Chalcatzingo was a site that was abandoned in 500 B.C. and
contains impressive Olmec-style art. Commenting on Monument 2 (above), David C.
Grove commented that:
Four persons are depicted on
Chalcatzingo’s Monument 2. At the right is a seated personage who faces two
central figures walking towards him and a third who walks away on the left. The
standing figures wear their ‘bird-serpent’ masks so their faces cannot be seen.
The seated individual has turned his mask to the back of his head, revealing
his face and pointed beard. All the masks seem to cover the entire face instead
of simply the mouth area. The seated figure’s headdress has a long frontal
‘horn’ and is reminiscent of one¬ horned headdresses worn by shamans (medicine
men) in some later Mesoamerican art. (David C. Grove, Chalcatzingo:
Excavations on the Olmec Frontier [New Aspects of Antiquity; London: Thames
and Hudson, 1984], 118)
Commenting on its potential use for shedding light on Words
of Mormon 1:15 and "false Christs," Brant Gardner noted that:
The masks indicate the presence
of the extra-human in the scene. That the seated personage wears a mask turned
to the rear highlights that these are men in costume, or even imitating gods,
just like the later Aztec teixiptla. (Brant A. Gardner, Second
Witness: Analytical and Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon, 6
vols. [Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2007], 3:83)
