Culture
Pre-Columbian Art Traditions
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Tradition↕ | Civilization↕ | Region↕ | Period↕ | Medium↕ | Known For↕ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Olmec Colossal Heads | Olmec | Gulf Coast Mexico | 1200-400 BCE | Basalt boulders | 17 known heads up to 3.4m tall, believed to depict rulers, carved with stone tools from distant quarries |
Maya Stelae and Glyphs | Maya | Yucatan, Guatemala, Belize | 250-900 CE | Carved limestone | Hieroglyphic texts recording dynasties, Copan's Altar Q and Quirigua's Stela E (over 10m tall) |
Inca Textiles | Inca | Andean Peru | 1400-1533 CE | Alpaca and vicuna wool | Thread counts exceeding modern fabric, cumbi cloth finer than silk, abstract tocapu patterns |
Moche Portrait Vessels | Moche | North Coast Peru | 100-800 CE | Stirrup-spout ceramics | Hyper-realistic portrait heads showing individual faces, some with facial scars and expressions |
Nazca Lines | Nazca | Southern Peru | 500 BCE-500 CE | Geoglyphs in desert floor | Hundreds of massive animal figures only visible from the air, over 800 straight lines, purpose debated |
Aztec Stone Sculpture | Aztec | Central Mexico | 1325-1521 CE | Andesite and basalt | Sun Stone (Calendar Stone) weighing 24 tons, Coatlicue earth goddess, Templo Mayor carvings |
Chavin Stone Reliefs | Chavin | Northern Peru highlands | 900-200 BCE | Carved stone | Raimondi Stele and Tello Obelisk, fanged deities at Chavin de Huantar, oldest Andean high culture |
Teotihuacan Murals | Teotihuacan | Valley of Mexico | 100-550 CE | Fresco painting on plaster | Tepantitla Tlalocan (paradise) mural, vivid red and blue palette, priests and feathered serpents |
Zapotec Urns | Zapotec | Oaxaca Valley | 500 BCE-800 CE | Grey ceramic funerary urns | Seated deity figures with elaborate headdresses placed in Monte Alban tombs |
Tairona Goldwork | Tairona | Colombian Caribbean coast | 200-1600 CE | Hammered and cast gold | Pectorals, nose rings and winged shaman figures, lost-wax tumbaga alloy technique |
Mixtec Codices | Mixtec | Oaxaca | 1200-1521 CE | Deer hide accordion books | Pictographic manuscripts Codex Nuttall and Codex Bodley, genealogies of rulers like 8 Deer Jaguar Claw |
Paracas Textiles | Paracas | South Coast Peru | 800-100 BCE | Embroidered camelid wool mantles | Mummy bundles wrapped in layers of vivid embroidered cloth, geometric and shamanic figures |
Huari Four-Cornered Hats | Wari | Central Andes Peru | 500-1000 CE | Knotted pile wool | Cube-shaped elite hats with four pointed corners, fine tapestry tunics with abstract faces |
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