Colossal Head Transportation Methods Remain Unexplained. About 17 colossal basalt heads have been found in the Olmec world The largest head (La Venta) weighs approximately 50 tons The smallest Olmec head weighs 6 tons
How did the Olmec transport massive basalt heads ~100km from volcanic mountains? Dr. Ed Barnhart's nautical algorithms found a 50-ton basalt block would require an impossibly large balsa wood raft to navigate the Coatzacoalcos River. Of 16 known heads, weighing 6 to 25.3 tons each, the transportation method remains unexplained.
Key Facts
- About 17 colossal basalt heads have been found in the Olmec world
- The largest head (La Venta) weighs approximately 50 tons
- The smallest Olmec head weighs 6 tons
- Basalt was transported approximately 90 kilometers from the Sierra de Los Tuxtlas volcanic belt
- The only known transportation method was balsa wood river rafts
- A nautical engineer determined that the minimum raft size needed to support a 5-ton head could not fit through the narrow stretches of the Coatzacoalcos River
- Nautical engineer Dr. Ed Barnhart's created an algorithm testing transportation viability
- The transportation method remains unsolved by archaeologists
Related site: La Venta — view location, images, and history on the Ancient Nerds map.
Source: The Olmec Mystery (Live Presentation) by Luke Caverns