in Mesoamerica. The stela depicts a standing human figure wearing a cloak and bird mask and holding a staff-like object. It is suggested that the theme is ceremonial or one of rank or rulership. The style of the carving and its association with Olmec style pottery confirms its colonial Olmec identity. The nature of the stela confirms our impression that Olmec presence in Guerrero and the central highlands represents more than a diffused art style. A tentative model for interpreting Olmec diffusion takes into account economic as well as socio-political factors, including possible motives bringing the Olmec into the highlands and the nature and pattern of relationships established with local culture groups. Trade and status borrowing are the basis of this model.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , January 1971 , pp. 95 - 102
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1971

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arana, A., Martin, Raul, and Gerardo Cepeda, C. 1966 Localizatión de sitios arqueológicos en el Vaso de la Presa de Palos Altos, Guerrero. Institute National de Anthropologia e Historia Boletin 26:14–16.Google Scholar
Bernal, Ignacio 1969 The Olmec world. University of California Press.Google Scholar
Boggs, Stanley H. 1950 “Olmec” pictographs in the Las Victorias group, Chalchuapa archaeological zone, El Salvador. Notes on Middle American Archaeology and Ethnology, No. 99:85–92. Carnegie Institution of Washington.Google Scholar
Caso, Alfonso 1967 Los calendarios prehispanicos. Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico.Google Scholar
Coe, Michael D. 1962 An Olmec design on an early Peruvian vessel. American Antiquity 27:579–580.Google Scholar
Coe, Michael D. 1965a The Jaguar’s children. Museum of Primitive Art.Google Scholar
Coe, Michael D. 1965b The Olmec style and its distribution. Handbook of Middle American Indians, Vol. 3:739–775. University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Coe, Michael D. 1969 The Archaeological sequence at San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan, Veracruz, Mexico. Paper read at the annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Milwaukee.Google Scholar
Covarrubias, Miguel 1946 El arte Olmeca o de La Venta. Guardamos Americanos 28:153–179.Google Scholar
Covarrubias, Miguel 1957 Indian art of Mexico and Central America. Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Drucker, Phillip 1952 La Venta, Tabasco, a study of Olmec ceramics and art. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 153.Google Scholar
Drucker, Phillip, Heizer, Robert, and Squier, Robert J. 1959 Excavations at La Venta, Tabasco, 1955. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 170.Google Scholar
Ferdon, Edwin N. Jr. 1953 Tonala, Mexico, an archaeological survey. School of American Research Monograph, No. 16.Google Scholar
Flannery, Kent V. 1968 The Olmec and the Valley of Oaxaca: a model for inter-regional interaction in Formative times. In Dumbarton Oaks Conference on the Olmec, edited by Elizabeth P. Benson.pp. 79–110. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.Google Scholar
Gay, Carlo T. E. 1967 Oldest paintings in the New World. Natural History 76:28–35.Google Scholar
Gonzalez, Norberto, and Medina, Miguel 1966 Localizatión de sitios arqueólbgicos en el Vasco de la Presa La Villita, Michoacan-Guerrero. Instituto National de Anthropologia e Historia Boletin 26:9–12.Google Scholar
Grove, David C. 1968a Chalcatzingo, Morelos, Mexico: a reappraisal of the Olmec rock carvings. American Antiquity 33:486–491.Google Scholar
Grove, David C. 1968b The Preclassic Olmec in central Mexico: site distribution and inferences. In Dumbarton Oaks Conference on the Olmec, edited by Elizabeth P. Benson, pp. 179–185. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.Google Scholar
Grove, David C. 1969a Olmec cave paintings: discovery from Guerrero, Mexico. Science 164:421–423.Google Scholar
Grove, David C. 1969b Review of America’s first civilization, by Michael D. Coe. American Antiquity 34:495–496.Google Scholar
Grove, David C. 1970 The Olmec paintings of Oxtotitlan cave, Guerrero. Studies in Pre-Columbian Art and Archaeology, Ho. 6, Dumbarton Oaks.Google Scholar
Guzman, Eulalia 1934 Los relieves de las rocas del Cerro de la Cantera, Jonacatepec, Morelos. Armies del Museo National de Arqueológia, Historia y Etnologia, Epoca 5, Vol. 1, No. 2.Google Scholar
Heizer, Robert 1967 Analysis of two low relief sculptures from La Venta. Studies in Olmec archaeology, contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility, No. 3:25–56.Google Scholar
Lorenzo, Jose L. 1966 Hallazgo arqueologico cerca de Arcelia, Guerrero. Instituto National de Anthropologia e Historia Boletin 25:14–17.Google Scholar
Navarrete, Carlos 1960 Archaeological explorations in the region of Frailesca, Chiapas. Papers of the New World Archaeological Foundation, No. 7.Google Scholar
Thompson, J. Eric S. 1943 Some sculptures from southeastern Quetzaltenango. Notes on Middle American Archaeology and Ethnology, No. 17. Carnegie Institution of Washington.Google Scholar
Tolstoy, Paul, and Paradis, Louise I. 1970 Early and middle Preclassic culture in the Basin of Mexico. Science 167:344–351.Google Scholar