PreColumbian Flashcards

(39 cards)

1
Q

Central and South America

A
  • Reflects wide diversity in rainfall, vegetation, and topology
  • Natural resources play a part in types and styles of design
  • Religion exerts strong influence on architectural design.
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2
Q

The Olmecs

A
  • Earliest of important Central American civilizations to reach maturity
  • Great founders of Mesoamerican culture; called jaguar people
  • Jaguar was a rain symbol and chief deity(god)
  • Excelled at pottery and moving large stones great distances
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3
Q

La Venta

A
  • Built on an island
  • First example of temple-focused city type
  • Ceremonial center dominated by a great pyramid exactly a double square in plan and top is a square platform
  • Elements are disposed symmetrically around the long axis of the pyramid
  • Inventors of a basket ball-like game
  • Had smaller pyramids, burial mounds, great colonnaded courtyards and plazas, giant stone heads as much as 9ft tall
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4
Q

Stelae

A

stone slab or pillar used commemoratively, as a grave stone, or to mark a site

  • Stale were carved with calendric glyphs in low relief, presumably commemorating astronomical events
  • Large monolithic altars were also produced, their carvings showing the jaguar god, priests in elaborate collars and headdresses
  • Carved miniatures of jade, rock crystal, and less valuable stones
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5
Q

Metals:

A

copper, gold, silver, and tin

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6
Q

Minerals:

A

iron ores, slate, onyx, obsidian, jade, and turquoise

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7
Q

Textile resources are

A

cotton and llama, vicuna, and alpaca wool in dry places agave plant used for coarser textiles, rope, and twine.

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8
Q

Jade:

A

cool to the touch, lustrous, sometimes translucent, can be given high polish; it is exceptionally hard, impossible even to stratch with steel, and the difficultly of mining and carving it only adds to the value of finished pieces

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9
Q

American Silk :

A

harvested from silkworm that fed on the ailanthus tree, produced a crepe fabric and was often dyed bright magenta

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10
Q

Teotihuacan

A

-Name of a citythat existed northeast of the central lake in the great plain of the Valley of Mexico; means the “Place of the Gods”

  • 200,000 inhabitants, most populus city in the Americas and sixth in the world
  • Great ceremonial center 2 miles in length and 130 ft wide named the “Road of the Dead”
  • The center had hundreds of stone platforms and groups of chamered buildings
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11
Q

Teotihuacan is dominated by three structures:

A

-southern end. The Temple of Quetzalcoatl(Plumed Serpent)

o Midpoint, the Pyramid of the Sun

o North, Pyramid of the Moon

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12
Q

Distinctive architectural feature common throughout the ceremonial complex was ?

A

framed masonry panel

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13
Q

Structures were faced with what?

A

fine stone carvings, and finished with layers of white and red stucco

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14
Q

Tablero :

A
  • framed masonry panel, cantilevered from the sloping sides of the pyramids.
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15
Q

Reliefs pictured the heads of two gods:

A
  • The plumed serpent, shown as a sharp-fanged, fire-breathing, feathered dragon
  • The rain god, shown as a geometrically stylized mask with ringed eyes
  • The background of the reliefs are nautical
  • The city is laid out in a rectangular grid.
  • The city lacked surrounding walls or fortifications, demonstrating the society’s power.
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16
Q

Zapotecs

A
  • Present day city of Oaxaca
  • Mountaintop acropolis protected against invasion by steep cliffs falling away on all sides
  • In its center and ringing its edges are disposed a dozen impressive pyramidal
17
Q

Monte Alban

A

(White Mountain) sacred capital of Zapotecs

o City of the gods and of the dead

o Tomb interiors were vibrant with frescos of deities and priests

o Exterior of tombs was polychrome stucco

18
Q

Chichen Itza

A

o was the great ceremonial site of the Mayans. Hear of the site is the foursided pyramid called Castillo

  • Staircase on each sided guided by serpents
  • Chacmool
19
Q

Chacmool

A

piece of ritual furniture

20
Q

Cenote

A

deep pool used for sacrifical offering

21
Q

Ballcourt was the largest built in Central America some features are?

A

Sculptured relief panels showing a victorious team holding the severed heads of their opponentsar Palenque

22
Q

Frescos at Bonampak

A

Bonampak( painted walls) ceremonial center built in tropical rain forest

23
Q

Mayan Furniture

A

o little furniture except for royalty

o Jaguar throne

24
Q

The Moche

A

Built pyramids and palaces of plastered walls covered with polychrome murals

25
Moche wares represents what figures?
- fruits and vegtables, animal, deer hunts, warriors in combat, and human sacrifices - Some portrait vessels are topped with distinct stirrup-shaped spouts
26
Incas
Adobe used on the coast, stone on highlands, and wood on eastern slopes
27
Machu Picchu
* Most dramatic building achievement * Inca Capital was Cuzco * Surrounded by terraced platforms used for agriculture * Settlement is centered on an oblong plaza (the only level area) * There are burial caves, storehouses, shrines niches * The incas had no silk or flax. Had cotton and abundance of good wool * Weaving techniques: plain, pattern, tapestries, plaiting and braiding, twill, tie-dye, double cloth, gauze, reps, pile knots, embroidery, and brocade
28
Animism:
belief that visible world is pervaded by invisible spirits
29
Shamanism:
belief that each tribe medicine man or shaman could achieve mystical communion with those spirits
30
Three chief types of archtecture:
defensive, ceremonial, domestic
31
Pueblos and Kivas:
o Communinal settlements - pueblo | o Kiva - ceremonial chamber
32
Longhouses:
largest of North American dwelings built by Iroqui and Huron -Built of wood frames and covered with sheets of bark
33
Tepee :
onical tent of wooden poles covered with buffalo hides
34
Wigwam :
house type, eound in plan, dome-shaped made of saplings arched over, tied together, covered with reed mats, nark or thatch
35
Chickee:
open-sided hut with a broad eaved thatched roof and a living platform raised above the ground
36
Hogan:
conical built of stone and logs
37
Mimbres Ware:
progressed from plain brown wares to burnished red ones -Painted bowls progressed from geometri cpattern to abstracted representations
38
Turquoise:
imported from persia to Europe that where it gotsit name native to new Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, utah, colorado * High copper( bright blue) * High Iron ( green gray)
39
Chilkat:
dancing robes