NATIVE AMERICAS PART 2 Flashcards
CLASSIC (300-900)
Maya
Stele D portraying Ruler 13, Great Plaza, Copán, Honduras 736
Ruler 13 reigned during the heyday of Copán. On this stele he wears an elaborate headdress and holds a double-headed serpent bar, symbol of the sky and of his absolute power.
CLASSIC (300-900)
Maya
Ball court, Copán, Honduras 738
Ball courts were common in Mesoamerican cities. Copán’s is 93 feet long. The rules of the ball game itself are
unknown, but games sometimes ended in human sacrifice,
probably of captives taken in battle.
CLASSIC (300-900)
Maya
Temple I (Temple of the Giant Jaguar), Tikal, Guatemala ca. 732
Temple I at Tikal is a 150-foot-tall pyramid that was the temple mausoleum of Hasaw Chan K’awiil, who died in 732 CE. The nine tiers of the pyramid probably symbolize the nine levels of the Underworld.
CLASSIC (300-900)
Maya
Ball Player from Jaina Island 700-900
Maya ceramic figurines represent a wide range of human types and activities. This kneeling ball player wears a thick leather belt and arm and kneepads to protect him from the hard rubber ball.
CLASSIC (300-900)
Maya
Presentation of captives to Lord Chan Muwan, Bonampak, Mexico ca. 790
The figures in this mural—a cross between fresco and tempera—may be standing on a pyramid’s steps. At the top, the richly attired Chan Muwan reviews naked captives with mutilated hands awaiting their death.
CLASSIC (300-900)
Maya
Shield Jaguar and Lady Xoc, lintel 24 of Temple 23, Yaxchilán ca. 725
The carved lintels of this eighth-century temple document the central role elite women played in Maya society. Lady Xoc pierces her tongue in a bloodletting ritual intended to induce a visionary state.
POSTCLASSIC (900-1521)
Maya
Aerial view of the Castillo, Chichén Itzá, Mexico ca. 800-900
A temple to Kukulkan sits atop this pyramid with a total of 365 stairs on its four sides. At the winter and summer equinoxes, the sun casts a shadow in the shape of a serpent along the northern staircase.
POSTCLASSIC (900-1521)
Maya
Chacmool from the Platform of the Eagles, Chichén Itzá, Mexico ca. 800-900
Chacmools represent fallen warriors reclining on their backs with receptacles on their chests to receive
sacrificial offerings. Excavators discovered one in the burial chamber inside the Castillo.
Toltec
Colossal Atlantids, Pyramid B, Tula, Mexico ca. 900-1180
The colossal statue-columns of Tula portraying warriors armed with darts and spear-throwers reflect the military regime of the Toltecs, whose arrival in central Mexico coincided with the decline of the Maya.
Mixteca-Puebla Culture
Mictlantecuhtli and Quetzalcoatl, Borgia Codex ca. 1400-1500
One of the rare surviving Mesoamerican books, the Mixteca-Puelba Borgia Codex includes this painting depicting the gods of life and death above an inverted skull symbolizing the Underworld.
Aztec
Reconstruction of the Great Temple, Tenochtitlán, Mexico ca. 1400-1500
The Great Temple in the Aztec capital encases successive earlier structures. The latest temple honored the gods Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc, whose sanctuaries were at the top of a stepped pyramid.
Aztec
Coatlicue ca. 1487-1520
This colossal statue may have stood near the Great temple. The beheaded goddess wears a necklace of a human hands and heart. Entwined snakes form her skirt. All her attributes symbolize sacrificial death.
INTERMEDIATE AREA
Tairona Culture
Pendant in the form of a bat-faced man after 1000
The peoples of the Intermediate Area between Mesoamerica and Andean South America were expert goldsmiths. This pendant depicting a bat-faced man with a large headdress served as an amulet.
INTERMEDIATE AREA
Chavin
Raimondi Stele, Chavin de Huantar, Peru ca. 800-200
The Raimondi Stele staff god wears a headdress of faces and snakes. Seen upside down, the god’s face becomes two faces. The ability of the gods to transform themselves is a core aspect of Andean religion.
INTERMEDIATE AREA
Paracas Culture
Embroidered funerary mantle 1st C
Outstanding among the Paracas arts are the woven mantles used to wrap the bodies of the dead. The flying or floating figure repeated endlessly on this mantle is probably either the deceased or a religious practitioner.
INTERMEDIATE AREA
Nasca Culture
Bridge-spouted vessel with flying figures ca. 50-200
The Nasca were masters of pottery painting. The painter of this bridge-spouted vessel depicted two crowned and bejeweled flying figures, probably ritual impersonators with trophy heads.
INTERMEDIATE AREA
Nasca Culture
Hummingbird, Nasca Plain, Peru ca. 500
The earth drawings known as Nasca Lines represent birds, fish, plants, and geometric forms. They may have marked pilgrimage routes leading to religious shrines, but their function is uncertain.
INTERMEDIATE AREA
Moche Culture
Vessel in the shape of a portrait head 5th-6th C.
The Moche culture produced an extraordinary variety of painted vessels. This one in the shape of a head may depict a warrior, ruler, or royal retainer. The realistic rendering of the face is particularly striking.
INTERMEDIATE AREA
Moche Culture
Ear Ornament, from a tomb at Sipán, Peru ca. 300
This ear ornament from a Sipán tomb depicts a Moche warrior priest and two retainers. The priest carries a war club and shield and wears a necklace of owl-head beads. The costume corresponds to actual finds.
INTERMEDIATE AREA
Tiwanaku Culture
Gateway of the Sun, Tiwanaku, Bolivia ca. 375-700
The Gateway of the Sun probably led into a sacred area at Tiwanaku. The central figure is a version of the Chavín staff god. The relief was once painted, inlaid with turquoise, and covered with gold.
INTERMEDIATE AREA
Inka
View of Machu Picchu, Peru from an adjacent peak 15th C.
Machu Picchu was the estate of an Inka ruler. Large upright stones echo the contours of nearby sacred peaks. Precisely placed windows and doors facilitated astronomical observation.
INTERMEDIATE AREA
Inka
Remains of the Temple of the Sun, Cuzco, Peru 15th C.
Perfectly constructed ashlar masonry walls are all that remains of the Temple of the Sun, the most important shrine in the Inka capital. Gold, silver, and emeralds covered the temple’s interior walls.
NORTH AMERICA
Eskimo
Burial Mask ca. 100
Carved out of walrus ivory, this mask consists of nine parts that can be combined to produce several faces, both human and animal, echoing the transformation theme common in ancient American art.
NORTH AMERICA
Mississippian Culture
Serpent Mound, Ohio ca. 1070
The Mississippians constructed effigy mounds in the form of animals and birds. This wellpreserved example seems to depict a serpent. Some scholars, however, think it replicates the path of Halley’s Comet in 1066.
NORTH AMERICA
Mimbres Culture
Bowl with two cranes ca. 1250
Native Americans have been producing pottery for more than 2,000 years, long before the introduction of the potter’s wheel. Mimbres bowls feature black-and-white animals and abstract patterns.
NORTH AMERICA
Ancestral Puebloans
Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado ca. 1150-1300
Cliff Palace is wedged into a sheltered ledge to heat the pueblo in winter and shade it during the hot summer
months. It contains about 200 stoneand-timber rooms plastered inside and out with adobe.
NORTH AMERICA
Hopi
OTTO PENTEWA. Katsina figurine carved before 1959
Katsinas are benevolent spirits living in mountains and water sources. This Hopi katsina represents a rain-bringing deity wearing a mask with geometric patterns symbolic of water and agricultural fertility.
NORTH AMERICA
Pueblo
MARIA MONTOYA MARTINEZ. Jar ca. 1939
Pottery is traditionally a Native American women’s art form. Maria Montoya Martinez won renown for her black-on-black vessels of striking shapes with matte designs on highly polished surfaces.
NORTH AMERICA
Kwakiutl
Eagle Transformation Mask, closed and open late 19th C
The wearer of this Kwakiutl mask could open and close rapidly by manipulating hidden strings, magically transforming himself from human to eagle and back again as he danced.
NORTH AMERICA
Tlingit
War Helmet Mask 1888-1893
This war helmet mask may be a naturalistic portrait of a Tlingit warrior or a representation of a supernatural being. The carver intended the face’s grimacing expression to intimidate enemies.
NORTH AMERICA
Tlingit
Chilkat blanket with stylized animal motifs early 20th C.
Chilkat blankets were collaborations between male designers and female weavers. Decorated with animal and abstract motifs, they were worn over the shoulder and were items of ceremonial dress.
NORTH AMERICA
Great Plains
KARL BODMER. Hidatsa Warrior Pehriska-Ruhpa (Two Ravens) 1833
The personal regalia of a Hidatsa warrior included his pipe, painted buffalo-hide robe, bear claw necklace, and feather decorations, all symbols of his affiliations and military accomplishments.
NORTH AMERICA
Great Plains
Honoring song at painted tipi 1880
During the reservation period, some Plains artists recorded their traditional lifestyle in ledger books. This one depicts men and women dancing an honoring song in front of three painted tipis.
