{"it":{"id":"W15A06","kind":"artifact","sub":"Authenticated","name":"Olmec figurines (La Venta Offering 4; helmeted heads)","place":"La Venta","mat":"jade, ceramic","dims":"hollow babies 25-35 cm; jade figurines well under 30 cm","loc":"La Venta / museums","acc":"n/a","find":"La Venta Offering 4: 16 male figurines in semicircle before 6 jade celts","flag":"genuine ancient","src":[167,487,596],"lat":18.103,"lon":-94.04,"tags":[],"sum":"In a buried offering at La Venta, Mexico, 16 jade and stone figures face six jade celts like an audience, arranged and buried more than 2,500 years ago.","why":"It is a frozen scene of sixteen figures that someone buried, then dug back down to, and its meaning is still unread.","nfacts":3,"nsrc":3,"yt":"Map the arrangement from the excavation plan.","rel":["MAM-007","W11A20"],"hook":"After the burial, someone dug a hole down to the heads of La Venta's 16 buried figures, then refilled it."},"S":{"167":["Wikipedia Olmec figurine","https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Olmec_figurine&oldid=1352704055"],"487":["Wikipedia: Olmec figurine","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olmec_figurine"],"596":["Drucker, Heizer & Squier 1959, Excavations at La Venta, Tabasco, 1955, BAE Bulletin 170 (Smithsonian)","https://repository.si.edu/handle/10088/15464"]},"rec":{"id":"W15A06","alias":[],"ms":[{"a":"offering4_figurines","v":"16","u":"count","unc":"","by":"","yr":"","m":"excavation","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W15M042","s":["W15S23"],"c":"Wikipedia Olmec figurine","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Olmec_figurine&oldid=1352704055"},{"a":"offering4_celts","v":"6","u":"count","unc":"","by":"","yr":"","m":"excavation","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W15M043","s":["W15S23"],"c":"Wikipedia Olmec figurine","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Olmec_figurine&oldid=1352704055"},{"a":"hollow_baby_height","v":"25-35","u":"cm","unc":"range","by":"","yr":"","m":"","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W15M044","s":["W15S23"],"c":"Wikipedia Olmec figurine","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Olmec_figurine&oldid=1352704055"}],"lab":[],"eng":[],"ori":[],"gaps":[{"a":"museum_accession","r":"not in staged/legacy artifact record (free sources)"}],"dat":[],"aa":[{"id":"AA213","a":"Helmets = astronaut gear","who":"AA media","main":"Olmec-motif figurines widespread 1000-500 BCE; tight helmets also on colossal heads","ms":"W15S23","st":"unresolved","n":"No named AA claimant source opened (gap W15G08).","nl":"1"}],"ac":[],"me":[],"ci":[],"cq":[],"sd":[],"art":{"claimed_anomaly":"Helmets = astronaut gear","mainstream_reading":"Olmec-motif figurines widespread 1000-500 BCE; tight helmets also on colossal heads","provenance_flag":"genuine ancient","current_location":"La Venta / museums","find_circumstances":"La Venta Offering 4: 16 male figurines in semicircle before 6 jade celts","claimant":"AA media","status":"unresolved","dimensions":"hollow babies 25-35 cm; jade figurines well under 30 cm","material":"jade, ceramic","date":"","culture":"","museum_accession":"n/a","b":"S","s":["W15S23"]},"sub":[],"src":[{"id":"W15S23","t":"Wikipedia Olmec figurine","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Olmec_figurine&oldid=1352704055"},{"id":null,"t":"Wikipedia: Olmec figurine","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olmec_figurine"},{"id":"S2597","t":"Drucker, Heizer & Squier 1959, Excavations at La Venta, Tabasco, 1955, BAE Bulletin 170 (Smithsonian)","u":"https://repository.si.edu/handle/10088/15464"},{"id":"VW15A06-4","t":"Wikipedia: La Venta","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Venta"}],"sum":"Some time after the figures of La Venta's Offering 4 were buried, someone dug a small hole down to the level of their heads, then filled it in again.\n\nOffering 4, at the Olmec site of La Venta in Mexico, holds 16 standing male figures and 6 celts, axe-shaped blades of jade. Fifteen figures are jade or serpentine and are set in a semicircle facing the celts. The sixteenth, of reddish granite, stands with its back to the celts, facing the others. The group was placed in a deep, narrow pit and sealed under three layers of coloured clay more than 2,500 years ago.\n\nWhat was being staged? The figures share elongated heads, which archaeologists link to the head shaping seen in burials at Tlatilco. The arrangement looks like a meeting with one figure set apart, but whether that figure is a speaker, an outsider or something else, the Olmec left no text to say.\n\nThe reopened hole is the strangest part. Somebody knew where the figures lay and how deep, and cared enough to check on them or add something. That suggests the scene was remembered after it was hidden.\n\nThe mainstream reading is ritual: a deliberate tableau sealed for the gods or ancestors, not for viewers. Speculative readings take the long heads as something other than human. Archaeology has no support for that, but it cannot yet say what the gathering meant.","qs":["Someone dug back down to the figures' heads after the burial. Who would know where to dig, and why check?","One figure, of granite, faces the others with its back to the celts. Speaker, outsider, or prisoner?","If the scene was never meant to be seen, who was the audience?"],"gal":[{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/94/Small_Olmec_Figurines_%28Met%29.jpg/1280px-Small_Olmec_Figurines_%28Met%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Small_Olmec_Figurines_(Met).jpg","title":"Small Olmec Figurines (Met).jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 3.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0","by":"Madman2001","cap":"Some small Olmec terracotta figurines from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Most of the figurines have a white slip and have been painted with symbolic and reali"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/ba/Baby_face_at_Jade_Museum_%28Museo_Nacional_del_Jade%29_-_San_Jose%2C_C_R.jpg/1280px-Baby_face_at_Jade_Museum_%28Museo_Nacional_del_Jade%29_-_San_Jose%2C_C_R.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Baby_face_at_Jade_Museum_(Museo_Nacional_del_Jade)_-_San_Jose,_C_R.jpg","title":"Baby face at Jade Museum (Museo Nacional del Jade) - San Jose, C R.jpg","lic":"CC BY 2.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0","by":"Unknown","cap":"","alt":"Olmec figurines (La Venta Offering 4; helmeted heads): Baby face at Jade Museum (Museo Nacional del Jade) - San Jose, C R"},{"src":"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Las_Bocas_Olmec_baby-face_figurine_%28Bookgrrrl%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Las_Bocas_Olmec_baby-face_figurine_(Bookgrrrl).jpg","title":"Las Bocas Olmec baby-face figurine (Bookgrrrl).jpg","lic":"Public domain","licurl":"","by":"Bookgrrrl (Aimee W)","cap":"","alt":"Las Bocas Olmec baby-face figurine (Bookgrrrl)"},{"src":"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Olmec_Eagle_Transformation_Figure.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Olmec_Eagle_Transformation_Figure.jpg","title":"Olmec Eagle Transformation Figure.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 2.5","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5","by":"No machine-readable author provided. Madman2001 assumed (based on copyright clai","cap":"Olmec Eagle Transformation Figure, 10th–6th century B.C. Jade (albite), cinnabar. Height 4.5 in. (11.4 cm). Olmec \"transformation figurine\", thought to represen"},{"src":"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Olmec_Fetal_Figurine_AMNH.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Olmec_Fetal_Figurine_AMNH.jpg","title":"Olmec Fetal Figurine AMNH.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 2.5","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5","by":"No machine-readable author provided. Madman2001 assumed (based on copyright clai","cap":"Jade Olmec figurine, thought to represent a fetus or a \"crouching figure\". The arms and part of one leg are missing. From Mazela, Guerrero, Mexico. Height: 3.8 ","alt":"Jade Olmec figurine, thought to represent a fetus or a \"crouching figure\". The arms and part of one leg are missing. From Mazela, Guerrero, Mexico. Height: 3.8"}]},"img":null,"md":null,"hh":[{"v":"Jade, ceramic","h":"Made of","s":[250]},{"v":"La Venta / museums","h":"Held at","s":[250]}],"hs":{"250":["Wikipedia Olmec figurine","https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Olmec_figurine&oldid=1352704055"]},"lh":{"s":"img/h/W15A06.webp","w":1280,"h":801,"o":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/94/Small_Olmec_Figurines_%28Met%29.jpg/1280px-Small_Olmec_Figurines_%28Met%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail"}}