PreColumbian

Question 1

Central and South America

Answer 1

• Reflects wide diversity in rainfall, vegetation, and topology
• Natural resources play a part in types and styles of design
• Religion exerts strong influence on architectural design.

Question 2

The Olmecs

Answer 2

• Earliest of important Central American civilizations to reach maturity
• Great founders of Mesoamerican culture; called jaguar people
• Jaguar was a rain symbol and chief deity(god)
• Excelled at pottery and moving large stones great distances

Question 3

La Venta

Answer 3

• Built on an island
• First example of temple-focused city type
• Ceremonial center dominated by a great pyramid exactly a double square in plan and top is a square platform
• Elements are disposed symmetrically around the long axis of the pyramid
• Inventors of a basket ball-like game
• Had smaller pyramids, burial mounds, great colonnaded courtyards and plazas, giant stone heads as much as 9ft tall

Question 4

Stelae

Answer 4

stone slab or pillar used commemoratively, as a grave stone, or to mark a site

• Stale were carved with calendric glyphs in low relief, presumably commemorating astronomical events
• Large monolithic altars were also produced, their carvings showing the jaguar god, priests in elaborate collars and headdresses
• Carved miniatures of jade, rock crystal, and less valuable stones

Question 5

Metals:

Answer 5

copper, gold, silver, and tin

Question 6

Minerals:

Answer 6

iron ores, slate, onyx, obsidian, jade, and turquoise

Question 7

Textile resources are

Answer 7

cotton and llama, vicuna, and alpaca wool in dry places agave plant used for coarser textiles, rope, and twine.

Question 8

Jade:

Answer 8

cool to the touch, lustrous, sometimes translucent, can be given high polish; it is exceptionally hard, impossible even to stratch with steel, and the difficultly of mining and carving it only adds to the value of finished pieces

Question 9

American Silk :

Answer 9

harvested from silkworm that fed on the ailanthus tree, produced a crepe fabric and was often dyed bright magenta

Question 10

Teotihuacan

Answer 10

-Name of a citythat existed northeast of the central lake in the great plain of the Valley of Mexico; means the “Place of the Gods”

• 200,000 inhabitants, most populus city in the Americas and sixth in the world
• Great ceremonial center 2 miles in length and 130 ft wide named the “Road of the Dead”
• The center had hundreds of stone platforms and groups of chamered buildings

Question 11

Teotihuacan is dominated by three structures:

Answer 11

-southern end. The Temple of Quetzalcoatl(Plumed Serpent)

o Midpoint, the Pyramid of the Sun

o North, Pyramid of the Moon

Question 12

Distinctive architectural feature common throughout the ceremonial complex was ?

Answer 12

framed masonry panel

Question 13

Structures were faced with what?

Answer 13

fine stone carvings, and finished with layers of white and red stucco

Question 14

Tablero :

Answer 14

• framed masonry panel, cantilevered from the sloping sides of the pyramids.

Question 15

Reliefs pictured the heads of two gods:

Answer 15

• The plumed serpent, shown as a sharp-fanged, fire-breathing, feathered dragon
• The rain god, shown as a geometrically stylized mask with ringed eyes
• The background of the reliefs are nautical
• The city is laid out in a rectangular grid.
• The city lacked surrounding walls or fortifications, demonstrating the society’s power.

Question 16

Zapotecs

Answer 16

• Present day city of Oaxaca
• Mountaintop acropolis protected against invasion by steep cliffs falling away on all sides
• In its center and ringing its edges are disposed a dozen impressive pyramidal

Question 17

Monte Alban

Answer 17

(White Mountain) sacred capital of Zapotecs

o City of the gods and of the dead

o Tomb interiors were vibrant with frescos of deities and priests

o Exterior of tombs was polychrome stucco

Question 18

Chichen Itza

Answer 18

o was the great ceremonial site of the Mayans. Hear of the site is the foursided pyramid called Castillo

• Staircase on each sided guided by serpents
• Chacmool

Question 19

Chacmool

Answer 19

piece of ritual furniture

Question 20

Cenote

Answer 20

deep pool used for sacrifical offering

Question 21

Ballcourt was the largest built in Central America some features are?

Answer 21

Sculptured relief panels showing a victorious team holding the severed heads of their opponentsar Palenque

Question 22

Frescos at Bonampak

Answer 22

Bonampak( painted walls) ceremonial center built in tropical rain forest

Question 23

Mayan Furniture

Answer 23

o little furniture except for royalty

o Jaguar throne

Question 24

The Moche

Answer 24

Built pyramids and palaces of plastered walls covered with polychrome murals

Question 25

Moche wares represents what figures?

Answer 25

• fruits and vegtables, animal, deer hunts, warriors in combat, and human sacrifices
• Some portrait vessels are topped with distinct stirrup-shaped spouts

Question 26

Incas

Answer 26

Adobe used on the coast, stone on highlands, and wood on eastern slopes

Question 27

Machu Picchu

Answer 27

• Most dramatic building achievement
• Inca Capital was Cuzco
• Surrounded by terraced platforms used for agriculture
• Settlement is centered on an oblong plaza (the only level area)
• There are burial caves, storehouses, shrines niches
• The incas had no silk or flax. Had cotton and abundance of good wool
• Weaving techniques: plain, pattern, tapestries, plaiting and braiding, twill, tie-dye, double cloth, gauze, reps, pile knots, embroidery, and brocade

Question 28

Animism:

Answer 28

belief that visible world is pervaded by invisible spirits

Question 29

Shamanism:

Answer 29

belief that each tribe medicine man or shaman could achieve mystical communion with those spirits

Question 30

Three chief types of archtecture:

Answer 30

defensive, ceremonial, domestic

Question 31

Pueblos and Kivas:

Answer 31

o Communinal settlements - pueblo

o Kiva - ceremonial chamber

Question 32

Longhouses:

Answer 32

largest of North American dwelings built by Iroqui and Huron

-Built of wood frames and covered with sheets of bark

Question 33

Tepee :

Answer 33

onical tent of wooden poles covered with buffalo hides

Question 34

Wigwam :

Answer 34

house type, eound in plan, dome-shaped made of saplings arched over, tied together, covered with reed mats, nark or thatch

Question 35

Chickee:

Answer 35

open-sided hut with a broad eaved thatched roof and a living platform raised above the ground

Question 36

Hogan:

Answer 36

conical built of stone and logs

Question 37

Mimbres Ware:

Answer 37

progressed from plain brown wares to burnished red ones

-Painted bowls progressed from geometri cpattern to abstracted representations

Question 38

Turquoise:

Answer 38

imported from persia to Europe that where it gotsit name native to new Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, utah, colorado

• High copper( bright blue)
• High Iron ( green gray)

Question 39

Chilkat:

Answer 39

dancing robes