Olmec Art Research Paper

Olmec arts and their iconography are full of mysteries. Many archeologists researched and worked their best to figure out the meaning behind in each different symbol and leave many writing about Olmec arts and their symbol means. The young male stone statue has many similarity in other Olmec sculptures and we can identify the meaning behind this sculpture by comparing with other art works and using credible book wroted by archeologists. Different parts of the young male stone statue (fig.1) might have symbolic importance, representing ‘priests’ or ‘mediators’, these being: human characteristics, headdress, pose, and ceremonial bar.
Olmec culture sculptural art can be grouped into human figures, mixture of human and mythical creatures, and animal representations. The young male stone statue (fig.1) goes in the category of human figure because this stone statue has human feature and no symbol of mythical creature found on
The young male stone statue is holding the ceremonial bar which represents the Mesoamerican world tree. This ritual pose of the young male stone statue lifting up the Mesoamerican world tree means that the human world and underwater world are connected to each other and establish center of the world . As explain in earlier paragraph the young male stone statue (fig.1) and San Martin Pajapan Monument I (fig.3) categorize different type of sculpture because of difference in headdress; however then why both sculpture has identical pose? According to Professor Christopher A. Pool, Olmec rulers expressed their roles as intermediates between the levels of the cosmos . Olmec rulers had similar role as ‘priests’ or ‘mediators’ because they needed the protection or support from supernatural and show their rulership to Olmec people through ritual