HondurasTerminal Olmec style
700-500 B.C.
Ht. 31 cm (12.25")
An extraordinary provincial sculpture of a highly stylized elongated figure with hunched shoulders, bent arms clasping the midriff, and thick hunky legs. Grooved features suggest a beard, headcrest that comes to a triangular point at the back, and wide armbands. He stands on a low four-legged bench, further decorated with grooves.
This sculpture relates to the unique class of stone "bench figures" distributed through the southern highlands, and centering in the Kaminaljuyu zone of Guatemala. These small chunky figures, however, are normally seated on such a bench. I have presented considerable documentary evidence to date this style to the end of the Olmec hegemony, ca. 700-500 B.C. It also foreshadows many Post-Olmec sub styles in Mesoamerica.
