On a Saturday we took the office elders on an adventure to a remote archaeologocal site called San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán. It is way out there, south of Acayucan and Oluta in that narrowest area of Mexico in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán is one of the four major Olmec site which have been discovered. The other are La Venta, Tres Zapotes, and Laguna de los Cerros. It was a gamble. We did not know what we would find. Whoa! What a find it was!


In the small museum in the very, very small town there were some great artifacts. There were pieces of aqueduct.


There was a spherical stone which is about three feet high. One of these also sits in one of the quads on the BYU campus. There it is labeled "Pre-Colombian Ball." No one has figured out the purpose of these huge spheres cut from stone.


There was an interesting cat and human figure. The human, which the label in the museum said was a mythical Olmec, seems to be descending head down from above. You will have to click on the picture to make it big enough to see the human figure. He is wearing a loincloth, a bird hat, and is carrying a scroll. The feline's eyes are large discs and its eyeteeth are enlarged and curved. The sign said that the meaning of the carving is unknown.


The Olmec head is in nearly perfect condition. It is 1.80 meters (5.9 feet) tall and weighs over 8 tons.