The carved stone images Olmec kings wore on their foreheads and chests projected supernatural power.

Ground stone axe heads, or celts, were tools for clearing wood and brush from land to be farmed. Celts made of precious greenstone, jadeite, and serpentine were important in Olmec ritual and may have constituted a form of wealth. Celts were most commonly placed in caches and burials. Incised celts were produced late in the Olmec era. In form, they are adaptations

During the late second millennium BCE, ceramic female figures were a popular theme among the peoples of central Mexico. They often share a number of characteristics including unnatural limbs and distinctive, sometimes abnormal, facial features, which may have granted them more direct access to the supernatural world.

During the late second millennium BCE, ceramic female figures were a popular theme among the peoples of central Mexico. They often share a number of characteristics including unnatural limbs and distinctive, sometimes abnormal, facial features, which may have granted them more direct access to the supernatural world.

Hollow pottery baby figurines are a common theme in Olmec art, where they represent the capacity of kings to regenerate life out of death. They are known as baby-face figurines because they exhibit plump bodies and facial features similar to an infant. They are normally depicted in a seated position, with arms raised and legs spread, and nude with no indication of gender.

The vast Mesoamerican culture area encompasses most of what is today central and southeastern Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize, and the western areas of Honduras and El Salvador.

This small, jadeite spoon pendant bears an incised motif that may represent a monkey or other supernatural creature. The figure wears a headdress and is shown with large, bulging eyes and a snarling grimace with exposed teeth. The large eyes may also indicate a state of trance or transformation, a bridge between the natural and supernatural worlds.

The carved stone images Olmec kings wore on their foreheads and chests projected supernatural power. This pendant is carved in the shape of a mythological animal that may represent a jaguar or some type of feline-like creature. It would have originally been suspended from a necklace by the drilled holes at the back of the figure.

The Olmec established a tradition of portraiture through colossal stone heads and figural sculpture. The carved stone images Olmec kings wore on their foreheads and chests projected supernatural power.