Module 8: Cities and Wealth in the Americas

Codex

a manuscript in the form of a bound book

Chacmool

A Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican sculptural type depicting a reclining figure supporting itself on its elbows and holding a bowl on its abdomen. The bowl may have served as a receptacle for libations or burned offerings. 

Mexia

a term referring to the indigenous people of Mexico, particularly in relation to the Aztec civilization and their cultural heritage.

Superimposition

the placement of one thing over another, typically so that both are still evident

Lintel

In architecture, a horizontal block that spans the space between two vertical supports (posts)

Olmec colossal head, La Venta, Mexico, 1st millennium BCE (Olmec, Mesoamerica)

• Very large 

• all individualized sculptures created by the Olmec civilization, renowned for their facial features and cultural significance.

• the eyes seem to be fixed on something far away

• they are made out of volcanic rock

Teotihuacán, Mexico, early 1st millennium CE (Early Mesoamerica)

• There is a long ceremonial axial organization for this structure. Kinda like a central plan but outside. 

• This city was known for its impressive architectural layout, including its pyramids and extensive urban planning.

• The Aztecs where really interested in this city (they didnt make it)

Shield Jaguar and Lady Xooc, Mexico, 8th century CE (Maya, Mesoamerica)

• in Yaxchilán, one of the biggest cities in the maya culture

• This lintel depicts a powerful scene of a ruler and a noblewoman engaging in a bloodletting ritual, which was significant in Maya culture.

• has mayahierglyphic writing

• one of the most famoud lintel examples

• each lintel showed a story

El Castillo, Chichén Itzá, Yucatán, c. 800-900 CE (Maya, Mesoamerica)

• 4-sided pyramid built up in layers

• one of the most famous here

• built to show shadows throughout the day it would create a serpent from its shadows. So you’re passing into the body of a serpent

The ‘Observatory,’ Chichén Itzá, Yucatán, c. 800-900 CE (Maya, Mesoamerica)

Great Temple (Templo Mayor) of Tenochtitlán (reconstruction/cutaway drawing), Mexico City, c. 1400-1500 (Aztec, Mesoamerica)

• the center of the Aztec capitial and now beneath the Cathedral was an elevated platform/pyramid for the two shrines to the God of war and the God of rain

• It’s a double temple

• the temple was enlarged ovetime

• raising temple to the sky

• Inspired from Teotihuacán

• a religious complex in the heart of Tenochtitlán dedicated to the deities Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc. It featured impressive pyramids, ceremonial spaces, and was central to Aztec cosmology and rituals.

Sun Stone, Tenochtitlán, Mexico, c. 1500 (Aztec, Mesoamerica)

Coatlicue, Tenochtitlán, Mexico, c. 1500 (Aztec, Mesoamerica)

Codex Zouhe-Nuttall, 13th-14th century CE (Mixtec, Mesoamerica)

• Mixtec had a writing system

• It’s like a history book

• One side is the history. When you flip it over you have the history of a person named 8-Deer Jaguar Claw

Codex Borgia, 15th century CE (Aztec, Mesoamerica)

• these are figures of life and death

• so this part is abt how life and death are closely related

• pictograph type images and composite images. like the ones we talked abt from the beginning of the semester

Codex Mendoza, frontispiece, 16th-century Mexica (Aztec) (New Spain)

• commissioned by Antonio de Mendoza, first viceroy of New Spain

• he wanted to document the empire

• Indigenous artists did it

• In the middle, we see an eagle which is a symbol from the the empire 

• depicts the city

• it’s similar to the maps published with letter of Cortés, Nuremberg, Germany 1524

Machu Picchu, Peru, 15th century CE (Inka, South America)

• the design of the structures reacts to local landscapes

Jaguar Gorget, found in Benton County, MO (first millennium CE, Woodland culture), North America, University of Missouri, Museum of Anthropology

• primary animal found on it is a jaguar

• jaguar are one of the most powerdul animals for mesoamerican art

Serpent Mound, Ohio, 11th century CE (Mississippian, North America)

Monk’s Mound, Cahokia, Illionis, 11th-14th centuries CE (Mississippian, North America)

• When it was an active site, the city of Cahokia had more ppl in it than London

• It was a huge trade network

• This is an earthword. pyramid is like grass it’s hill

Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde, Colorado, 12th-13th centuries CE (Pueblan, North America)

Eagle Transformation Mask, Canada, 19th century (Kwakwaka’wakw, North America)

• made to be worn by a mask of a dancer. The dancer could pull a string and the mask would open up and changes

• The object was meant to be used 

• Eagle is a powerful animal

• European art didn’t view it the same as the natives

Cotsiogo: Elk Hide, Wind River Reservation, Wyoming, c.1900 (Shoshone, North America)

María Montoya Martínez: Blackware jar, New Mexico, c.1940 (Pueblo, North America)

• This is blackware poetry

• The pattern is made by burning some parts of the clay to create intricate designs. Montoya Martínez was renowned for her pottery, which reflects Pueblo culture and craftsmanship.

• Ppl wanted to say they had a original Maria Montoya. She signed her name and all of her neighbors. This is her resisting to European and other not her cultures norms

• Europeans/ppl wanted art so ppl like Maria made art for collectors 

Aztecs used what type of writing

picture writing instead of alphabetical script, known as glyphs.

What was the Aztecs capitial city

Tenochtitlan, located at the center of a lake