Basalt sculpture, Olmec Head, museum entrance, San Lorenzo Veracruz, Mexico, 1200BC to 900 BC Olmec Culture

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Colossal head # 10 sculpted from a 20- ton block of basalt brought 60 miles from the Tuxtla Mountains in the museum at San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan, Veracruz State, Mexico. The Olmec city on the site was active from 1200 BC to 900 BC on the Coatzacoalcos River drainage system. First excavated by Archaeologist Mathew Stirling in 1941 and later by Archaeologists Michael Coe and Richard Diehl in 1967, the site as mapped by the Coe expedition shows artificial enlargement of plateaus to 150 feet in height on which the Olmecs built their settlement on what was then an Island. An extensive system of basalt tiles, some of which are in the small museum at the site, show engineering prowess by the inhabitants of the Olmec city and have been proposed as potable water carrying aqueducts.

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Size: 5700px × 3900px
Location: San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan, Veracruz, Mexico
Photo credit: © David Hilbert / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 10, 20-, basalt, blocks, colossal, head, heads, lorenzo, mexico, museum, olmec, san, sculpted, ton, veracruz