Ancient Americas: The Olmec Heads
The Ancients
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The History of the Olmec Heads
The assumption is that only people with a great deal of political clout would have had the resources and the influence to commission what look like portraits of themselves. There's also been an acknowledgement that a number of them were probably recarved from thrones. Most of the examples I could think of of stone portraiture for later Mesoamerican peoples is portraits that are commissioned by the rulers themselves. So I think it likely that they are commissioned while the ruler is alive but some people would debate me about that.
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