00:01.00 archpodnet Hello and welcome to the pseudo archeology podcast episode 103 tonight. We deal with the olmec stone heads are they proof. of ancient africans in Central America thousands of years ago of course not so why the olmec stoneheads for today. Well it's because I keep. Seeing it come up and man you guys. This is an old school pseudo archeology classic right? I think a lot of you have already heard this one where the olmec colossal heads which are found in Central America ah in modern day mexico are secretly proof that africans sailed across from africa and made it to central america back in oh 500 bc or a thousand bc or just pick whatever bc because it's all. Fake what data are they relying on. Well if you look at the stone heads. They have big lips. Oh yeah, oh yeah, these lips are not small. They are full size full lips. 01:31.60 archpodnet But ah, do only african people have big lips. Um, no, all kinds of different cultures throughout the world have big lips and small lips and in between lips including um well. Ancient olmec populations could have rather large lips in investigating this lipgate I've come across the fact that. People who say this are simply just full of it and I think you guys know that you know there's there's no data on this right? There are no artifacts from Africa that have ever been found in central america that date to anything like this time. Right? It's just an absolute fallacy. Um, and there's not much more not much more to say about that one but I will not leave you in the lurch dear listeners. Let's have a little fun first I think we should start with yes. Yes, friends. Another one of my stories and I know I know you're like can kill a man if I hear you say so there I was in Belize one more time I am going to. 02:58.20 archpodnet Turn off this podcast and never come back and I understand and I promise that I won't say that so there I was on my way back from bullies. That's right. On our way back from Belize a couple times we drove all the way through Mexico and then into the United States and finally back home and this trip would take about a week now I've talked about aspects of this trip before if you guys remember the episode. I talked about visiting the thing in Arizona that was during one of the years where I was driving down to Belize. But on our way back. We would often visit. Museums and this kind of thing anthropological archeological sites right? this this sort of thing and 1 year I want to say it was 1997 because I know it makes all the difference. Ah Lisa and I Lisa Lucera who I work with in Belize we were driving back and we decided to kind of. Do an olmec thing and so we stopped at the olmec museum in via Hermosa now. The olmec world is in what's called the isthmus of tawa to Peck and what an isthmus is is. It's a skinny part. 04:26.45 archpodnet Of a land mass and so that's it's the skinny part of Southern Mexico if you look on a map. Um, you can see the Yucatan Peninsula right the land of the maya just to the left of it. That's the isthmus of tawan to Peck that skinny part and the olmec world is on the atlantic side. Of that isthmus so they are west of the Maya world and today one of the major cities there is called via Hermosa and Lisa and I went to the museum there and saw several of these real olme heads these all my colossal heads and you guys they are. Extremely impressive and I just I just remember the size of them is of course that one of the first things you see you know, um, before you get all archeological. Your first reaction is whoa. Those are big right. And by big a bigger one would be maybe six feet tall or this kind of thing but just when I say six feet tall I think you guys are probably like what six feet tall I got plenty of things that are six feet tall you know but it has to also do with just the mass of stone right? This is. Yeah, it's six feet tall but it's six feet wide and you know it's just a large large carving of just pure stone right? and they're just really impressive to to look at and the kind of. 05:53.92 archpodnet Experience. There are some smaller ones if you want to say quote unquote small you know four and a half feet tall or something like that would be pretty small for these guys but I remember that experience and just thinking it was it was really really amazing. We also drove by um. The most famous olmec site called la venta which is just off of one of the main freeways that we were traveling along. We did not stop at la venta and I'll I'll tell you guys more about why that is later but we did. Drive by I took a quick photo literally from the road. You know how this goes you're you're driving along at you know, eighty miles an hour and you stick your arm out the window and hope for the best and I took like 5 but 1 of them did come out so you can see the pyramid from la venta kind of looming in the far. Far background more on that later but I did experience the olmec heads again in the summer of 2006 when my wife and I went to Mexico City and we went to the the museum of anthropology in Mexico City which is an amazing place. They have. Everything right? That's where stuff from the Maya area the aztec area the olmec area it all goes there right? So not only were we able to enjoy artifacts from these other cultures. They had a handful of. 07:26.14 archpodnet Olmec heads there as well now I know people are curious about like how many olmec heads are there. There are 17 and it's funny when I think about it I've seen a decent percentage of them right? between the museum and via Hermosa and the national museum in Mexico City you know I've seen I don't know how many is that 6 or 7 or eight I don't know but I've seen um, a decent, a decent number of these guys and and it's really cool when you're able to see several of them. They're all different right? These huge stone heads are. Obviously either specific deities or specific people I really think they look like specific people these huge stoneheads right? because each face is a is a specific face unto a specific person. Right? And they all also have kind of a um, helmet on that they're wearing as as well they're all they all have a similar ah show to them right? You can tell that even though these are all different people. The idea is going for the same. Thing like maybe these are all rulers and they're showing rulership. Yeah of the time they may also be as. 08:52.78 archpodnet Ball players playing the ball game right? They have a helmet on to get ready for the ball game or these could also be warriors. This could be a warrior headdress or why not a combination you know. Rulers may also show themselves as warriors or ball players. These are all cool things and rulers want to look cool. You know how many cultures can you think of where the ruler is shown in like a warrior garb. Ah now we as archeologists are not a hundred percent sure on any of those but we are using data and facts to make our guesses right? We know for sure of ah Kings and warriors and ball players in other. Mesoamerican cultures like the maya or the aztec all of which are directly related to the olmec and the olmec world for people who are doing the whole hey the lips look big thing that has nothing to do with any data or facts right. It's just silly. Ah I wish I had more jokes on that one but I just don't this is this old school ah olmec heads as african is straight out of like the Eric Von dinkin stuff but man this one still lives on. 10:22.75 archpodnet Why can't we just kill this one off when we come back professor Andrew Cankella attempts to kill this off once and for all.