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Were-jaguar
The werejaguar was both an Olmec motif and a supernatural entity, perhaps a deity. The werejaguar motif is characterized by almond-shaped eyes, a downturned open mouth, and a cleft head. It appears widely in the Olmec archaeological record, and in many cases, under the principle of ''pars pro toto'', the werejaguar motif represents the werejaguar supernatural. The werejaguar supernatural incorporates the werejaguar motif as well as other features, although various academics define the werejaguar supernatural differently. The werejaguar supernatural was once considered to be the primary deity of the Olmec culture but is now thought to be only one of many. Originally, many scholars believed that the werejaguar was tied to a myth concerning a copulation between a jaguar and a woman. Although this hypothesis is still recognized as viable by many researchers, other explanations for the werejaguar motif have since been put forward, several questioning whether the motif actually represe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Were
''Were'' and ''wer'' are archaism, archaic terms for adult male humans and were often used for alliteration with wife as "were and wife" in Germanic-speaking cultures (, , , , , , ). In Anglo-Saxon law ''wer'' was the value of a man's life. He could be required to pay his ''wer'' to the king as a penalty for crime. If he was murdered then his relatives were entitled to his wergild as compensation from the murderer. Etymology and usage The word has cognates in various other languages, for example, Latin ' (as in virility) and Irish language, Gaelic ' (plural ' as in Fir Bolg) both mean a male human. It is likely that ''wer'' forms part of a compound word in ''werewolf'' (man-wolf), although there are other proposed etymologies.Concise OED, entry "werewolf" In folklore and fantasy fiction, ''were-'' is often affix, prefixed to an animal name to indicate a therianthropic figure or shapeshifting, shapeshifter (''e.g.'' "were-boar"). Hyphenation used to be mandatory, but is now c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Las Limas Monument 1
Las Limas Monument 1, also known as the Las Limas figure or the Señor de las Limas, is a greenstone figure of a youth holding a limp were-jaguar baby. Found in the State of Veracruz, Mexico, in the Olmec heartland, the statue is famous for its incised representations of Olmec supernaturals. It is the largest known greenstone sculpture. Interpretation Sculptures of headdressed figures holding inert were-jaguar babies appear often in the Olmec archaeological record, from the smallest of figurines to the huge table-top thrones such as La Venta Altar 5. What these sculptures symbolised to the Olmecs is not clear. Some researchers, focusing on the symbolic cave surrounding the figure on Altar 5 believe that these sculptures relate to myths of spiritual journeys or human origins. Others find that the limp depiction of the were-jaguar baby denotes child sacrifice. File:Las Limas Right shoulder.svg, Figure from right shoulder, generally identified as the Banded-eye God. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bas-relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane. When a relief is carved into a flat surface of stone (relief sculpture) or wood ( relief carving), the field is actually lowered, leaving the unsculpted areas seeming higher. The approach requires chiselling away of the background, which can be time-intensive. On the other hand, a relief saves forming the rear of a subject, and is less fragile and more securely fixed than a sculpture in the round, especially one of a standing figure where the ankles are a potential weak point, particularly in stone. In other materials such as metal, clay, plaster stucco, ceramics or papier-mâché the form can be simply added to or raised up from the background. Monumental bronze reliefs are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Teopantecuanitlan
Teopantecuanitlan is an archaeological site in the Mexican state of Guerrero that represents an unexpectedly early development of complex society for the region. The site dates to the Early to Middle Formative Periods, with the archaeological evidence indicating that some kind of connection existed between Teopantecuanitlan and the Olmec heartland of the Gulf Coast. Prior to the discovery of Teopantecuanitlan in the early 1980s, little was known about the region's sociocultural development and organization during the Formative period. Location Teopantecuanitlan is located in the state of Guerrero, about 20 km in the southwesterly direction from the town of Copalillo. The nearest village is Tlalcozotitlan. It is situated at the convergence of the Amacuzac and Balsas rivers, and five miles (8 km) from where the Amacuzac flows into the Mezcala River, providing an environment for trade and travel. Teopantecuanitlan occupies some 1.6 to 2 km2 (500 acres), and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Celt (tool)
In archaeology, a celt is a long, thin, prehistoric, stone or bronze tool similar to an adze, hoe, or axe. A shoe-last celt was a polished stone tool used during the early European Neolithic for felling trees and woodworking. Etymology The term "celt" seems to have come about from a copyist's error in many medieval manuscript copies of Job 19:24 in the Latin Vulgate Bible, which became enshrined in the authoritative Sixto-Clementine printed edition of 1592. Where all earlier versions (the Codex Amiatinus, for example) have ''vel certe'' (the Latin for 'but surely'), the Sixto-Clementine has ''vel celte''. The Hebrew has לעד (''lā‘aḏ'') at this point, which means 'forever'. The editors of the Oxford English Dictionary " nclineto the belief that ''celtis'' was a phantom word", simply a misspelling of ''certe''. However, some scholars over the years have treated ''celtis'' as a real Latin word. From the context of Job 19:24 ("Oh, that my words were inscribed with an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greenstone (archaeology)
Greenstone is a common generic term for valuable, green-hued minerals and metamorphosed igneous rocks and stones which early cultures used in the fashioning of hardstone carvings such as jewelry, statuettes, ritual tools, and various other artifacts. Greenstone artifacts may be made of greenschist, chlorastrolite, serpentine, omphacite, chrysoprase, olivine, nephrite, chloromelanite among other green-hued minerals. The term also includes jade and jadeite, although these are perhaps more frequently identified by these latter terms. The greenish hue of these rocks generally derives from the presence of minerals such as chlorite, hornblende, or epidote.Kipfer (2000, p.218) Greenstone minerals were presumably selected for their color rather than their chemical composition. In archaeology therefore, having a loosely applied general term is at least partially influenced by the observation that ancient cultures often used and considered these various green-hued materials as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial planet, rocky planet or natural satellite, moon. More than 90% of all volcanic rock on Earth is basalt. Rapid-cooling, fine-grained basalt is chemically equivalent to slow-cooling, coarse-grained gabbro. The eruption of basalt lava is observed by geologists at about 20 volcanoes per year. Basalt is also an important rock type on other planetary bodies in the Solar System. For example, the bulk of the plains of volcanism on Venus, Venus, which cover ~80% of the surface, are basaltic; the lunar mare, lunar maria are plains of flood-basaltic lava flows; and basalt is a common rock on the surface of Mars. Molten basalt lava has a low viscosity due to its relatively low silica content (between 45% and 52%), resulting in rapidly moving lava flo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karl Taube
Karl Andreas Taube (born September 14, 1957) is an American Mesoamericanist, Mayanist, iconographer and ethnohistory, ethnohistorian, known for his publications and research into the pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica and the American Southwest. He is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, University of California, Riverside.Board of Regents, UC (2006) In 2008 he was named the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences distinguished lecturer. Family background Karl Taube's father, Canadian-born Henry Taube (d. 2005), whose parents were ethnic Germans, was the recipient of the 1983 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Education Taube commenced his undergraduate education at Stanford University, Stanford, relocating to University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley where he completed a Bachelor of Arts, B.A. in Anthropology in 1980. He enrolled in graduate studies in Anthropology at Yale University, Yale, where he comple ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
