100,000 Magnetic Cubes Found at Olmec Site - What are they? - Ed Barnhart

Ed Barnhart (full name: Edwin Lawrence Barnhart, born October 29, 1968) is a prominent American archaeologist, explorer, and educator specializing in the ancient civilizations of the Americas, particularly the Maya, Olmec and Aztec. The "magnetic Olmec cubes" refer to thousands of small, precisely crafted ilmenite cubes (also called multi-perforated ilmenite artifacts) discovered at ancient Olmec archaeological sites in Mesoamerica (primarily modern-day Mexico, around 1400–400 BCE). The cubes are made from ilmenite, a weakly magnetic iron-titanium oxide mineral. This material was imported — not locally available in the Olmec heartland (Veracruz region). Enormous numbers have been found. One cache at San Lorenzo (the oldest major Olmec city) contained several metric tons — estimates suggest over 100,000 individual cubes. The Olmecs were the earliest known major civilization in Mesoamerica (ancient Mexico and Central America). They flourished roughly from 1200 BCE to 400 BCE along the humid Gulf Coast in what is now southern Veracruz and Tabasco, Mexico. Archaeologists often call them the “Mother Culture” of Mesoamerica because they developed many foundational ideas, technologies, and artistic styles that later influenced the Maya, Zapotec, Aztec, and other civilizations.