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Between 1957 and 1958 the poet
Carlos Pellicer rescued the principal monuments of thIS inaccessible
archaeological site, and placed them in an ambience similar to that of his
birthplace, to announce to the world one of the most notable sets of this
type: the Park Museum of The Selling in Villahermosa, Tabasco.
New footpaths were planned in the
area where the archaeological monuments are located and some sculptures were
relocated. Previously the Park was a large square, where local craftspeople
exhibited their wares. New services for the visitors were established: snack
bars, shelters, bathrooms & phones.
Under the supervision of UNAH and
with technical support from the Getty Conservation Institute, the area has
been restored using suitable materials, and with internal wastepipes to
drain rainwater to avoid capillary water damage.
The Olmecs of La Venta is an
enclosure installed in a large ramp of multiple uses which was previously in
the area's regional zoo - and was prepared in consultancy with the
archaeologists Rebeca González-Lauck and Hernando Gómez, and Iker Larrauri
created the design graphics.
After welcoming the visitors, the
creation of the park is explained, and its relocation in this context. A
definition of Olmec culture is given, as one of the more spectacular of
ancient Mexico, arising 3,000 years ago on the Gulf Coast. In contrast to
its contemporaries, this society was already divided, so that the peasants -
residents in villages or small dispersed peoples - supported the priests &
leaders, who were living in well-planned cities. The second topic refers to
the rescue of the monuments. By means of ancient photography, Carlos
Pellicer presented his reasons for moving the monuments of La Venta to
Villahermosa.
A map of the area of this Gulf coast with
outstanding expressions of the Olmec determines their known dates, and
initiates the following topic: The territory and time. In the center of the
spread, in a pit of 80 cm of excavated depth, there remains a big mock-up
that proves to be the reconstruction of the administration of the city of La
Venta, with its sets of placed buildings to a conventional scale - in the
exact opposite location. Many of them are a miniature mirror of those in the
Park. Likewise, as in subsoil of La Venta, beautiful gifts appeared,
multiple statuettes and sarcofagi, and they were also they were represented
to scale. In the certificates they speak about the leaders, the credence,
the symbols and the art of the Olmec of La Venta.
Examples of ceremonial ceramics of
the area are scarce, so several reproductions have been created for the
area, and are exhibited along with several original statuettes.
In diverse areas of the Museum, there appear copies of
various Olmec sculptures slightly well-known and not in the Park: the
Juchimán, Colossal Ia Cabeza number 2, the Dancing Tiger, beautiful heads
with glifos in the eyes, among others.
Finally, by means of murals and some original objects,
visitors learn about Olmec survival and the trade of the settlers of the
area, and their high level In these sections Ia explains to himself wealth
of Ia ground in Ia which of social development.
To complement the tour, EDUMAC
produced an interactive electronic program called "olmecas and its relations
with other towns", -a new educational method in museums, and widely accepted
by children, young people and adults.
One of the most beautiful spaces in
the Museum is a gift, composed of 115 original axes of stone green installed
in a shop window excavated from the soil: of an Iecho of sand worn gilthead
of the region of Huimanguillo, coIocaron Ith axes representing someone of
importance, with many massive gifts of beautiful materials. As epilogue
presents itself in the Estela 5 of La Venta, which can be related to death
under siege.
Directly from the Museum,
towards the Archaeological Park, visitors will observe the monuments from
another perspective: they will understand that in addition to being
magnificent pieces of art, La Venta is the product of an urban society with
consolidated structures of power, which developed very early, 1,000 years
ago - owing, on the one hand, to the natural wealth of the ground and, on
the other, to the organization of an extensive network of exchange that the
Olmecs established and to supported for hundreds of years, with its
neighbours. Coming from the coast, Olmec works were always highly valued. In
them are found burial gifts of important people and relics of advanced
contexts, meaning that the recognition on the part of other peoples towards
their myths and symbols were valued as a product of a complex and organized
society.
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