Editing Olmecs (section)

===Jade face masks===
Another type of artifact is much smaller; [[hardstone carving]]s in [[jade]] of a face in a mask form. Jade is a particularly precious material, and it was used as a mark of rank by the ruling classes.<ref>Milliken, William M. "Pre-Columbian Jade and Hard Stone." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 36, no. 4 (April 1949): 53–55. Accessed 17 March 2018.</ref> By 1500 BCE early Olmec sculptors mastered the human form.<ref name=Miller>Miller, Mary Ellen. "The Art of Mesoamerica From Olmec to Aztec." Thames & Hudson; 4th edition (20 October 2006).</ref> This can be determined by wooden Olmec sculptures discovered in the swampy bogs of El Manati.<ref name=Miller/> Before radiocarbon dating could tell the exact age of Olmec pieces, archaeologists and art historians noticed the unique "Olmec-style" in a variety of artifacts.<ref name=Miller/>

Curators and scholars refer to "Olmec-style" face masks but, to date, no example has been recovered in an archaeologically controlled Olmec context. They have been recovered from sites of other cultures, including one deliberately deposited in the ceremonial [[altepetl]] (precinct) of [[Tenochtitlan]] in what is now [[Mexico City]]. The mask would presumably have been about 2000 years old when the [[Aztecs]] buried it, suggesting such masks were valued and collected as were Roman [[antiquities]] in Europe.<ref>[http://artworld.uea.ac.uk/cms/index.php?q=node/873 "University of East Anglia collections"]{{dead link|date=November 2023|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}, ''Artworld''</ref> The 'Olmec-style' refers to the combination of deep-set eyes, nostrils, and strong, slightly asymmetrical mouth.<ref name=Miller/> The "Olmec-style" also very distinctly combines facial features of both humans and jaguars.<ref name=Museum>The British Museum. "Olmec Stone Mask." [https://smarthistory.org/olmec-stone-mask/ Smarthistory.com].</ref> Olmec arts are strongly tied to the Olmec religion, which prominently featured jaguars.<ref name=Museum/> The Olmec people believed that in the distant past a race of werejaguars was made between the union of a jaguar and a woman.<ref name=Museum/> One werejaguar quality that can be found is the sharp cleft in the forehead of many supernatural beings in Olmec art. This sharp cleft is associated with the natural indented head of jaguars.<ref name=Museum/>

<gallery class="center" widths="170px" heights="170px">
Ornamental Mask MET 1978.412.30.jpg|Ornamental mask; 10th century BCE; [[Serpentine subgroup|serpentine]]; height: 9.2&nbsp;cm, width: 7.9&nbsp;cm, depth: 3.2&nbsp;cm; [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] (New York City)
Mask MET AO1977.187.33.jpg|Mask; 10th–6th century BCE; [[jadeite]]; height: 17.1&nbsp;cm, width: 16.5&nbsp;cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
Mask, Gulf Coast Olmec culture, Rio Pesquero, Veracruz state, Middle Formative period, c. 900-500 BC, jadeite - Dallas Museum of Art - DSC04570.jpg|Mask; c. 900–500 BCE; jadeite; [[Dallas Museum of Art]] ([[Dallas]], Texas, US)
Olmec mask MIA.jpg|Mask with [[cinnabar]] "tattoos"; c. 900–300 BCE; jadeite with cinnabar; [[Minneapolis Institute of Art]] ([[Minneapolis]], US) 
</gallery>