Tuxtla Statuette
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1903
label: Collection Date
content: 1902
name: label: Collector
content: R. E. Ulbricht
label: Donor Name
content: R. E. Ulbricht
label: Site Name
content: Hueyapan Hacienda
notes: label: Notes
content: JADEITE STATUETTE, THE SO-CALLED "TUXTLA STATUETTE". THREE CASTS AND TWO MOLDS MADE FROM THE ORIGINAL [see A222579-1].
label: Notes
content: From Olmec website (http://anthropology.si.edu/olmec), retrieved 2004: "The Tuxtla statuette, carved of jadeite diopside, bears columns of incised glyphs corresponding to 162 A.D. The statuette was found by a farmhand while plowing on a hacienda in Hueyapan in Veracruz, Mexico. Figure is wearing a duck bill mask. Incised glyphs decorate all sides of the figure. Dimensions: 15.4 x 9.3 cm."
label: Notes
content: The statuette was found by a farmer while plowing on a hacienda in Hueyapan, Veracruz at the beginning of the 1900s and has been under Smithsonian stewardship since 1904. The Tuxtla Statuette belongs to the epi-Olmec culture which succeeded the Olmec culture. Carved of jadeite diopside, the statuette is only one of a dozen epi-Olmec texts known to date. The Tuxtla Statuette is the archeological artifact that allowed for epi-Olmec decipherment work to develop. It displays the first epi-Olmec text to have been discovered which includes a Long Count date of 162 CE. as well as one of the most extensive and best preserved texts, making the Tuxtla Statuette especially critical for decipherment of the epi-Olmec syllabary. The language of the texts is the ancestor of contemporary Zoquean languages spoken indigenously in the states of Veracruz, Chiapas and Oaxaca, and nowadays highly endangered.
label: Notes
content: This object was on display in the National Museum of Natural History exhibit "Objects of Wonder", 2017 - 2024. Exhibit label identifies it as Epi-Olmec, from Veracruz, Mexico, AD 162, made of Jadeite diopside. "The statuette portrays a man wearing a bird costume, complete with wings, bird legs, and a half mask resembling a water-bird's bill (most likely a Boat-billed Heron)."
label: Notes
content: See Justeson, John, Pool, Christopher A., Ceballos, Ponciano O., Rodríguez Martínez, María del Carmen and Walsh, Jane M. 2020. "The Environs of Tres Zapotes as the Find-Spot of the Tuxtla Statuette." Latin American Antiquity, 31(4): 747-764. https://doi.org/10.1017/laq.2020.61 . Correspondence in the National Anthropological Archives 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, allowed the authors 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.
label: Notes
content: 1988 photo documentation project of Tuxtla statuette by Victor Krantz, Smithsonian Photographic Services: BW Neg. #s 88-12985 - 88-13012. Ultraviolet - BW Neg. #s 88-13041 - 57. Tungsten - BW Neg. #s 88-13018 - 27; 88-13058 - 65. Panchromatic - BW Neg. #s 88-13066 - 95. Infrared - BW Neg. #s 88-13034; 88-13036 - 40. Sublimate - BW Neg. #s 88-13013 - 17; 88-13028 - 33; 88-13035. 35 mm Color slides Neg. #s 88-12988 -91; 88-12993; 88-12995 - 99; 88-13096 - 105. There are also 4 x 5 color transparencies which are unnumbered. File/print copies of these images are in an archival box in the MSC Anthro. Collections Lab photo files area. Original negatives etc. are on file at Smithsonian Institution Archives photographic services.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 23 May 2025
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: San Andres Tuxtla, Veracruz, Mexico, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Archaeology
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 041871
label: USNM Number
content: A222579-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Figure
physicalDescription: label: Unknown
content: 15.4 cm
label: Unknown
content: 9.3 cm