first. New evidence has come to light in the form of effigy 
and undecorated snuffing pipes from the Karly to Middle 
Formative, from Nochipala, Guerrero. The dating of 
XNochipala is still somewhat uncertain: there have been 
suggestions that it represents the very ‘“‘origin’’ of Olmec 
art, predating the San Lorenzo Phase in Veracruz (Gay 
1972). However, the reported and confirmed associations 
of the extraordinarily sophisticated and sometimes as- 
tonishingly naturalistic figurines from Nochipala with 
typically Olmec incised bowls and other Olmee artifacts 
characteristic of the Late Karly to Karly Middle Forma- 
6 
tive, including *“*spoons’’ and beads of blue-green trans- 
lucent jade, suggests dates equivalent to San Lorenzo 
and contemporaneous sites in Morelos and elsewhere in 
Central Mexico—i.e., between 1800 and 1000 B.C. On 
the other hand, a recent series of thermoluminescence 
tests tend to support an earlier date at least for the be- 
ginning of realistic Nochipala art, possibly as early as 
1500-1600 B.C. (Robert Stroessner, pers. comm. ). 
The uncontrolled looting of Nochipala, with its re- 
markable assemblage of some of the finest Formative 
ceramic figurines to be found anywhere in the New 
World, is a scientific tragedy of major proportions. We 
‘an only guess at the evidence that has forever been lost ; 
nevertheless, it has been possible to study and verify the 
authenticity of a number of Nochipala pieces now in 
private hands or museum collections (interestingly 
enough, although the accidental discovery of the Nochi- 
pala site by local farmers dates from the mid-nineteen 
sixties, a typical Nochipala figurine has been in the ex- 
tensive pre-Columbian collection of the Peabody Mu- 
seum of Harvard University for more than seventy 
years). Among recently discovered Nochipala artifacts 
are several unmistakable snuflfing instruments or ‘‘nose 
pipes’, dating far earlier than those of the West Coast 
[ 12 | 
