CultureNorth America
The Olmec colossal heads
Twenty-tonne basalt blocks moved a hundred kilometres without wheels
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The Olmecs laid the ground for almost everything later Mesoamerican: the ballgame, the calendar system, the jaguar deity, the pyramid platform and probably the first written signs in the Americas. The basalt was most likely moved on rafts along rivers and coast in the rainy season. The heads were later buried with care — not destroyed, but set aside.
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The Olmecs carved enormous heads from basalt, each with its own face — probably portraits of rulers. The stone came from mountains a hundred kilometres away, moved without wheels, without draught animals and without metal tools.
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Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org