The Art of the Aztec and Inca Empires

Mesoamerican pyramids served a different purpose than Egyptian pyramids.
Egyptian pyramids were tombs for deceased pharaohs, serving as stairways to the afterlife.
Mesoamerican pyramids were built for the living, for daily worship of gods and goddesses.
Human sacrifices were believed to be necessary to please the gods.
These cultures were sun and moon worshipers with a strong connection to the celestial world.
Pyramids were organized on the ground in a celestial calendar, allowing observation of planet alignments.
Pyramids represented mountains, a source of life-sustaining water and fertility.
They also served as tombs for royal ancestry or important members of their culture.

The Aztecs dominated the Mesoamerican world for nearly a century.
Mesoamerica included modern-day Mexico and Guatemala, extending to El Salvador and Honduras.
The empire comprised native Nahuatl-speaking people who migrated from the Pacific Northwest.
They settled in the Valley of Mexico on Lake Texaco and founded their capital city, Tenochtitlan.
The Aztecs were skilled workers, merchants, farmers, and fishermen.
They were fervent worshipers of the sun gods and fierce defenders of their territories.

The Incas were the most skilled and advanced urbanized people of the American continent, especially in engineering.
The Warri and Tiwanaku people performed amazing masonry work.
The Nazca designed mind-boggling land images (earthen drawings).
The Incas were skilled in dry-fitting masonry and built roads, tunnels, bridges, canals, and aqueducts throughout their empire.

In 1519, Hernan Cortes landed in Mesoamerica.
By 1521, the Aztec Empire was crushed, and its capital city was burned down.
Francisco Pizarro invaded the Inca Empire around 1531, completing his conquest by 1560.
The Spanish sought gold and wealth from these cultures.
The Aztecs and Incas resisted fiercely, but they could not overcome European diseases to which they had no immunity, contributing to their decimation.

One of the few surviving texts from the Aztec Empire before the Spanish conquest.
Radiates from the center, representing the god of fire, Shiwa tequaddle.
$Shiwa \ tequaddle$ was the god of fire.
The page describes the Aztec worldview, with four directions each associated with a color and deity.
Deities at the corners represent omniscient gods.
Limited knowledge of these symbols exists due to the scarcity of surviving texts.

The capital of the Aztec Empire, its founding is often depicted in Aztec art.
The Aztecs were wandering nomads from the Pacific Northwest.
They settled upon seeing an eagle perched on a prickly pear cactus, a sign from the gods.
The city was on Lake Texaco and linked by man-made canals, divided into four quadrants and smaller wards.
Each ward represented by a seated human figure.
Images of warriors display the victories of the Aztec people.

The ruler of the Aztec Empire when the Spanish conquest began.
He wore a ceremonial headdress made of feathers from various birds, including the sacred quetzal bird, a beautiful piece of Aztec ceremonial art.

Textiles were precious and sometimes offered to the gods.
Patterns on textiles had great symbolic value.
The symbolism is not fully understood.
The patterns were decorative and identified a person's ethnic origin and social status.
Each square represents a miniature tunic.
A four-part motif may symbolize the land of four quarters, which is what the Inca Empire was known as.
A diagonal key was common in Inca art, but its meaning is unknown.
Checkerboards may have designated military officers or royal escorts.
Colors and patterns were likely standardized to convey information quickly.

The llama was an important animal, providing wool for textiles.
Gold and silver were religiously significant; gold was the sweat of the sun, and silver was the tears of the moon.
Little Inca metalwork remains because the Spanish melted it down.
Silver llamas were gilded in gold.
Llamas were sacrificed to appease deities.

A famous Inca city high in the Andes Mountains, 9,000 feet above sea level.
Stone buildings survive (excluding thatched roofs).
Buildings occupy terraces around central plazas.
Temples and sacred stones were erected in courtyard shrines, suggesting religious function similar to Aztec pyramids.
The Aztecs and Incas were highly skilled in architecture and construction.