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Location: Monument 8 was discovered by Stirling during the 1938-39 field season "near the base of the southernmost mound of the Burnt Mounds Group" (Stirling 1943:23). Stirling's report is characteristically vague but the best guess is that he meant some side of Structure 19. Monument 8 was moved to the site museum at its dedication in 1975.
Associations: None recorded.
Condition: Eroded, the forehead ground away in two vertical facets.
Photographs: Present report, Plate 16; Stirling 1939:191, 1943: Plate 11a; Schau 1983: Plates 410, 411 and 413.
Drawings: Present report, Figures 19, 20, 21: de la Fuente 1973:300; Schau 1983: Figure 412.
References: Stirling 1939, 1943; de la Fuente 1973; Schau 1983.
Carved Areas: Sculpture in the round.
Material: This monument was not tested by Williams. However, there is nothing about it to suggest that its material is any different than that of Monument 1.
Dimensions: Height 74 cm, Width 43 cm, Depth 43 cm.
Description: Tres Zapotes Monument 8 is the truncated-conical severed head of an Olmec style sculpture in the round. The break at the neck has been smoothed to remove rough edges. The front of the head is divided into two horizontal zones of approximately equal height. The lower zone is a face with buccal mask, while the upper zone is the defaced cranium of the head.
At the center of the lower zone is the buccal mask with bracket shaped upper lip and bow shaped lower lip. The corners of the mouth are drilled and extend beyond the sides of the upper lip. Within the mouth two great curving fangs emerge from the upper gum and terminate outside the mouth on either side of the chin. The cheeks are rounded and rise to the level of the top of the upper lip.
Above the buccal mask is a broad flat nose with indications of drilled nostrils. To either side of the nose are deep set eye sockets containing slit eyes with broad "U" elements for pupils. The outer edges of the eyes turn down to meet the top of the cheek. The downturned outer edges of the eyes create a raised area enclosed by the eye, the nose and the cheek. This enclosed area suggests a nictating membrane covering the bottom, inner edge of each eye.
There is no nasion but above each eye is a supraorbital feature which curves up at the outer edges. The right supraorbital feature is thicker than the left and pushes the right eye lower on the face than the left eye. The cranium is high and featureless aside from two post-carving concavities. The top of the head is missing but the profile shows the likelihood that the top of the head curved forward.
Raised rectangular bands on the sides of the head represent the ears. There may have been carving on the forward edges of these ear bands, but chipping and flaking of these features make it impossible to be certain.
The back of the head has no sculptural details. But all of the remaining surfaces were finely dressed. The original monument must have been quite impressive since 1.5 m. seems a minimum estimate of the height of the complete monument.
Remarks: Stirling insisted on inverting this sculpture fragment and identifying it as an "owl". It must have taken great determination to identify the "owl" because the fragment will not stand easily on its crown and rather than photograph it lying down he had a workman hold it upside-down with its back braced against a stake (Stirling 1939, 1943). Schau has independently arrived at the same discovery and observes that "Monument H [8] is one of many blatant examples of visual illiteracy or, at best, visual insensitivity within the field of Olmec archaeology. This sculpture was first published in 1943, in the National Geographic Magazine and in the Bulletin of the Bureau of American Ethnology, as an owl. Thirty years later, in 1973, it was cataloged again as an owl (lechuza) in Escultura monumental olmeca. At the present time it is still being exhibited, in an upside down position, as an owl!" (Schau 1983:337). During winter 1984-85 I notified the director of the site museum that Monument 8 was upside down and assisted in carrying out his directive to right the sculpture.
