Seated figurine,

1500–1000 BCE

Beginning about 1500 BCE, stylistically similar ceramic vessels and figurines appeared across much of Mesoamerica. Both white-slipped, fleshy figures—some incorporating features of infants—and vessels carved with abstracted renditions of crocodilian beasts and other motifs indicate widespread awareness of and interaction with the point of origin of these forms, the complex society at San Lorenzo, Veracruz, the primary Olmec center from 1500 to 1000 BCE. Confusingly, the term Olmec has been applied both to that specific coastal culture and to the artistic style that appears in so many other parts of Mesoamerica. Scientific analyses of Olmec-style ceramic works from various locations across the region demonstrate that some were made at San Lorenzo and exported, while others were local emulations of objects from San Lorenzo.

Hollow “baby” figurines such as this seated example are unique to Mesoamerica’s Early Formative period and are thought to provide evidence of interactions with the Gulf Coast Olmec, who presumably originated the form. The finest figurines are made from ivory-colored kaolin clay and show the curious combination of a plump, baby-like body with a distinctly mature, contemplative facial expression. The subject sits in an infantile posture, legs splayed and hands on knees, wearing a helmet of a type associated with players of the ancient Mesoamerican ballgame. A few dozen other examples of contemporaneous hollow figurines depicting helmeted infant-adults survive, but what they signify is unclear. They may signal a belief that ancestral souls returned to the living world as progeny. If so, this figure may represent a specific ancestor awaiting rebirth or a shared pool of ancestral souls awaiting return to the terrestrial realm.