March 10, 2015

Olmec Artifact Find in Veracruz

A mottled brown and white jadeite artifact dated to 900-400 BCE has been uncovered from the underwater site of Arroyo Pesquero in Veracruz. There are glyph like designs on it. The design is Olmec in style, and it comes from the Olmec era, and the site is 10 miles from the Olmec site of La Venta. The design and iconography look like they are related to corn. It may have served as the base of a bloodletter or a ruler bar. Thousands of offerings have been excavated from the site. The site is a place where fresh water and salt water converged, and in the Olmec land of stagnant swamps, fresh water sources would have been sacred, and offerings made as a result.
LiveScience has the report here with a photo of the artifact;
http://www.livescience.com/50080-mysterious-jade-artifact-discovered-in-mexico.html
A site project web site
http://anthro.fullerton.edu/Pesquero/
Some of the iconography of artifacts from the site
FAMSI © 1999: Frank Kent Reilly, III
Olmec-style Iconography
http://www.famsi.org/reports/94031/94031Reilly01.pdf