Olmec Colossal Heads

Thanks for the comment. Buried bodies? I hope not (especially if it was only a head!)

jptanabe, Thank you for the lovely backstory and product line! Do you think that archaeologists may have overlooked buried bodies (such as with Easter Island's Moai and Turkey's Nemrut Dag heads) to the Olmec heads? I likewise see Olmec-like African features in some ancient Cambodian, Korean and Taiwanese artworks.

Yes, clearly Europeans found northern parts of America before Columbus. The record seems a little murkier for the Southern continent. As you say, we cannot discount the possibility that Africans made it across and could well have influenced the Olmecs.

One persistent and erroneous myth is that until Columbus no one knew of America. But the Basques were fishing the cod banks of Newfoundland for years before Columbus. The Norse knew America, which they called Vinland. While Africans have not been great seafarers, they have been far more competent than white, western propaganda made them out to be, so as West Africa is opposite South and Central America the possibility that some Africans made it to America cannot be discounted. The Moors were able seafarers and used their skills for piracy, but while their behaviour was execrable, their skills at seafaring were great.

If a fossil could be found of one of these people a genetic test should reveal any African cntent.

Fascinating, Frank! I did know there was mixing of Native Americans and black slaves, in Florida for example, but I was not aware of a significant earlier presence of black people in Central America. This certainly suggests that the Olmec at least encountered black people.

I wish I had a sense of how hard it is to sculpt in basalt. Some Web sites say that it's an "extremely hard volcanic rock" but I've found that it contains feldspar, and feldspar has a hardness of 6 on the Mohs scale, so not huge. But then again granite is at 6-7 on the Mohs scale and basalt appears to be a 6-7, too, so then yes, it must have been difficult.

I have just looked up the site colorq, which states that there is archaeological evidence of black presence in the Virgin Islands before Columbus and independent of slavery, and it is not far from there to Central America, where dwelt the Olmecs. . These were free black seafarers and traders. There was also quite frequent mixing between Black people and Native Americans. All of this suggests that the Olmecs may have contained a black genetic element.

The possible African origin of these heads makes me think of stories that one American Indian tribe in the Mississippi region were said to have been black.Sadly I cannot recall which tribe and cannot source the story. So there is the possibility that there were black Amerindians, but these would now be indistinguishable from black Americans and so cannot be traced. If there were black Amerindians the possibility of black Olmecs has to be taken seriously. The Asian eyes could be an indication that some black incomers from Africa intermarried with Native Americans.

Oh my, to watch them being built would be amazing!