The Legacies of the Olmec, Zapotec, and ChavinA PRE-COLUMBIAN CIVILIZATION TOUR

BY EVAN IRONS

Baby Figure

Created by the Olmec

Part of The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection

The object was created 12th-9th Century BC

This pudgy infant holding his hand to his mouth is a remarkable example of an ancient Mesoamerican ceramic tradition. Hollow, sexless, and often almost life-sized, "babies" of this type can be curiously mature, exhibiting individual personalities in manner and posture.

What the babies signify is unclear. They may be representatives of elite lineages or early Mexican deities, or both.

Great Pyramid

The Olmecs

Great Pyramid is located in La Venta, Tabasco

It is undetermined when the Great Pyramid was created (probably around 1200), but La Venta was abandoned around 900 BCE.

The Great Pyramid was the largest Mesoamerican structure of its time

It is believed to have been an important civic and ceremonial centre.

Cocijo

Created by the Zapotec.

Located at the Stanford Cantor Museum

Created 200 BCE - 700 CE

An urn representing the Zapotec deity Cocijo who had a human body with jaguar and serpent features with a forked tongue and was considered the god of rain and lightning.

Monte AlbánCreated by the Zapotecs.

Located in the Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán Municipality in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca

Created The grand Zapotec capital flourished for thirteen centuries, from the year 500 B.C to 850 A.D. 

Inhabited over a period of 1,500 years, the terraces, dams, canals, pyramids and artificial mounds of Monte Albán were literally carved out of the mountain and are the symbols of a sacred topography.

Chavín Feline-and-Cactus Stirrup

Vessel

Created by the Chavin.

Located at the Art Walters Museum.

Created before 1000 BC

This Tembladera-style Chavín work depicts a feline rendered in relatively high relief, alternating with a cactus form that may refer to the hallucinogenic San Pedro cactus. 

Although we do not know what was stored in these vessels, suggestions include corn beer or "chicha," a native Andean fermented beverage. Chavín stirrup-spout vessels vary in both their architecture

Chavín de Huántar

Created by Chavin.

Located in Ancash, Peru

Time range: 1500 BCE- 300 BCE

The ceremonial and cultural nature of the site is evident in its architectural, technological and symbolic creation, which is characterized by coated quarried stone buildings and artificial terraces around plazas, containing an internal gallery system with an intricate network of vents and .

 Chavín once intersected several major trade routes through the Cordillera Blanca mountain range, a strategic location for the capital of the Chavín civilization.  Chavín de Huántar was a ceremonial center of the Chavín.

Works Cited

""Baby Figure" [Mexico; Olmec]" (1979.206.1134) In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1979.206.1134. (October 2006)

Barton, Justin. "Chavín De Huántar Peru." CyArk News. UNESCO World Heritage, 2013. Web. 08 Jan. 2015. <http://archive.cyark.org/chavn-de-huntar-info>.

"Feline-and-Cactus Stirrup Vessel." Artwork of the Day RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Jan. 2015. <http://art.thewalters.org/detail/79372/feline-and-cactus-stirrup-vessel/>.

"Historic Centre of Oaxaca and Archaeological Site of Monte Albán." - UNESCO World Heritage Centre. United Nations, n.d. Web. 08 Jan. 2015. <http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/415>.

"Monte Albán." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 08 Jan. 2015. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Alb%C3%A1n>.

Pathasema, Sean. "Cocijo." Ancient History Encyclopedia. Birmingham Museum of Art, 28 Oct. 2013. Web. 08 Jan. 2015. <http://www.ancient.eu/image/2129/>.

"Olmec." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 08 Jan. 2015. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olmec