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Dumbarton Oaks Studies in Pre-Columbian Art and Archaeology
The Olmec Paintings of Oxtotitlan Cave, Guerrero, Mexico
David C. Grove

Olmec culture, which flourished in the tropical lowlands of Mexico’s Gulf coast between 1200 and 600 BCE, is today credited with developing the first civilization and first great art style of Mesoamerica. Art was an integral part of Olmec religion, has generally been known in three different forms: monumental stone carvings, including stelae, altars, colossal heads, and occasional human figures sculpted in the round;  small, “portable” stone objects of fine workmanship, including figurines and anthropomorphic axes (hachas), usually in jade, jadeite, or serpentine; and various ceramic forms including white-slipped, hollow, “baby-face” figures, and excised blackware bowls. To this list of important Olmec art forms we may now add a fourth category, Olmec painted art, which expands the geographical distribution of large Olmec art, for Olmec paintings are only known to occur in the state of Guerrero, a mountainous region on the Pacific coast of Mexico.