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<< Our Photo Pages >> Parque Museo La Venta - Sculptured Stone in Mexico in Tabasco

Submitted by bat400 on Wednesday, 18 May 2011  Page Views: 10343

Site WatchSite Name: Parque Museo La Venta
Country: Mexico Region: Tabasco Type: Sculptured Stone
Nearest Town: Villahermosa
Latitude: 18.001500N  Longitude: 92.9341W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
no data Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
5 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
4

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SolarMegalith visited on 1st Mar 2002 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 4

Tdiver visited on 1st Jan 1992 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 4 Access: 5

DrewParsons have visited here

Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 4 Ambience: 4.5 Access: 4.5

Parque Museo La Venta
Parque Museo La Venta submitted by SolarMegalith : The unfinished Olmec head in Parque Museo La Venta, located in Villahermosa (photo taken on March 2003). (Vote or comment on this photo)
Sculptured Stone in Tabasco, Mexico. The Museum-park was created in Tabasco's capital city, Villahermosa, specifically to house Olmec finds (1200-400BCE) from the La Venta area to protect them from destruction. The area was being exploited for its wealth of oil deposits, and it was felt that the carved stelae and giant Olmec heads were both doomed to destruction, and were inaccessible to the general public, as part of their heritage.

Unfortunately weathering, particularly with acidic city atmosphere also threatens the stones. Many carved stones are displayed outdoors in a forest landscape and are lighted at night. An indoor museum is on site. There is also a small zoo with native animals, birds and reptiles in enclosures made to look as part of an abandoned Olmec site. In January 2009, two vandals permanently stained most of the stones displayed outside in the park. See the attached comment.

Note: Article in Time magazine about an Olmec Art exhibition in Washington
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Parque Museo La Venta
Parque Museo La Venta submitted by SolarMegalith : Olmec head called Old Warrior (photo taken on March 2004). (Vote or comment on this photo)

Parque Museo La Venta
Parque Museo La Venta submitted by SolarMegalith : Triumphal Altar - the human figure probably represents an Olmec priest or god of the Underworld (photo taken on March 2004). (Vote or comment on this photo)

Parque Museo La Venta
Parque Museo La Venta submitted by SolarMegalith : Sculpture of jaguar, one of the most important animals in Pre-Colombian beliefs (photo taken on March 2003). (Vote or comment on this photo)

Parque Museo La Venta
Parque Museo La Venta submitted by SolarMegalith : Sculpture called El Delfin (The Dolphin) in Parque Museo La Venta (photo taken on March 2004). (1 comment - Vote or comment on this photo)

Parque Museo La Venta
Parque Museo La Venta submitted by SolarMegalith : Basalt palisade in Parque Museo La Venta. Heyday of La Venta occured between 900 and 400 BC (photo taken o March 2003).

Parque Museo La Venta
Parque Museo La Venta submitted by DrewParsons : An Olmec head now located in the Museo Nacional de Anthropología in Mexico City. Photographed during a visit in December 1989.

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"Parque Museo La Venta" | Login/Create an Account | 2 News and Comments
  
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Archaeology: Mystery of the Olmec, new exhibition in Washington by Andy B on Wednesday, 18 May 2011
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More than 1,500 years before the Maya flourished in Central America, 25 centuries before the Aztecs conquered large swaths of Mexico, the mysterious Olmec people were building the first great culture of Mesoamerica. Starting in 1200 B.C. in the steamy jungles of Mexico's southern Gulf Coast, the Olmec's influence spread as far as modern Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, Costa Rica and El Salvador. They built large settlements, established elaborate trade routes and developed religious iconography and rituals, including ceremonial ball games, blood-letting and human sacrifice, that were adapted by all the Mesoamerican civilizations to follow.

And then, about 300 B.C., their civilization vanished. No one knows why. But they left behind some of the finest artworks ever produced in ancient America, the most spectacular of which will be on display at the National Gallery of Art in Washington starting next week. Titled "Olmec Art of Ancient Mexico," the exhibition is the first comprehensive survey of Olmec artifacts, ranging from palm-size jade carvings to a 10-ton, monumental stone head. For the next four months, visitors will be able to see treasures that have never before been permitted to leave Mexico. "It's amazing," says one of the show's curators, Peter David Joralemon of Pre-Columbian Art Research Associates in New York City. "The only major Olmec objects left in Mexico are the ones that are too fragile to travel."

Read the full article in Time magazine:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,984782,00.html
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In Mexico, grape-juice ritual stains ancient Olmec colossal head sculptures by bat400 on Monday, 16 February 2009
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Submitted by coldrum.
A group performing a ritual poured grape juice, oil and other liquids over four Olmec "colossal head" stone sculptures, badly damaging some of Mexico's most prized archaeological relics, authorities said Monday.
Experts will try to remove the stains from the porous stone using special solvents but warn the treatments could be time-consuming and costly, Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History said in a statement.

Two people were detained for damaging the pre-Hispanic sculptures, which are displayed in the La Venta park in the Gulf coast state of Tabasco, the institute said. It did not give details on the group or what ritual they were trying to perform.

Four of the thick-lipped, glowering carved heads and 19 other Olmec carvings were heavily stained by the suspects on Sunday.

"This act was carried out by persons performing an apparent ritual," the institute said. "As part of the 'ceremony," they poured oil, grape juice, salt water and other substances" over the heads, a tomb, altars and other structures.

The Olmecs are often referred to as the "mother culture" of the region that later saw the rise of the Mayas and Aztecs, and the colossal stone heads are often considered the most emblematic pieces of their art.

The government news agency Notimex quoted Tabasco Gov. Andres Granier as saying the park would have to be temporarily closed until the statues are restored.

The Aztecs and Mayas daubed ceremonial structures with the blood of human sacrifice victims. But pouring substances like grape juice and oil over statues does not figure in most historical accounts of pre-Hispanic religions.

The institute said the treatments might have to be applied repeatedly and could cost about 300,000 pesos ($21,750).


Story from http://www.startribune.com/world/37484419.html?elr=KArks:DCiUBcy7hUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU Kansas City Star Tribune (link no longer available).

A video from National Geographic news.
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