Aztec sculpture of a head on stone.
The Aztecs had thick and black hair.
The Aztecs were a nomadic tribe before to settle down in the Valley of Mexico and to found Tenochtitlán on a marshy land in the lake of Texcoco. The city grew in size and importance, until becoming the capital of the powerful Aztec empire. These were low and robust, of coppery skin and wide face.
This is a Mayan statuette of ceramic that represents a wealthy man.
The Mayan were high and robust. They had lengthened eyes and dark and black hair.
The Mayan stood out in the arithmetic and astronomy and they had its own hieroglyphic writing. However the four Mayan codexes that are conserved don't count much of their history, but rather they are in charge of of such topics as rituals, astronomy and calendars.
The necklace of the statue is elaborate. It has big and heavy ears covers
This is a vessel of Inca ceramic, specifically Mochica.
The Incas had the almond-shaped eyes, and some high cheekbones and prominents.
The Inca empire became the most important state in the high Andean territories in 1438, when they conquered the area that surrounded the city of Cuzco and they made it its capital. The Inca conquered counties and they incorporated them to their empire. Due to their efficient administrative system, they controlled all their empire very well. The inhabitants of the Andean area were characteristically
small people, of flat hair and coppery skin.
This incense container, used to burn a resin called copal, represents a goddess of the agriculture. The goddesses of the agriculture were often adorned with a fan of paper folded like this.
It is a long and wide knife. The utensil used to dig or uictli, was farmer's fundamental tool. The useful ones to be dug used for diverse such works as to weed and to plant
This tools were manufactured with the most resistant and durable wood.
The axes were used to cut or as hammers.
Life in Mesoamérica and in the Andest rotated around the plantation cycles, cultivation and gathering of such crops as those of corn.
In order to get the biggest yield in their crops, the Inca used ingenious methods of leveling the land forming watering embankments in the hillsides of the mountainous lands. To build terraces meant that they could use more earth for you cultivate and
it also helped to resist the erosion of the wind and the rain. These terraces are in Machu Pichu.
This
is a raft manufactured with crisscross rushes.
The Aztecs and the Mayan manufactured canoes with trunks of hollowed
trees.
In areas where there were not trees, or there was few, the crafts were
manufactured with rushes. This raft type was used, and it is still used in the
high areas of the Andes, near to the Titicaca lake and in the coast. The big
rafts, of 4,5 and 6,1 meters long, they went provided of a mast to hoist and to
pick up the candle manufactured with rushes.
The inhabitants of the coastal areas were inspired by the fish and in the marine life to decorate the ceramic objects and to elaborate others of jade.
Many occupations like the fishing were transmitted from parents to children.Children were taught to fish from very early age and at the 14 years they
were already left to fish alone.
This is the plane of the ceremonial center of Teotihuacán with their main artery, the Road of the Deads. The two more impressive pyramids are that of the Sun and that of the moon. All the buildings of Teotihuacán put on makeup some with mitological scenes .
This is the Temple of the Inscriptions in Palenque.
This Mayan temple is located at Palenque, in the middle of the tropical jungle.There was In the pyramid the King Pacal's funeral camera that governed during 68 years and it was buried in his magnificent last living place in the year 683. His sarcophagus contained some of the most beautiful jade objects found in Mesoamérica.
This is the door of the Sun in Tihuanaco.
The city of Tihuanaco is located in a high plain, at 4000 meters above the sea level, skirted by the
Andes mountains. Among the astonishing architecture of their ceremonial center there were an impressive number of stone sculptures. The figure on the door represents a god of the sun.
The Incas are famous for its excellent constructions in stone. The stonemasons cut enormous stone blocks, using alone a stone hammer and humid sand to polish them. The blocks inserted so well one in another that
they didn't need cement.
The family scenes are average in the Aztec art and it shows women carrying out diverse tasks. This woman takes two children, one under each arm. The Aztec woman's main work was to raise its children until they were under conditions to leave the family housing and to marry.
The obligations of the woman of the Andean region varied according to their range. The woman represented in this vessel Mochica was probably the wife of a plebeian that should help her husband when it was necesary. That included to transport heavy loads at her back. It takes a band for the forehead that was good to hold the load of the back.
Since the 11 year-old age, the disobedient Aztec children were punished by their parents in diverse ways, Among the punishments
there were to puncture them the skin with thorns and to make them inhale smoke, sustaining them on a blaze in which they threw spicy peppers.
Knives in diverse shapes, of metallic leaf, received the tumi name. This Peruvian
tumi of curved leaf is made of copper with bone handle.
The curved leaf can have been used to cut food.
Every morning, early, the women revived the fire of the home and they milled corn in a stone to mill or
metlatl, of volcanic origin, usually basalt. The metlatl was a basic utensil in the kitchen. Nowadays, it is still continued using the stones to mill in the whole Meso-American region, mainly to mill corn.
The combs were of bone or wooden. They were used for the hairstyle and, in South America, to comb the wool. Some was even used to make drawings in ceramic objects.
The corn was the most important food in Mesoamérica. Together with the potato, it constituted the main cultivation of Andes.
On Diego Rivera's murals we can learn a lot about
the form in that the old ones Mexican lived. Rivera, one of those but
outstanding Mexican modern murallistas, knew very well like one lived in
Tenochtitlán. This fragment of a bustling market shows a woman selling diverse
types of corn.
In the upper side there is a Inca treasurer writing down the goods of the warehouses in a
quipu.
Downside is showned how agricultural products are stored in the government's barns.
The Inca kept all kinds of provisions in warehouses used by the government's officials and for the needful because of an illness or after a crisis or in the event of place. They maintained them replete of such articles as weapons, fabrics, wool, potatoes and corn.
An Aztec warrior usually took wooden lances with the incrusted leaf of quartz pieces or obsidiana and a
maquahuitl or mallet of war, wooden, of about 76 cm long. He had grooved borders, incrusted of sharp obsidiana pieces. The warriors also took sharp javelins and provided round shields of fringes protectors of feathers. Flint knives or obsidiana were also used, as these,
employed in the human sacrifices.
The Aztec warrior that took prisoners captured was
rewarded with attires of characteristic drawings, such as suits and blankets of
jaguar skin. As more prisoners they captured, more complicated it was the
suit.
This sculpted stone describes the Aztec ruler's Moctezuma
I. battles The superior part of the stone it was reserved for gladiators'
fights. Serbian also of recipient for the hearts and the sacrificed victims'
offerings. This fragment symbolizes the capture and incorporation from a city to
the Aztec empire.
There are some priests carrying out its rites in
the temple during the ceremony of the New fire
The ceremony of the New fire took place in the temples every 52 years.
When it arrived the day, people it turned off all the fires and they discarded the idols and the domestic utensils. The new century it began when the sunbeams appeared to the dawn again.
The Inca adored in the sun, Inti. Most of the agricultural regions adored
habitually so much in the sun like to the rain, since both were essential to get
good crops. The sun was the most important deity in the dynasty real Inca. The
Inca kings believed that they were descending of the Inti.
The handle of this Peruvian ceremony knife is decorated with the
image of the god of the sky or of the moon. He has the extended arms and it
holds two disks. It takes a beautiful incrusted filigreed headdress of
turquesas.
The Turquoise was used for inlays in the eyes, necklaces, ear covers and
vestments.
In the Andean region there has been discovered many mummies
packed as this. The body was placed in picked up position and bundle with
strings to maintain its posture. Then it was wrapped up in textile material and
it was placed in vertical position. In the tomb, around the mummy, diverse
objects were placed.
The doctors had good knowledge of the body and frequently they guessed
right with their diagnosis. This Aztec surgeon blindfolds a wounded leg.
The Quipu was a rope piece that stayed horizontal, of which hung strings
of diverse thickeness and provided colors of knots vertically. The information
that contained varied according to the types of knots, the longitude of the
horizontal rope and the color and position of the vertical strings.
The Quipu was used to register the census and with tributarian purpouses.
Many objects of gold represents important people or gods. The objects that
take or they sustain they can have had a symbolic meaning for the Meso-American
ones, but we can suppose what they symbolize. This figure of gold was
probably owed by a goldsmith Zapoteca. The figure has a necklace. On their front
behalf they hang three bells.
This character sustains a banner . It has some slopes in hook form.
This necklace OImeca, with a human head, was owed by a member of the elite. The Meso-American
richones took many corporal decorations, such as necklaces and bracelets.
The green stones were valued but in Mesoamérica that any other material.
Olmecan art was inspired by the mythology and in the religion. One of the Olmecan beliefs was that a woman was matched with a jaguar, what gave place to a race that presented both features,
as you can see in this jade mask.
This mask has a terrible feline face.
The musical Andean instrument more averagely headdress was the
siringa or pan-pipes. They were usually of cane or of ceramic. Their delicate sounds
are originate when blowing through an end of the tubes of the pan-pipes. It has been made with canyons of feathers of a bird of called prey
condor.
The canyons of the feathers stay united by a canyon horizontal bundle with a rope.
The pan-pipeses are manufactured with tubes of different longitudes.
Besides is not known exactly how was practiced the ball game, it is known that
there participated two teams, formed each one of them of two or three players, using a solid rubber ball, in specially built courts. It was dangerous, due to the speed with the one that moved the solid rubber ball from
one side to another of the impelled court with the hip. It was not allowed the use of the hands and the feet. The game varied according to when and where it was played.
Pictures of America.
How were they?
Agriculture
Haunting and Fishing
Meso-American cities
Cities of the Andes
Family life
At home
Food and drink
Trade and Tributes
The warrior
Religious life
God and goddesses
Life after the death
The Medicine
Literature and accounting
Beautiful metals
Beautiful stones
Masks
Music
Sports and games