Twin 'grumpy mouth' reliefs of Olmec contortionists discovered in Mexico




According to legend, contortion "given them abilities."

Two Olmec reliefs that were carved onto big, round stones by archaeologists in Mexico are considered to show regional leaders executing ceremonial contortions.

The Olmec civilisation, whose name is derived from the Aztec (Nahuatl) term "lmcatl," which means "rubber people," is said to have produced the twin sculptures, which were discovered in Tenosique, a village in the state of Tabasco, close to Mexico's southernmost coast. The Olmec, who ruled between 1200 and 400 B.C., are regarded as Mesoamerica's earliest sophisticated pre-Hispanic civilisation (opens in new tab). Today, their sculptures of enormous skulls are what they're most renowned for (opens in new tab).

The enormous 3D sculptures are made of limestone and are each around 4.5 feet (1.4 meters) in circumference and 1,543 pounds (700 kilograms) in weight. According to a translated statement, the two carved statues show the faces of the local leaders with their "grumpy mouth[s]" gaping and their arms crossed. The leaders' wide mouths refer to the "roar of the jaguar," which is interrupted by footprints, a diadem, corncobs, an Olmec cross, and glyphs of jaguars on each piece.

The placement of the figures' mouths, which are carved to appear to be "ajaw," is what's most striking about the reliefs, according to researchers from the Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) Tabasco Center, the agency that collected the artifacts. This tells researchers that the images, which are thought to have been painted between 900 and 400 B.C., were of prominent Olmec community leaders.

According to the INAH statement, it's probable that this Olmec carving technique developed into the later Maya ajaw altars. According to Carlos Arturo Giordano Sánchez, the director of the INAH Tabasco Center, "the word 'ajaw' means 'he who shouts,' 'he who sends,' [and] 'the one who orders,' and in these [later] Maya monuments the mouth stands out, a feature that must have come from Olmec times, especially from these reliefs circulars of 'contortionists,' which are portraits The Caracol Maya archaeological site in Belize is home to several Maya ajaw altars, which Giordano Sánchez says "tells us about the durability of this topic for more than three centuries."

The five different reliefs of contortionists that have been linked to the Olmec and found elsewhere in the region, including in Balancán and Villahermosa, two other cities in Tabasco, Ejido Emiliano Zapata, a town in the Mexican state of Jalisco, and Tenosique, look remarkably similar to the newly discovered carvings. These commonalities led the researchers to the conclusion that the images show monarchs engaging in ritual contortion. According to Heritage Daily(opens in new tab), this technique entails "adopting a position that limits the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain to induce a trance-like condition."

Tomás Pérez Suárez, an archaeologist at the Center for Mayan Studies at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), claimed in the translated statement that doing so purportedly "given them abilities."

He said that he thought the newly discovered reliefs came from the Middle Usumacinta area, which is bounded to the north by the Chacamax River and to the south by the mouth of the San Pedro River. After receiving an anonymous tip regarding their discovery on a property in Tabasco's capital, the INAH first became aware of the reliefs in 2019. The Pomona Site Museum in Tenosique, which includes the aforementioned Ejido Emiliano Zapata work in its collection, will host the sculptures.

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