Arts of the Americas

1. Arts of the Americas Professor A. D’Ascoli

2. Mesoamerica

3. Early Americas – Aztec & Maya

4. Mesoamerican & Andean Civilizations • 30,000-8,000 BCE - stone age-highly mobile hunting and gathering groups in pursuit of large game • 8000-2000 BCE - hunters & gatherers-disappearance of large game leads to switch to small game, gathering, fishing, and beginnings of agriculture and village life • 3500-1700 BCE – Valdivia culture -early ceramics-fertility figurines • 2000-200 BCE - improvements in agriculture, culture, and social structures (Called Pre-Classical Era) • 1300 – 600 BCE - Olmecs beginnings of hieroglyphic writing & calendar usage developments in art, ceramics, weavings, feline cult • 900 – 500 BCE – Olmec monolithic stone heads at Chavín (La Venta)

5. Mesoamerican & Andean Civilizations • 250 BCE – 1000 CE – Mayan Civilization flourishes in Guatemala, Mexico, Belize and Honduras – Mayans also built pyramids, focused on astronomy and believed time moved in cycles every 52 years, animalistic and nature based religion – Palenque and Tikal become great cities – ball games to the death - disappeared due to ecological disaster • 200 BCE – 1000 CE is called the Classical Era- emergence of cities, social stratification; flowering of material culture • 200 BCE – 600 CE – Paracas culture-weaving & mummy bundles • 200 BCE – 200 CE – Nazca culture - Nazca lines, earth drawings • 200 BCE – 700 CE – Moche culture – in Peru; pottery with realistic painting; built pyramids called huacas – disappeared due to earthquake and subsequent ecological damage

6. Mesoamerican & Andean Civilizations • 300 – 900 CE Monte Albán culture-architecture (city on high, large platform) • 400 – 800 CE – Zapotec culture • 100-800 CE – Teotihuacan Culture -large urban center; Pyramids of the Sun and Moon; theocratic rule, disappeared due to ecological disaster • 600 – 800 CE – Huari culture - rise of large urban cities & empires • 600 – 1000 CE - Tiwanaku culture -monolithic stone architecture

7. Mesoamerican & Andean Civilizations • 1000-1492 CE – Post Classical Era - Urban, stratified, militarized, imperialistic; no important technological advances • 900 – 1200 CE – Toltec culture - formation of militaristic empires, wars, invasions, population increase & pressure • 1000 – 1476 CE - Cholula, Tarascan, Texcoco and Chimú cultures - very large city at Chan-chan with panaqa burial compounds • 1300 – 1532 CE – Inca Civilization (Tawantinsuyu) - sophisticated and very efficient organizational and administrative structures, road engineering comparable to Romans, destroyed by Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro • 1350 – 1521 CE – Aztecs (Mexicas) - militaristic tribute empire, calendars, astronomy, human sacrifice – destroyed by Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortez

8. Mesoamerican Art • Colossal Head • 900 – 500 BCE • Chavin (La Venta), Mexico • Olmec Culture • There are several of these gigantic heads that have been discovered; they are believed to be portraits of Olmec rulers

9. Mesoamerican Art • Teotihuacan • 350 – 650 CE • Teotihuacan, Mexico • Pyramid of the Sun is seen in the back of photo • Teotihuacan was over 9 square miles and was home to approx 150,000 people • Their culture disappeared due to ecological disaster of depleting their land

10. Teotihuacan

12. Mayans

14. Mesoamerican Art • Tikal • 700 CE • Tikal, Guatemala • Mayan Culture • Mayans performed their ritual in the open not in secret • Tikal covers 6 square miles and has 6 pyramidal buildings like this one

15. Tikal

16. Mesoamerican Art • Ballgame Field • 700 CE • Tikal, Guatemala • Mayan ballgames were part of ritual life • The winners were treated as heroes • The leader of the losing team was sacrificed

17. Mesoamerican Art • Temple of Inscriptions • 7th century CE • Palenque, Mexico • Mayan • This temple is inscribed with the history of the Palenque kings and within it is the grave of Pacal, one of the kings

18. Mesoamerican Art • Sarcophagus Lid • 683 CE • Palenque, Mexico • Mayan • Lid to Pacal’s tomb inside the Temple of Inscriptions • It represents the fall to earth to the roots of the tree of life – where the Mayans believed heaven was

19. Pacal’s Tomb

20. Mayan. Madrid Codex, leaves 13–16 (of 56 total). ca. 1400.

21. Mesoamerican Art • Pyramid of Kukulkan (El Castillo) • 800-1200 CE • Chichen Itza, Mexico • Each stairway has 91 steps, plus the platform = 365 • On June 21 the stairway reflects the shadow of the serpent • 9 layers represent the region of the dead

22. Aztec Art - Serpents

23. Mesoamerican Art • Observatory (Carocal) • 800 – 1200 CE • Chichen Itza, Mexico • Thought by some to be an observation tower for the Mayans to follow the procession of the sun and stars

25. Mayan. Ball court at Copán, Honduras. ca. 711-36 CE.

26. Mesoamerican Art • ChacMool • 800-1200 CE • Chicen Itza, Mexico • Possibly an early ruler of the Maya or Toltecs • Chaac is the rain god – so possibly related

27. Aztec

28. Aztec. Coatlicue. Fifteenth century.Height: 8’ 3”.

29. Aztec. The Moon Goddess Coyolxauhqui, from the Sacred Precinct, Templo Mayor, Tenochtitlán. ca. 1469.Diameter: 10’ 10”.

30. Aztec tzompantli

31. Zapotec. Jade pendant, Zapotec, Monte Albán, State of Oaxaca, Mexico. Late pre-Classic, 200 BCE-100 CE.11" × 6-3/4"

32. Typical Aztec Temple

33. Teotihuacán. Teotihuacán, Mexico, seen from the Pyramid of the Moon, looking south down the Avenue of the Dead, the Pyramid of the Sun at the left. ca. 350-650 CE.

34. Teotihuacán. The Pyramid of the Moon, looking north up the Avenue of the Dead. ca. 350-650 CE.

35. Mesoamerican Art • Coatlicue • 15th century CE • Mexico City, Mexico • Aztec culture • Serpent features and skull to show power and fear of Aztec gods

36. Mesoamerican Art • The Founding of Tenochtitlan • 16th century CE • Aztec Culture • From the Codex Mendoza • The skull rack in the right center panel shows the Aztec affinity to human sacrifice • Shows the legend of the Eagle, cactus and serpent in founding the city

37. Mesoamerican Art • Aztec Calendar • 14th century • Mexico City, Mexico • Aztec • Like the Mayans, the Aztecs believed the world went in cycles • Both calendars end on Dec 22 in 2012

38. Moche Civilization

39. Mesoamerican Art • Huaca del Sol (Pyramid of the Sun) • 500 CE • Moche Valley, Peru • Moche culture • This was destroyed by the Spanish by diverting a river to find gold inside of it • Built of over 143 million mud bricks

40. Andean Art • Moche Lord with a Feline • 100 BCE – 500 CE • Moche Civilization • The Moche were famous for their pottery and gold artifacts • These vessels were buried with the dead

41. Moche Gold

42. Early Americas - Inca

43. Andean Art • Machu Picchu • 1450 CE • Machu Picchu, Peru • Incan • Built as a citadel, high in the Andes, this city was never taken by the Spanish conquest – but it was abandoned

44. Andean Art • Hummingbird • 200 BCE – 200 CE • Nazca Plains, Peru • Hundreds of these designs cover the plain – most cannot be seen except from the air • Lines point to water sources

45. Nazca Lines

46. Mesoamerican Erotic Art

47. Native American Civilizations • 40,000 -10,000 BCE – Migrations from Asia into the Americas • 15,000 – 7,000 BCE – Clovis people - Paleo-Indian hunters spread throughout the North American grasslands into the American Southwest. They manufacture unique projectile (fluted) points knows as Clovis, Folsom, and Sandia, named after respective archeological sites in New Mexico. These Clovis people are big game hunters and sought the mastodon, now extinct • 3500 BCE – Oldest continuous culture in North America appears in Pacific Northwest; create totem poles (mortuary poles) and celebrate potlaches (elaborate ceremonies) • 2000 - 1500 BCE - People in what is now the American Southeast first make pottery

48. North American Civilizations • 1100 BCE - The canoe comes into regular use among Native American people in the eastern and northeastern sections of the area that is now the United States. • 1000 BCE – 1000 CE - In what is now the United States, mound building characterizes the Eastern and Midwestern native cultures. • 1000 BCE – 1000 CE - In the Southwest: the Hohokam, Pueblo, Anasazi and Mogollan people build irrigation canals, agricultural villages, roads and complex ceremonial centers. • 1000 BCE – 1000 CE - On the Plains, people hunt buffalo on foot and live in fortified, semi-sedentary villages. • 200 BCE – The Hopewell period begins for peoples of the central United States. Large earth mounds are constructed by various groups in the Mississippi and Ohio River valleys.

49. North American Civilizations • 700 - 1100 CE - The Anasazi culture evolves into its Pueblo period. This is a developmental stage that sees the use of adobe bricks, stone slabs, or mud and sticks in home building. Kivas (underground ceremonial chambers) and cotton fabrics come into use. Around 900, the pueblo (Chaco Canyon includes Pueblo Bonito, Casa Rinconada (kiva), Chetro Ketl) structures in the American Southwest are constructed. • 1100 - Hopis in the American Southwest (Chaco Canyon and Pueblo Bonito), use coal for cooking and heating. • 1100 - 1300 - - The Pueblo culture (Anasazi) in the northern Arizona and New Mexico area reaches its height (Pueblo Bonito), with large apartment-type structures and many material goods. • 1150 - The pueblo of Oraibi (north-eastern Arizona) is founded, the oldest continuously occupied town in the present-day United States. • 1275 - - Many Southwest pueblos are abandoned due to drought and Athapaskan raiding parties from the north.

50. North American Civilizations • 1300 - - Hopis use coal for making pottery. • 1300 - 1600 - - The great Temple Mound or Middle Mississippi civilization flourishes. The highly agricultural civilization is characterized by separate republics, each having a central city, temple mounds and a chief's house. This is one of the greatest North American native civilizations • 1600 - Members of the Franciscan order from Mexico establish missions in Hopi areas (now Arizona and New Mexico)