chapter 8

Colossal head, Olmec, La Venta

t their individual- ized features and distinctive headgear, as well as later Maya practice, suggest that these heads portray rulers rather than deities.

Teotihuacan

decorating this pyramid are the earliest representations of the feathered-serpent god. Beneath and around the pyramid excavators found remains of sacrificial victims

Ball Court from Copan

common in Meso- american 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.

Presentation of captives to Lord Chan Muwan

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 ______ reviews naked captives with mutilated hands awaiting their death

Castillo, Maya, Chichen Itza

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.

Chacmool, Maya, Chichen Itz

represent fallen warriors reclining on their backs with recep- tacles on their chests to receive sacrificial offerings. Excavators dis- covered one in the burial chamber inside the Castillo

Colossal atlantids, Toltec, 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.

Raimondi Stele, from the main temple at Chavin de Huantar

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.

Embroidered funerary mantle

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.

camel

Hummingbird, Nasca

represent birds, fish, plants, and geometric forms. They may have marked pilgrimage routes leading to religious shrines, but their function is uncertain

Vessel in the shape of a portrait head,

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.

Gateway of the Sun, Tiwanaku,

probably led into a sacred area at Tiwanaku. The central figure is a version of the Chavín staff god (FIG. 8-19). The relief was once painted, inlaid with turquoise, and covered with gold.

Burial Mask, Ipiutak

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 ar

Serpent Mound, Mississippian

constructed effigy mounds in the form of animals and birds. This well- preserved example seems to depict a serpent. Some scholars, however, think it replicates the path of Halley’s Comet in 1066.

Cliff Palace, Ancestral Puebloan,

wedged into a sheltered ledge to heat the pueblo in winter and shade it during the hot summer months. It contains about 200 stone- and-timber rooms plastered inside and out with adobe.