The Olmec, predecessors to all the major Mesoamerican civilizations, are perhaps most popularly known for the ‘Olmec heads’, colossal stone effigies representing plump, fleshy heads with flat noses and crossed eyes, that range in size from 1.17m to 3.40m. The Olmecs were the first civilization in the Americas to build monumental architecture and to settle in cities. From their heartland on the Gulf Coast, the Olmec spread to cover much of modern-day Mexico. They introduced a number of Mesoamerican practices which later became emblematic, including ritualized bloodletting and the ‘Mesoamerican ball-game’.

But while the Olmecs are synonymous with their colossal stone heads, Olmec art also employed other media. This extraordinary figure is of a type known as the ‘elongated man’, a genre of Olmec art which are characterised by their long limbs, elongated bald heads, and generally more slender proportions than are usual in Olmec sculpture. This particular figure is exquisitely executed. It is made from a greenstone. Greenstones (chalchihuitl in Nahuatl), a category of green and bluish hardstones that includes serpentine alongside jade and other precious stones, were especially sacred to the Olmec. The colour was tied to water and to the fresh shoots of maize, which was the staple food of Mesoamericans. It was also believed that greenstones were water-retentive, and could emit vapours that would be beneficial to neighbouring vegetation. The figure has the traditional elongated head, with a tall, flat skull, which bends back. This may be a reference to the Olmec practice of binding the skull at birth. There is a hole through the top of the skull, which may indicate that this figure was meant to hang from a string. He has a prominent brow, almond-shaped eyes, an aquiline nose and a downturned mouth. The mouth in particular assimilates him to the Were-Jaguar, a supernatural creature from the Olmec cosmology. The figure has rectangular ears, which have been pierced, perhaps to hold a now-missing ear spool made of precious or perishable material. His torso is squat, with markings indicating the line of his pectorals and his lower abdomen. His arms are bent at the elbow, as though to hold something, and his legs have a slight bend at the knee. On the reverse of his head is a strange cross marking, highlighted in red pigment. The meaning is unknown, but it may have significance relating to the four seasons or the four corners of the world.

The exact purpose of these statues is unknown. They are often found in votive deposits, suggesting that their main function was ritual. In one such deposit, at the La Venta archaeological site, sixteen of these ‘elongated man’ figures have been found, with fifteen positioned around a semicircle and one, of different material, in the centre, facing the others. Some have suggested that this might represent a council of Olmec leaders, or even of Olmec gods, while others have proposed that this may have had something to do with an initiation ritual. Whatever their purpose, the art of the Olmec is rightly considered among the most accomplished in pre-Columbian America. Olmec jade and serpentine artefacts were revered by the civilizations that came after them; many Classical Mayan rulers were buried with found Olmec objects. Mayan artists would often re-purpose Olmec pieces, re-inscribing them with Mayan hieroglyphs, and carving into them images of their current rulers. Olmec artefacts were even imported by the peoples of Costa Rica into the First Millennium AD to act as ritual pieces. Olmec art also lived on in the visual and cultural conditions of Mesoamerica.