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What is one fact about the Olmec?
The Olmec created massive monuments, including colossal stone heads, thrones, stela (upright slabs), and statues. They may have been the originators of the Mesoamerican ball game, a ceremonial team sport played throughout the region for centuries.
What are Olmecs made of?
The Olmec colossal heads are stone representations of human heads sculpted from large basalt boulders. They range in height from 1.17 to 3.4 metres (3.8 to 11.2 ft). The heads date from at least 900 BC and are a distinctive feature of the Olmec civilization of ancient Mesoamerica.
What did the Olmec wear?
The men wore breech-cloth, back apron and a belt. The women wore knee length skirts. The priests wore their slaves skin when sacrificed.
How did the Olmec get water?
The Olmecs avidly fished from nearby lakes and rivers. Clams, alligators, and various types of fish were an important part of their diet. The Olmecs preferred to make settlements near water, as the floodplains were good for agriculture and fish and shellfish could be had more easily.
What did the Olmecs wear?
How did the Olmec get food?
What do the Olmec people believe?
Like many early Mesoamerican cultures, the Olmec believed in three tiers of existence: the physical realm they inhabited, an underworld and a sky realm, home of most of the gods. Their world was bound together by the four cardinal points and natural boundaries such as rivers, the ocean and mountains.
What was the Olmec daily life like?
The daily life of the Olmecs was based on religious practices, food cultivation, family life and a section of the population devoted to art and architecture. The mysterious Olmec civilization flourished in pre-Classic Mesoamerica from 1200 BC.
What is the Olmec best known for?
The Olmec were very talented artists whose skill and aesthetics are still admired today. They are best known for their colossal heads. These massive stone heads, thought to represent rulers, stand several feet high and weigh many tons. The Olmecs also made massive stone thrones: squarish blocks, carved on the sides, which were evidently used for rulers to sit or stand upon.
What is the significance of Olmec?
The Olmec are considered important in the development of the Mesoamerican culture as it used and developed multiple things related to culture and religion which were later used by the Mayans and the Aztecs .