Andean Culture and Art mod 9 done

Nasca Geoglyphs

Located in the desert on the South Coast of Peru.
Among the world's largest drawings.
Also referred to as the Nasca Lines, but more accurately called geoglyphs.
Geoglyphs: Designs formed on the earth, usually constructed from strong natural material like stone, and are notably large in scale.
The hummingbird measures over 300 feet in length.
Other celebrated geoglyphs include a monkey, killer whale, spider, and condor.
Various plants, geometric shapes (spirals, zigzag lines and trapezoids), abstract patterns, and intersecting lines fill the desert plain, known as the Pampa.
The Pampa covers approximately 200 square miles near the foothills of the Andes.
The zoomorphic geoglyphs are the oldest and most esteemed.
Each geoglyph appears to have been made with a single continuous line.
Believed to have been created by the Nasca people, whose culture flourished in Peru sometime between 1-700 CE.
They inhabited the river valleys of the Rio Grande de Nasca and the Ica Valley in the southern region of Peru.
They were able to farm in the desert environment due to water from mountain runoff.
The high Andes Mountains to the east prevent moisture from the Amazon from reaching the coast, resulting in very little rainfall.
The Nasca people are also famous for their polychrome pottery, which shares some of the same subjects that appear in the Nasca Geoglyphs.
Remains of Nasca pottery left as offerings have been found in and near the geoglyphs, cementing the connection between the geoglyphs and the Nasca people.

Metalwork

Metalworking developed later in Andean history.
Oldest known gold artifact dates to 2100 BCE.
Evidence of copper smelting from around 900-700 BCE.
Gold was used for jewelry, ornamentation, and sculptural pieces.
Inka figurines of silver and gold depicting humans and llamas have been recovered from high-altitude archaeological sites in Peru and Chile.
Copper and bronze were also used to create jewelry and items like ceremonial knives (called tumis).

Architecture

The architecture of the Andes can be divided roughly between highland and coastal traditions.
Coastal cultures tended to build using adobe, while highland cultures depended more on stone.
The lowland site of Caral, the oldest complex site known in the Andes, was built mainly using stone.
Beginning with Caral in 2800 BCE, various cultures constructed monumental structures such as platforms, temples, and walled compounds.
These structures were the focus of political and/or religious power, like the site of Chavín de Huantár in the highlands or the Huacas de Moche on the coast.
Many of these structures have been heavily damaged by time, but some reliefs and murals used to decorate them survive.
The Inka used stone for all of their important structures and developed a technique that helped protect the structures from earthquakes.
Inka architecture has survived more easily than the adobe architecture of the coast due to its stone construction.
Ongoing efforts by archaeologists and the Peruvian Ministry of Culture are also focused on restoring and preserving the great works of coastal architecture.

Ceramics

Ceramics were important for spreading religious ideas and showing status, though not as valuable as textiles.
People used plain everyday wares for cooking and storing foods.
Elites often used finely made ceramic vessels for eating and drinking.
Vessels decorated with images of gods or spiritually important creatures were kept as status symbols, or given as gifts to people of lesser status to cement their social obligations to those above them.
There are a wide variety of Andean ceramic styles, but there are some basic elements that can be found throughout the region's history.
Wares were mostly fired in an oxygenating atmosphere, resulting in ceramics that often had a red cast from the clay's iron content.
Some cultures, such as the Sicán and Chimú, instead used kilns that deprived the clay of oxygen as it fired, resulting in a surface ranging from brown to black.
Decoration of ceramics could be done by incising lines into the surface, creating textures by rocking seashells over the damp clay, or by painting the surface.
Some early elite ceramics were decorated after firing with a paint made from plant resin and mineral pigments, producing a wide variety of bright colors.
Resin-painted wares were only for display and ritual use because the resin could not withstand being heated.
Most ceramics in the Andes instead were slip-painted.
Slip is a liquid that is made of clay, and the color of the slip is determined by the color of the clay and its mineral content.
Most slip painting was applied before firing, after the semi-dry clay had been burnished with a smooth stone to prepare the surface.
The range of slip colors could vary from two (seen in Moche ceramics) to seven or more (seen in Nasca ceramics).
Once fired, the burnished surface would be shiny.
Ceramics, because of their durability, are one of the greatest resources for understanding ancient Andean cultures.

Textile Arts

Farming in the steep topography of the mountains could be difficult, and an important innovation developed by the Andeans was the use of terracing.
Terraces: Giant steps along the contours of a mountain, created by making retaining walls that were then backfilled with a thick layer of loose stones to aid drainage, and topped with soil.
The most important animals in the highlands were camelids: the wild vicuña and guanaco, and their domesticated relatives, the llama and alpaca.
Alpacas have soft wool and were sheared to make textiles.
Llamas can carry burdens over the difficult terrain of the mountains (an adult male llama can carry up to 100 pounds, but could not carry an adult human).
Both animals were also used for their meat, and their dried dung served as fuel in the high altitudes, where there was no wood to burn.
Andean camelids, like their African and Asian cousins, can be very headstrong; if they are overloaded, they will sit on the ground and refuse to budge.
The ancient people of the Andes did not have domesticated animals that could carry them or pull heavy wagons.
Roads and methods of moving people and goods developed differently than in Europe, Asia, and Africa.
The wheel was known, but not used for transport, because it simply would not have been useful.
The ancient peoples of the Andes developed textile technology before ceramics or metallurgy.
Textile fragments found at Guitarrero Cave date from c. 5780 BCE.
By the first millennium CE, Andean weavers had developed and mastered every major technique, including double-faced cloth and lace-like open weaves.
Andean textiles were first made using fibers from reeds, but quickly moved to yarn made from cotton and camelid fibers.
Cotton grows on the coast and was cultivated by ancient Andeans in several colors, including white, several shades of brown, and a soft grayish blue.
In the highlands, the alpaca provided soft, strong wool in natural colors of white, brown, and black.
Both cotton and wool were also dyed to create more colors: red from cochineal, blue from indigo, and other colors.