1200-400 BCE
San Lorenzo Colossal Head 4
This massive stone sculpture is one of 17 known works of Olmec origin depicting stylized male heads. It is also one of ten found in the ruins of the former Olmec city of San Lorenzo, in present-day Mexico. These pieces all bear marked similarities but each is also unique, as Ayodale Braimah explains: "all of the sculptures depict a helmeted man but each individual sculpture has its own set of unique facial characteristics." Each helmet is also unique in appearance. Braimah adds that the heads, which are estimated to weigh about 40 tons and stand between 10-15 feet tall, bear traces of pigments and plaster, "suggesting that the heads may have been painted at one point."