The Olmec colossal heads consist of at least seventeen monumental stone representations of human male heads sculpted from large
basalt boulders. The heads date from at least before 900 BC and are a distinctive feature of the
Olmec civilization of ancient
Mesoamerica. All portray mature men with fleshy cheeks, flat noses and slightly crossed eyes; their physical characteristics correspond to a type that is still common among the inhabitants of
Tabasco and
Veracruz. The boulders were brought from the
Sierra de los Tuxtlas mountains of Veracruz; given that the extremely large slabs of stone used in their production were transported over large distances, presumably involving a great deal of people and resources, it is thought that finished monuments represent portraits of powerful individual Olmec rulers; each is given a distinctive headdress. The heads were variously arranged in lines or groups at major Olmec centres, but the method and logistics used to transport the stone to these sites remain unclear. The discovery of a colossal head at
Tres Zapotes in the 19th century spurred the first archaeological investigations of Olmec culture by
Matthew Stirling in 1938. Dating the monuments remains difficult due to the movement of many from their original context prior to archaeological investigation. Most have been dated to the Early
Preclassic period (1500–1000 BC) with some to the Middle Preclassic (1000–400 BC) period. (more...)
... that, although street food did not become popular in
Thailand until the early 1960s when the urban population began to grow rapidly, by the 1970s it had "displaced home-cooking"?
An 1893 print showing various examples of sea anemones, a group of water-dwelling,
predatory animals named after the
anemone, a terrestrial flower. As
cnidarians, sea anemones are closely related to
corals,
jellyfish,
tube-dwelling anemones, and Hydra. Its body is a
polyp attached at the bottom to the surface beneath it by an adhesive foot, although a few species are free-floating.
This Wikipedia is written in
English. Started in 2001 (2001), it currently contains
4,034,572 articles. Many other Wikipedias are available; some of the largest are listed below.
The Olmec colossal heads consist of at least seventeen monumental stone representations of human male heads sculpted from large
basalt boulders. The heads date from at least before 900 BC and are a distinctive feature of the
Olmec civilization of ancient
Mesoamerica. All portray mature men with fleshy cheeks, flat noses and slightly crossed eyes; their physical characteristics correspond to a type that is still common among the inhabitants of
Tabasco and
Veracruz. The boulders were brought from the
Sierra de los Tuxtlas mountains of Veracruz; given that the extremely large slabs of stone used in their production were transported over large distances, presumably involving a great deal of people and resources, it is thought that finished monuments represent portraits of powerful individual Olmec rulers; each is given a distinctive headdress. The heads were variously arranged in lines or groups at major Olmec centres, but the method and logistics used to transport the stone to these sites remain unclear. The discovery of a colossal head at
Tres Zapotes in the 19th century spurred the first archaeological investigations of Olmec culture by
Matthew Stirling in 1938. Dating the monuments remains difficult due to the movement of many from their original context prior to archaeological investigation. Most have been dated to the Early
Preclassic period (1500–1000 BC) with some to the Middle Preclassic (1000–400 BC) period. (more...)
... that, although street food did not become popular in
Thailand until the early 1960s when the urban population began to grow rapidly, by the 1970s it had "displaced home-cooking"?
An 1893 print showing various examples of sea anemones, a group of water-dwelling,
predatory animals named after the
anemone, a terrestrial flower. As
cnidarians, sea anemones are closely related to
corals,
jellyfish,
tube-dwelling anemones, and Hydra. Its body is a
polyp attached at the bottom to the surface beneath it by an adhesive foot, although a few species are free-floating.
This Wikipedia is written in
English. Started in 2001 (2001), it currently contains
4,034,572 articles. Many other Wikipedias are available; some of the largest are listed below.