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The carving skills and techniques of the ancient Central American cultures never approached those of the Chinese. There is no question that aesthetically and artistically, the imaginative carvings of the western hemisphere have just as strong an impact as any made on the other side of the world. Ample archeological evidence points to a thriving jade-carving art among the Olmecs of the Gulf of Mexico region several centuries before the Christian era. Carbon-dating measurements push the date back to 1500 B.C. It would seem that the Chinese and Olmecs developed and perfected all the fundamental carving skills at about the same time. Many of these Olmec jade carvings have been passed down to us because they were safely buried. Among the best-known of them are the bold and impressive near-human masks and figures of jadeite. There was little attention given to anatomical detail in these very simple carvings, but the mood of a weeping child’s figure, a fearsome man-jaguar mask, or a woman’s face resigned to suffering, comes through very clearly. While almost everything else belonging to the Olmecs has perished, their splendid carvings assure them of a place in the history of man.