2019-07-13_Archaeology_Magazine

that the artists of Monte Alto sculpted the features of some

of these potbelly figures in such a way that their facial and

navel areas are magnetized. “As far as I know, aligning certain

anatomical features on sculptures with magnetic anomalies is

an unprecedented use of magnetism,” says Fu.

Monte Alto flourished as a regional center from about

300 b.c. to the very end of the first century b.c., and was

ruled by nobles who governed a class of commoners largely

composed of maize farmers. The potbelly figures are

believed to have represented the revered ancestors of these

nobles, and were positioned in full view of Monte Alto’s

residents. “These representations were used to establish

public worship of the royal ancestors and help solidify the

elites’ control,” says Harvard archaeologist Nicholas Carter,

who was part of the team that analyzed the sculptures.

“There must have been elaborate rituals centered around

these potbelly sculptures.”

A

rchaeologistshadpreviously established that some

of the Monte Alto potbellies seemed to have magnetic

properties, but they weren’t able to deter-

mine the cause of the anomalies, or verify that

they were not the result of recent contami-

nation by hand magnets. “We wanted to

use quantitative methods to confirm

their observations,” says Fu.

His team surveyed the

sculptures with magne-

tometers, instruments

Fu usually uses to

measure the mag-

netic properties

of rock outcrop-

pings. They

determined

that, prior to

being carved,

the boulders had

been struck by

lightning, pro-

ducing areas of

magnetized rock.

The researchers suggest that ancient sculptors could have

detected these magnetic hot spots using naturally occurring

magnets called lodestones. At the Olmec city of San Lorenzo,

archaeologists found a magnetized stone bar crafted between

1400 and 1000 b.c. that might have served as such a lodestone.

Similarly, iron-rich pyrite mirrors were common in ancient

Mesoamerica, and studies have shown that some 6 percent of

them possess magnetic properties.

When Monte Alto’s artists sculpted a potbelly, they may

have used lodestones or pyrite mirrors to locate

anomalies, allowing them to line up the magnetic

areas of a particular basalt boulder with the

face or torso. The finished sculpture’s ability

to repel or attract objects during

carefully staged rituals would

surely have left viewers awe-

struck and created the illu-

sion that the ancestral

spirit still lived within

the whistling potbelly

figure. “Mesoameri-

cans were careful

observers of the

natural world,”

says Carter. “We

shouldn’t be

surprised that

they had a keen

awareness of a

phenomenon

such as magne-

tism.” n

Jason

Urbanus is a

contributing editor at

Archaeology.

archaeology.org 37

Mesoamericans

GUATEMALA

MEXICO

0 50 100 miles

Archaeological site

Modern city

San Lorenzo

Monte Alto La Democracia

A sculpture

from Monte Alto

measuring about

five feet tall and five

feet wide was found to be

magnetized around its belly.

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