Posted on 07/29/2011 9:25:44 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
A group of Mexican archaeologists have discovered a 1.5 ton stone relief from the Olmec culture created more than 2,800 years ago, the National Institute of Archaeology and History, or INAH, said.
The discovery was made at the archaeological site of Chalcatzingo in Morelos state, "the only pre-Columbian site known in central Mexico with large bas-reliefs," INAH said in a communique.
The work -- standing more than 1.5 meters (5 feet) tall -- was discovered in late April on the north slope of Chalcatzingo as archaeologists were building a containing wall and protective roofs for the other monoliths in the area.
Sculpted on the stone are three cats sitting in profile, looking west and surrounded by great scroll decorations.
The relief was found broken in 11 pieces, which the experts spent May and June restoring, so that only now is it possible "to admire the triad of felines in their entirety," INAH said.
Since the first explorations there in the 1930s, some 41 monuments have been discovered in Chalcatzingo up to now, four of which have cat figures, animals feared and venerated by the Olmecs, who inhabited the area between the years 800-500 B.C., a period known as the Middle Pre-Classical.
Experts believe that the Olmecs, the first civilization in the Americas to leave monumental architecture and sculptures, built a frieze all along the Chalcatzingo hill.
The Olmec civilization flourished between 1800 B.C. and A.D. 400 in the region occupied today by the states of Veracruz and Tabasco.
(Excerpt) Read more at laht.com ...
The Olmec and the ShangLast year, in a book entitled Origin of the Olmec Civilization, Professor Mike Xu, a Chinese who teaches in the foreign languages department at the University of Central Oklahoma, proposed a hypothesis which aroused a storm of controversy in archeological circles. In Xu's view, the first complex culture in Mesoamerica may have come into existence with the help of a group of Chinese who fled across the seas as refugees at the end of the Shang dynasty. The Olmec civilization arose around 1200 BC, which coincides with the time when King Wu of Zhou attacked and defeated King Zhou, the last Shang ruler, bringing his dynasty to a close.
by Claire Liu
tr. by Robert Taylor
Transpacific Contacts?
by Dr. Mike Xu
Texas Christian University
http://www.chinese.tcu.edu/www_chinese3_tcu_edu.htm
The Olmecs and later the Maya depicted jaguars in much of their art.
Some of their art depicted figures with human and jaguar features (at least that's how some interpret this:
Or is it this one?... 
"No, Maggie, not Aztec. Olmec. Ol-mec."
I will admit that my information might be quite out of date but as I remember we know almost nothing about the Olmecs, not even what they were really called. So isn't the above statement speculation?
We know they feared and venerated cats, and probably for good reason:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2755896/posts
Panthers and jaguars are much larger than house cats. Certainly they would be feared. But weren’t there other cats as well like the Ocelot that were intermediate in size? There were also cat goddesses in Egypt around the time the Olmec civilization began. Connection?
Ocelots, and just to cause trouble, the Onza (a cryptoanimal), Geoffrey’s Cat, at least two varieties of lynx, the Florida panther...
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