Discovery of the First Olmeca Head
The first to discover one of these huge heads was Jose Maria Melgar Serrano in 1862, in the town of Tres Zapotes (Veracruz, Mexico). In his report from 1869, he described the finding as a "magnificent sculpture" and highlighted the "Ethiopian type" it represented. It was the first time a possible African influence on Olmec culture was suggested.
This first head was considered a rarity until 1925, when a team of archaeologists from the University of Tula, led by Franz Blom, found on La Venta another head 2.5 meters tall and 24 tons in weight. Each new head found was different, with different faces and helmets. In San Lorenzo (Veracruz), five more heads were found in the 1940s, some weighing up to 30 tons.
Carbon 14 analyses dated some pieces around the year 1200 B.C. The oldest indices of Olmec culture are from around 1200 B.C., and the newest ones from the year 500 B.C. Olmec civilization centered on San Lorenzo, La Venta and Tres Zapotes, manifesting itself also in places like Laguna de los Cerros.
