Was windy

Is a olmèque site Was windy, located in an alluvial plain on island which overhangs the old course of the Palma river, in the Mexican State of Tabasco, with about fifteen kilometers of the Gulf of Mexico with. Like all the other sites of this civilization, its olmèque name is unknown for us. It dates from the traditional preclassical time or Time I according to Duverger. The Carbon dating at the time of the excavations of 1955 gave a fork which goes from -1000 to -600. Charcoal remainders on the Large Pyramid provide a date of 394 + 36 years front J.C. The site was undoubtedly shortly after abandoned -400.

History of the excavations

In 1925, the Dane Frans Blom, University Tulane and the ethnographer Olivier Lafarge, who explored the south-east of the Mexico, reached an island surrounded by marshes. They discovered several monuments, in others the second known colossal head. As the existence of olmèque civilization was not known yet, they allotted them to the Mayas. The olmecology did not develop that in the Thirties. Matthew Stirling started to excavate the site and discovered many others there momuments. The excavations of the complex has by the Université of Berkeley in 1955 confirmed the seniority of the site. Oil reservoirs there were unfortunately also found. The Mexican oil company PEMEX is responsible for many damage caused with the site. The poet Carlos Pellicer saved the most beautiful sculptures by creating an archaeological park with Villahermosa, where they were transported. Thanks to the efforts of the INAH (Instituto Nacional de Antropologia E Historia), the State de Tabasco finally bought a hundred hectares of the site in 1986 and in made a protected archaeological zone. Originals of the monuments one replaced by mouldings. The last excavations go back to 1984.

The site

The site is strewn with tumuli, which forms units called “complexes” and indicated by letters of has to I. They form a ceremonial unit, of which not only tumuli, but also the hidden sculptures and offerings form integral part. For lack of excavations, it is impossible to know so of the buildings occupied the tops of the tumuli. One of the assumptions is that the tumuli were the theater of ceremonies which one could downwards observe of the courses. The majority of the tumuli of the northern part were destroyed at the time of the exploitation of the oil layer. Two groups of sculptures, including four colossal heads, are all that it remains about it. The most important units are the complexes has, B, C and the “Stirling acropolis”. The complex C, made of five tumuli, is known under the name of “'' Grande Pyramid ''”. It is high of 30 Mr. and contains nearly 100.000 m3 of ground. A ground terrace covers the bottom of the western parts, is and southern. It was believed that it was rectangular until it is disengaged from the vegetation which covered it. It is acted in fact of a cone without terrace, dug furrows.

With the foot of the pyramid, southern part were six steles. One of them, Stele 5, represents three characters observed by a fourth above them. Not far two monuments were (the “furnace bridges” 4 and 5), that one generally regards as thrones intended for the sovereign. They represent each one an human being in a niche. One of them holds a baby. The south of the pyramid, a large esplanade would have made it possible several thousands of people to witness ceremonies. On the right is a large terrace called the “Stirling acropolis”. The complex has, in the north of the large Pyramid, is the part most curious about the site. It is composed of two courses surrounded by tumuli. The place is characterized by the massive use of clay and sands of different colors to build the bases. To the visible elements on the surface correspond of the underground elements: massive tombs and offerings form a complex unit. On the surface two of the most famous monuments of olmèque art were. The “ambassador” represents a character who holds a species of flag. He is accompanied by four glyphes which counts among oldest of Mésoamérique. One of these glyphes represents a trace of foot, which means “to go” to the Aztec ones. The other is known under the name of “Abuelita” (“grandmother”) and represents a human creature holding a bowl.

The complex has comprised five tombs, accompanied by offerings. Two more remarkable are the tombs has and B. the walls and the roof of the tomb has were made of basalt columns. It is thought that it contained two bodies. Unfortunately the acid ground of the area is not favorable to the conservation of human remainders. Such as it is currently presented to open sky in the archaeological park, this unit does not give certainly any more any idea of its significance in the underground whole of complex A. fall to It B, located at little distance from the preceding one, consisted of a splendid sandstone sarcophagus decorated with a representation of were-jaguar. The other underground elements are “masks” which one describes as “offerings”, of “pavements” or “mosaics” when these pavements form a reason. One found five “massive offerings”: large pits dug through the existing grounds. Most famous is the massive offering 1. At the bottom of the pit 28 layers of blocks of serpentine are, a semi-precious matter, weighing more than 1000 tons. Immediately above the mosaic 3 was which was discussed many. One does not know in fact not what it represents, nor even in what a direction it should be looked at! Jacques Soustelle emitted the opinion that it was about the “ mask stylized of one jaguar to the crowned head of four ornaments in the form of rhombuses .” The opinion most commonly allowed is always that it is about a representation of were-jaguar, but which should be reversed the direction of the composition: the rhombuses are downwards. The face of the creature presents the slit out of V characteristic of many olmèques representations. But why would it have four eyes? According to Caterina Magni, it is not a question of a figurative image but of an abstracted graphic code evoking, inter alia, the glyphe “ four points and a bar ” significant of the quadripartite division of the ground. “Small the most known offering” could constitute a religious scene. With the bottom of a narrow pit had been laid out in driving position 16 human statuettes and six axes (in English “celts”) laid out like steles in background. If fourteen of the characters are into serpentine, the specialists are not agreement which of both last character exploits the main role, that out of jadeite or that out of basalt. Olmèques had a predilection for materials like jadeite or the serpentine one. These some examples give an idea of the problematic interpretation of the discoveries.

The incredible complexity of the site, even in its current disfigured state, inclines to think that it is about a crowned landscape, which constitutes a “interface” between the human mode and the supernatural world. This idea is all the more tempting as the deciphering of the Maya writing now makes it possible to better include/understand this function of the ceremonial center in civilizations mésoaméricaines. The colossal importance of this work not-utilities, the nature of the materials, which all come by far, imply a coordination which is not possible that in a hierarchically organized company.

The site of Venta is directed North-South, like those of San Lorenzo or Chalcatzingo. There are thus all the reasons to think that this orientation is intentional, more especially as it presents a shift of western 8°, so that the site is in alignment with a mountain located at a hundred kilometers in the south of Venta, and who is visible top of the “large pyramid”. The pyramid itself seems to divide the center of Venta into two zones. In the southern part, “public”, where were located the majority of the thrones (“furnace bridges”), would have taken place of ritual accessible to the unit from the population. The part located at north of the pyramid, where are the underground structures, would have been accessible only to the leaders, who came there into contact with their ancestors and the supernatural world. One can only repeat that in the absence of written documents they are always there only assumptions.

The abandonment of Was windy, as well as surrounding villages goes back to more or less -400. The most recent theories see there the consequence of tectonic movements in the area, which would have modified the course of the rivers.

Note