Unit V: Americas

  • Chavin de Huantar

    • Chavin culture

    • The god for whom the temple was constructed was represented in the Lanzon or digging stick - a notched wedge-shaped stone carved with the image of a supernatural being

    • Use of Contour rivalry in relief sculpture

    • Material: Stone

  • Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellings

    • Anasazi

    • At sites like Cliff palace, families lived in architectural units, organized around kivas, circular, subterranean rooms.

    • Sipapu (a small hole in the floor that is ceremonial in purpose) - potentially where ancestors would come out of the ground.

    • Painted murals and pottery shards.

    • Material: Adobe and ceramics

  • Yaxchilan

    • Mayan

    • Structure 40: Built by Bird Jaguar IV, or his son who dedicated it to him.

    • Lintel 25: This sacrifice mirrored the Maya story of creation, when the gods let their blood to create humans, shows the power of women in determining rulership, wearing a woven huipil

    • Material: Limestone

  • Great Serpent Mound

    • Mississippian

    • Mark time, document a celestial event, act as a compass, serve as a guide to astrological patterns, worship of the supernatural snake god or goddess.

    • Influence Robert Smithson

    • Material: Earthworks

  • Templo Mayor

    • Aztec

    • Material: Stone and offerings

  • Silver and Gold Maze Cobs

    • Inka

    • Material: Silver and gold

  • Ruler’s Feather Headress

    • Aztec

    • Costumes are important to the Aztecs and other Mesoamerican cultures-part of rituals and performances (commonly amongst groups of people)
      Mexica feather work is common including fans.
      Mexica feather workers are called Amenteca.

    • Material: Feathers and gold

  • City of Cusco, including Qorikancha

    • Inka

    • The combination of Ashlar masonry and Spanish Baroque arch represent the transition from worshiping the sun God Inti

    • Material: Stone

  • City of Machu Picchu

    • Inka

    • Material: Stone

  • All-T-oqapo Tunic

    • The spiritual presence that is present is called camac

    • T’oqapu are the square geometric motifs

    • The finest cloth was produced by acllas (chosen women),

    • Inka

    • Material: Textile

  • Bandolier Bag

    • Lenape (eastern Delaware)

    • Material: Beads and cloth

  • Transformation Mask

    • Kwakiutl

    • Worn during a potlach of the Kwakwaka’wakw of the Pacific Northwest Coast.

    • Uses elements of the formline style.

    • Ovoid pupil shape along with s and u forms are common feature of the formline style.

    • Not intended to have musical attributes.

    • Material: Wood and paint

  • Hide Painting of Sun Dance

    • Eastern Shoshone

    • The Sun Dance was intended to honor the Creator deity for the earth’s bounty and to ensure this bounty continued. However, the US government deemed it unacceptable and forbid it until 1935.

    • Material: Animal hide

  • Black-on-black ceramics vessel

    • Tewa, Puebloan

    • Material: Clay