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The Environs of Tres Zapotes as the Find-Spot of the Tuxtla Statuette
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2020
Abstract
The famous greenstone figure known as the Tuxtla Statuette is one of only 12 objects known to bear an epi-Olmec inscription and was the first to become known to scholarship. For more than a century its original find-spot was imprecisely and erroneously identified as lying in the township of San Andrés Tuxtla or, more generally, in the Tuxtla Mountains. Correspondence in the National Anthropology Archives of the Smithsonian Institution documents that the figure was found on the Hacienda de Hueyapan de Mimendi, near the colossal head of Tres Zapotes. Archival research in Mexico's National Museum of Anthropology and the Archivo General del Estado de Veracruz, as well as interviews with descendants of owners of the Hacienda de Hueyapan and the statuette, allow us to confirm several features of the Smithsonian correspondence. The data indicate that the statuette was found within or very near the epi-Olmec regional center of Tres Zapotes and within the township of Santiago Tuxtla.
La famosa figura de piedra verde conocida como la estatuilla de Tuxtla tiene la primera inscripción reconocida en el sistema epi-olmeca, y constituye hoy en día una de solo doce asignadas a esta tradición. Por más de un siglo el lugar de su descubrimiento ha sido vaga e imprecisamente ubicado en el municipio de San Andrés Tuxtla, o en la Sierra de los Tuxtlas en general. Correspondencia guardada en los National Anthropology Archives de la Smithsonian Institution documenta que la figura fue hallada en la Hacienda de Hueyapan de Mimendi, cerca de la “cabeza colosal” de Tres Zapotes. Investigaciones en el archivo del Museo Nacional de Antropología en la Ciudad de Mexico y el Archivo General del Estado de Veracruz, así como entrevistas con los descendientes de los dueños de la Hacienda de Hueyapan y la estatuilla, nos han permitido confirmar varios elementos de la correspondencia del Smithsonian. Con base en esta investigación la estatuilla de los Tuxtlas se halló dentro o muy cerca del centro regional epi-olmeca Tres Zapotes, ubicado en el municipio de Santiago Tuxtla.
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