Avenues of Death: Pre Columbian Architecture Flashcards
1
Q
Key Themes
A
- Stepped pyamids
- Ritual + ceremony organised around these stuctures
- Observe landscape + astrology
- Aligning landscape with important planets
- Creating structures that mirror the landscape (volcanoes, moutains)
- Tablero and talud motif
- Plazas
- Ball Courts
2
Q
Plan of Teotihuacan, Valley of Mexico
c. 200 BC – 100 AD
A
- Vast planned urban development
- Large population (as many as 200,000)
- North-South causeway, horizontality
- Pyramid of the Moon (and plaza) at North end
- Pyramid of the Sun (and plaza) to East
- Attended step pyramids aligning Avenue of the Dead
- Temple Compound and Temple of Quetzalquotl at South
- Water brought in via Rio Grande
3
Q
Temple of Quetzalcoatl, Teotihuacan 200BC - 100 AD
A
- Used for ritual sacrifice
- Reminiscent of mountains + volcanoes in landscape
- Stepped pyramid - ziggurat structure
- Battered, sloped sides
- Symbolic associations with the plumed and the fired serpent
- Tablero - frieze of random stones or sculptural relief, framed by plain mouldings
- Talud - steps, or angled plain
- **Might have to draw for exam
4
Q
Zapotec Ball Court,
Monte Alban, valley of Oaxaca, Mexico
c. 600 BC – 1000 AD
A
- Setting for ritual games
- Battle to the death
- Pleasure loving people, space for entertainment
5
Q
Governor’s palace [Mayan]
Uxmal, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico
c. 900
A
- Stands on large, levelled platform of earth - forms the tablero
- Highly decorative frieze
- Sculptural relief
- Gods, snakes, birds
- Grand talud element
- Central doorway aligned with Venus
- Associated with death + rebirth
-
Triangular element above the doorway
- Guides interior volume
- Use of corbelling
6
Q
Machu Picchu, Peru, c. 1450
including the Intihuatana – ‘the hitching post of the sun’
A
- Mach Pichcu - complex of palaces, baths, storage rooms, houses
- Carved from single rock
- Perfect north-south alignment with surrounding geography
- Shape actually mirrors surrounding peaks
- Acts as astronomical observatory
- Ritual + ceremony dictated by cosmology
- ‘Hitches the sun’ in between two equinoxes