Antiquities Exhibits

This unusual vase shows a human head of which all but the area of the eyes, nose, and mouth is enclosed in the head of an animal. The softness of the pelt is indicated by the way in which it tightly fits the human head. The small ears and spots are further animal attributes. It is difficult to identify the figure. It may possibly be a very Egyptianized interpretation of Herakles wearing the lion skin. - Metropolitan Museum of Art This vessel caught my attention because it reminded me very much of ancient pre-Columbian American art.  All major Mesoamerican civilizations prominently featured a jaguar god, and for many, such as the Olmec, the jaguar was an important part of shamanism. The jaguar's formidable size, reputation as a predator, and its evolved capacities to survive in the jungle made it an animal to be revered. The Olmec and the Maya witnessed this animal's habits, adopting the jaguar as an authoritative and martial symbol, and incorporated the animal into their mythol...

The Olmecs were the earliest known major Mesoamerican civilization. Following a progressive development in Soconusco, they occupied the tropical lowlands of the modern-day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco. It has been speculated that the Olmecs derived in part from the neighboring Mokaya or Mixe–Zoque cultures. The Olmec appeared to practice ritual bloodletting and played the Mesoamerican ballgame, hallmarks of nearly all subsequent Mesoamerican societies. The antiquity of the Olmec civilization of ancient Mexico only became apparent with the advent of radiocarbon dating in the middle of the twentieth century. Olmec artists mastered an array of media and produced representations that range from refined miniatures in precious jadeite or wood, to monumental works in basalt. Now considered the first great sculptural tradition in the ancient Americas, these images remind us that naturalism is not necessarily the result of an evolution: Olmec sculptures often demonstrate a striking...

Newly reimagined Mexico and Central America Gallery at the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology to open November 16, 2019. University of Pennsylvania’s work in Mexico and Central America began more than a century ago and In the following decades, Penn archaeologists led excavations at sites such as Piedras Negras, Guatemala and Sitio Conte, Panama, unearthing remnants of the powerful cultures that once dominated these lands including a 1,200-year-old limestone monument dubbed “Stela 14,” which played a key role in the decipherment of Maya glyph writing. The Penn's collection of Maya monuments are considered the largest and finest in the U.S. These sculptures will be accompanied by Aztec and Olmec artifacts on long-term loan from the Philadelphia Museum of Art and a rotating array of 20th-century textiles from Guatemala. The next phase of the Building Transformation Campaign, a complete renovation of the Egypt and Nubia Galleries ha...

Pre-Columbian art from the Maya, Aztecs, Zapotecs, and Olmecs.  Ongoing.  At the Amparo Museum in Puebla, Mexico.  At the Amparo Museum, one of Mexico's most important but least-visited  archaeologocial museums, you can see Mayan stelae depicting the mythological story of the creation of the world, sculptures of rabbit-headed scribe gods, stone representations of Totonac gods of death, ceramic statues of powerful Zapotec lords, and numerous Aztec sculptures of animals like Xoloitzcuintle dogs, spider monkeys, jaguars, coyotes, and snakes. Image:  Ceramic religious sculpture of a mythological beast.  Classical Period.  Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Éclusette.