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
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
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
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
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
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
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
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
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
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
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
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly