Colossal Head 4 EarthCache

Located on a public sidewalk in downtown Washington, DC, you will find this incredible Colossal Head from an ancient culture.

This basalt sculpture of an Olmec ruler is among 17 colossal heads known from one of the world's great ancient civilizations. Without wheels or iron tools, the Olmec created spectacular monumental sculptures & ceremonial centers on Mexico's Gulf Coast. In 1946, Smithsonian archaealogist Matthew W. Stirling excavated the 6 ton basalt original of this head, which is on display at the Museum of Anthropology in Xalapa, Veracruz.

The first amazing colossal stone head was found in 1860 in the swamps of the Mexican Gulf Coast. The region would come in time to be known as the Olmec heartland. Since then sixteen more of these monuments of the Olmec civilization have been unearthed.

In 1862 a colossal stone head was discovered in the state of Veracruz along the steaming Gulf Coast of Mexico. In the years to come, artifacts from the culture later termed "Olmec" turned up at widespread sites in Mexico and adjacent Central America, with the greatest number of characteristic themes being present in the region of the original discovery. For decades these findings were misinterpreted. The Maya were thought of as the "mother culture" of Mexico, and therefore the Olmecs were either insignificant or Mayan themselves, and in any case later in development.

Then in 1939 a carving was discovered near the gigantic head with a characteristic Olmec design on one side and a date symbol on the other. This revealed a shocking truth: the Olmecs had a far greater right to be considered the mother culture. Hundreds of years earlier than anyone had imagined, simple villages had given way to a complex society governed by kings and priests, with impressive ceremonial centers and artworks. Today many find the term "mother culture" misleading, but clearly the Olmecs came first.

Other megalithic heads were discovered in the intervening years, all with "African" facial features. This is not necessarily to suggest that the founders or leaders of Olmec civilization came directly from Africa, since many original populations of countries like Cambodia and the Philippines have similar characteristics. These might have been brought along when the first humans entered the Americas from Asia. A characteristic motif of Olmec art is a human face with a jaguar mouth, sometimes called a "were jaguar", as in werewolf. This suggests a derivation of Olmec religion from shamanistic shape shifting. There is evidence that the Olmecs practiced human sacrifice, including that of infants.

Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey.

On Earth, most basalt magmas have formed by decompression melting of the mantle. Basalt has also formed on Earth's Moon, Mars, Venus, and even on the asteroid Vesta. Source rocks for the partial melts probably include both peridotite and pyroxenite. The crustal portions of oceanic tectonic plates are composed predominantly of basalt, produced from upwelling mantle below ocean ridges. The term basalt is at times applied to shallow intrusive rocks with a composition typical of basalt, but rocks of this composition with a coarse groundmass are generally referred to as dolerite or gabbro.

The widespread occurrence of basalt masses, sizeable pieces of which have an overall homogeneity of color and other desirable characteristics, led to the early use of basalt for fashioning artifacts by the Olmecs, which have been found in South America. Among the basalt artifacts found are weapons, tools, and diverse sculpted and carved pieces, spearheads, adzes and scrapers, columns, bas reliefs, statues, statuettes, and manos and metates.

When visiting this earthcache, do not cross the fence. Stay on the sidewalk and view the sculpture from there. The Smithsonean Museum is nearby and I highly recommend that you visit. The museum is free of charge!

To get credit for this EC, post a photo of "you" (a human face of the geocacher visiting the EC) in front of the Colossal Head #4 and please answer the following questions.

1. When looking at the sculpture, explain why you think basalt would have been a chosen material for the creation of this stone head.

2. Estimate the weight of the Colossal Head.

Cav Scout has earned GSA's highest level

Do not log this EC unless you have answered the questions and have a picture ready to post! Logs with no photo of the actual cacher ( human face included) logging the find or failure to answer questions or negative comments will result in a log deletion without notice. Exceptions will be considered if you contact me first (I realize sometimes we forget our cameras or the batteries die). You must post a photo at the time of logging your find. If your picture is not ready then wait until you have a photo.

Sources of information for the EarthCache quoted from colossalheads.com and the Kentucky Geology information website. I have used sources available to me by using the library, internet, research, and asking questions to get information for this earth cache. I am by no means a geologist. Like most people I use whats available to me to get geological information just like 99.9 percent of the geocachers who create these great Earth Caches. I enjoy Earth Caches and want people to get out and see what I see every time I go and explore this great place we live in.

While the above picture is a nice photo of the EC, its also an fine example of whats not accepted as the picture requirement. This is the classic hand shot.