The Olmec Head
at the Yale Peabody Museum

This fiberglass cast in the Yale Peabody Museum’s third floor auditorium is of a basalt sculpture from the Early Olmec center of San Lorenzo, Tenochtitlan, Vera Cruz, Mexico. The original head dates to about 1200 to 900 B.C.E. and is probably a portrait of an Olmec king. The helmet may have been a protective covering for the sacred ball game.

The cast was made in 1967 by a team of archaeologists led by Michael D. Coe, C.J. MacCurdy Professor of Anthropology Emeritus at Yale, and Curator Emeritus of Anthropology at the Peabody Museum.

Note that this exhibit may not be accessible when the auditorium is in use.

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