PRECOLUMBIAN ART

• Pre-Columbian art is the visual arts of the aboriginal American Indian cultures that evolved in Meso-America (part of Mexico and Central America) and the Andean region (western South America) prior to Spanish exploration and conquest in the 16th century

Major Pre-Columbian Civilizations

OLMEC

• The Olmec were the first major civilization in Mexico following a progressive development in Soconusco. They lived in the tropical lowlands of south-central Mexico, in the present-day states of Veracruz and Tabasco.

Olmecs around 800-400 BC

Olmec works of art, made of stone, clay, and jade, represent the first sophisticated artistic style that had been discovered in the Americas.

Olmec art continued to be an influence for more than 2300 years.

Codices were folding books made out of bark or animal skin throughout Mexico and Central America. These books told the stories about chiefs or conquests through pictures.

MAYANS

• The best-known of the classical civilizations of Mesoamerica. Originating in the Yucatan around 2600 B.C., they rose to prominence around A.D. 250 in present-day southern Mexico, Guatemala, western Honduras, El Salvador, and northern Belize.

Lands of the Mayans

The Yucatan

Peninsula

The Yucatan

Peninsula

Olmec Influence on the Mayans

• Maize• Ceremonial centers with temple pyramids• Calendar based on the Olmec one• Ball games• Rituals involving human sacrifice

Agriculture

• Soil in Mesoamerican lowlands was thin and quickly lost fertility– Mayans built terraces to

retain the silt and therefore greatly improved agricultural production

• Raised maize, cotton, and cacao– Cacao was a precious

commodity consumed mostly by nobles and even used as money

Cacao tree

Mayan Cultivation of

Maize

Chac, God of Rain Chac, God of Rain

Mayan Underground Granaries: Chultunes

Cities• From about 300 to 900, the Maya built more than eight large

ceremonial centers– All had pyramids, palaces, and temples

• Some of the larger ones attracted dense populations and evolved into genuine cities– The most important was Tikal– Small city-kingdoms served as the means of Mayan political

organization

Tikal• Tikal was the most important Mayan

political center between the 4th and 9th Centuries– Reached its peak between 600 and 800 with

a population of nearly 40,000

• The Temple of the Jaguar dominated the skyline and represented Tikal’s control over the surrounding region which had a population of about 500,000

Overview of Tikal (Guatemala)

Temple of the Masks

Temple of the Masks

Temple of the Jaguar

• 154 feet high• Served as

funerary pyramid for Lord Cacao, Maya ruler of the late 6th and early 7th centuries

Chichen-Itza - Pyramid

Chichen-Itza - Observatory

Chichen-Itza - Ball Court

Mayan Glyphs

Mayan Mathematics

sky king house child city sky king house child city

Mayan Glyphs

Mayan CodexMaya codices (singular codex) are folding books stemming from the pre-Columbian Maya civilization, written in Maya hieroglyphic script on Mesoamerican paper, made from the inner bark of certain trees, the main being the wild fig tree or Amate

Paper, generally known by the Nahuatl word amatl, was named by the Mayas huun. The folding books are the products of professional scribes working under the patronage of the Howler Monkey Gods.

The Maya developed their huun-paper around the 5th century, the same era that the Romans did, but their paper was more durable and a better writing surface than papyrus.

The codices have been named for the cities in which they eventually settled. The Dresden codex is generally considered the most important of the few that survive.

A detail of the Dresden Codex, one of only 6 Mayan codices , or painted books, to survive the Conquest