Word: olmec
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Boys are apparently of pre-Olmec origin, sculptured by predecessors of the earliest known civilization in Mesoamerica, who dwelt in a region around Izapa, an ancient priestly center just across the border in Mexico. The gifted artisans did not insert magnetic rocks into the figures, but apparently carved them around natural magnetic poles in the original basaltic boulders. But how did they discover this magnetism? Mesoamerica's oldest known lodestone, or primitive compass, a 2.5-cm (1-in.) bar made of magnetic rock, dates back only to 1000 B.C., a millennium younger than the Fat Boys and some...
Such natural pointers would explain how the Olmecs sculptured a 3,500-year-old figure of a turtle with a magnetic snout. To the Olmecs, Malmstrom speculates the magnetism may have been the magical power by which sea turtles found their way across great expanses of ocean. (He also suggests that the magnetic turtle may hint of Olmec contacts with the Chinese, since they also made their early compasses in the shape of turtles.) As for the Fat Boys, Malmstrom says, their magnetism may represent the life force, with the navel symbolizing birth, and the temple consciousness or knowledge...
...face of it, there is a passing resemblance. The great stone visage is that of an Olmec god who had something to do with athletics. That fellow posing in front of it to promote his city of Veracruz had something to do with athletics too. As mayor, he is known to his constituents as Roberto Avila González, 53. But a larger body of sports buffs remember him as Bobby Avila, who 20 years ago played second base for the Cleveland Indians when the Indians had more chiefs than they do these days. Avila in ten years with Cleveland...
Every year thousands of pre-Hispanic objects-Mayan stelae, Aztec jewelry, Incan pottery, Olmec figurines-are smuggled out of Mexico, Central America and the Andean nations of South America. The illicit trade easily reaches millions of dollars annually and involves characters so bizarre they might have stepped out of an old Humphrey Bogart film: shrewd peasants, soldiers of fortune, venal archaeologists, dealers, diplomats and collectors who are ready to pay-or do-almost anything to satisfy their greed...
Finally, there was the Olmec monkey trinket that the prosecution said had been given to her by S.L.A. Member Willie Wolfe. It was found in her purse when she was arrested-a fact that led jurors to wonder about her claim that Wolfe had raped her and that she could not stand him. "I believe she really did love Willie Wolfe," said a woman juror...