An Olmec Compass?!

Based on his own excavations, Michael Coe has suggested that the Olmec may have had "the world's first known compass" (Coe, Snow, and Benson 1986:100)! Did the Olmec use the magnetic compass for site layout and building orientation? Robert Fuson long ago suggested as much for the orientation of Maya sites and buildings, based on Coe's discovery of that magnetite "pointer" at the Early Formative Olmec site of San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán (Fuson 1969:508-510, Coe in Sharer & Grove 1989:79; Lowe 1989:44 [fig 4.6 item n],53-54; Coe & Diehl 1980:244- 245 figs 251, 255). Coe told Fuson that this pointer was a flattened, oblong piece that is perfectly squared on all faces, and with a longitudinal groove extending along one surface. The object was made with such great care that it appears to be machined (Fuson 1969:508).

Coe succesfully tested the pointer on a cork mat in a plastic bowl of water, and also suggested that the Olmec may have suspended magnetite mirrors on string for the same purpose. Fuson notes that the pointer could as easily have been floated on liquid mercury available and extensively used in ancient Mesoamerica (Fuson 1969:508-510; cf. Baity 1973:443; Carlson 1981:117-147).

Surface outcroppings of magnetite (lodestone) and other workable iron ores (ilmenite and hematite) were readily available in Oaxaca (Flannery 1976:40,58-60,317-325), where San Jose Mogoté seems to have been the primary center for the processing of such ores into elite exchange objects such as small mirrors and drilled beads (Flannery 1976:40,59-60,109,288,317-325,357,363, Flannery & Schoenwetter 1970:148-149, Blanton, et al. 1993:60-61,166, Flannery & Marcus 1983:55). Magnetite is also available in Morelos, Honduras, and Guatemala (Grove 1987:376-380; Fuson 1969:510).

Flannery reports that multi-drilled "beads" of ilmenite show up in Chiapas and Vera Cruz (Flannery 1969:323). Perhaps he is referring to the type of cubes described elsewhere by Lee (Lee 1989:214) and Lowe (Lowe 1989:44-45 fig 4.6 items k l m). They were made with central and lateral perforations. What is truly astonishing, however, is the quantity of such items at San Lorenzo! Ann Cyphers has reported several tons of them there. She describes them as the top part of bow or pump drills, and says that they were discarded whenever the hole went through the top making the "tools" no longer useful. She has found several large caches of these ilmenite objects, and states that they average 54,000 items per metric ton (Cyphers 1996), i.e., each item would then average 2/3 of an ounce, although there may be something wrong with the figure she has given here (the same given in her lecture at the National Gallery of Art on Sept 20, 1996).

Lee lists a number of such iron cubes drilled in Chiapas, and similar to those found in San Lorenzo and Tres Zapotes. In addition to fire drill components, Lee and Lowe add several other possible functions: tiny hammers, fishnet weights, or atlatl weights (Lee 1989:214; Lowe

1989:53).

Coe has suggested the geomantic value of magnetite mirrors (which could be worn as pectorals), but he goes much further in mentioning that such mirrors could be concave with (Coe 1994:74) reflecting surfaces polished to optical specifications. What were they used for? Experiments have shown that they can not only start fires, but also throw images on flat surfaces like a camera lucida. They were pierced for suspension, and one can imagine the hocus-pocus which some mighty Olmec priest/shaman was able to perform with one of these!!