Mondo Knows Facts

Olmec sculptors hauled basalt to carve colossal heads

Seventeen oversized stone portraits survive from the Gulf Coast of Mexico The Olmec civilisation flourished between roughly 1200 and 400 BCE in the tropical lowlands of what is now Veracruz and Tabasco. Its sculptors shaped helmets and faces into heads up to three metres tall, quarrying basalt in the Tuxtla mountains and dragging it many kilometres. Each head is thought to portray a specific ruler. It sits in Mondo's history collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

Smithsonian Institution

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Tags: olmec, mexico, sculpture

Olmec sculptors hauled basalt to carve colossal heads: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?
Seventeen oversized stone portraits survive from the Gulf Coast of Mexico. The figure is taken from Smithsonian Institution, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a history fact?
Yes. It sits on the History shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?
The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.