On view
Miniature mask,
1000–500 BCE
Olmec Stone-carving from the Era of La Venta
Concurrent with the shift of Olmec political power from San Lorenzo, Veracruz, to La Venta, Tabasco, around 1000 B.C., widely distributed Olmec-style ceramics fade from the archaeological record, to be replaced by fine, small-scale carvings in stone, especially blue-green jadeite and serpentine. Incised jewelry, so-called “spoons,” masklike faces, and complexly modeled animal, human, and supernatural figures, all of Middle Formative date (1000–500 B.C.) and carved in Olmec style, have been discovered throughout most of Mesoamerica, from Costa Rica to the central Mexican Highlands to the southwest Mexican coast in the present-day state of Guerrero.
Information
1000–500 BCE
North America, Mexico, Guerrero
By 1975, Gillett G. Griffin (1928-2016), Princeton, NJ [1]; 1990, gift of Gillett G. Griffin to the Princeton University Art Museum.
Notes:
[1] According to a dated slide (GG9000043) in the Griffin archive.
