Olmec Head

This Olmec Head is in front of the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. Here is the description of the head.

The National Museum of Natural History has had a long and involved research program centered on the Olmec culture in southern Mexico. Outside the museum you will see an exact 1.78m (5.84 ft) tall carved stone replica of Colossal Head #4. This sculpture was created by Ignacio Pérez Solano. He carved the 6 ton head out of volcanic stone, and faithfully replicated the original head carved by the Olmec about 3000 years ago. This replica was a gift to the Smithsonian from Miguel Alemán Velazco, then governor of the state of Veracruz, Mexico. In 1946, Smithsonian archaeologist Matthew W. Stirling excavated the original head, named "San Lorenzo Colossal head #4" after the town near which it was discovered. Now on display at the Museum of Anthropology in Xalapa, Veracruz, it was lent to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in 1978 for the “Treasures of Mexico”exhibit. During its exhibition here it was displayed on the mall steps, where either the banded iron or the fossil wood can presently be seen.