About La Venta

  • Location

    Like San Lorenzo, though not as steep, La Venta sat atop a hill surrounded by wetlands. It contained a civic-ceremonial zone and the oldest known massive pyramid in Mesoamerica. During La Venta's golden age this was the largest structure ever built in Mesoamerica with a base 150m wide and a height of 34m. The layout of La Venta would greatly inspire the great mesoamerican cities that came after it.

  • Timeline

    The precise dating of La Venta's heyday has been difficult for archeologists to pinpoint. Nonetheless, there’s a rough consensus that La Venta was at it’s height between 1000 and 400 BCE. Most carbon dating point to this timeframe, and it also coincides with the decline of San Lorenzo as the regions preeminant power.

  • Massive Offerings

    One of La Venta’s most striking features are the aptly named "Massive Offerings" found beneath its ceremonial buildings. One such offering featured an underground chamber measuring 15m by 19m and was 7m deep. The chamber was filled with 1000 tons of serpentine blocks stacked 28 rows high.

  • Massive Offerings cont.

    For context, serpentine was a highly prized jade-like stone that had to be imported from hundreds of miles away. Although it’s impossible to known the economic value of this offering in today’s terms, this would be like burying the volume equivalent of 2.7 million new iPhones in the ground and then quickly covering it up.

  • Altar 4

    Altar 4 weighs 40 tons and is considered one of the greatest masterpieces of Olmec art. As Christopher Pool puts it, “the ruler in the niche is poised at the interface of underworld, earth, and sky, and is framed by visual references to fertility and to dominance over, or kinship with, other leaders in a perfect allegory of the sources of his earthly and supernatural power.”

  • Altar 4 continued

    It is also posited that in some cases these thrones were "recycled" and used as the canvas to make the famous Olmec colossal heads. This nearly 7-foot tall altar stands as a testament to the Olmec's impressive craftsmanship, the great power of their rulers, and their conception of the world.
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Inspired by La Venta

This collection features the colossal Altar 4 found in La Venta. The size, craftsmanship, and religious program found in the altar make it one of the most impressive Olmec artifacts ever found.