The Art and Architecture of Ancient America: The Mexican, Maya and Andean Peoples

Abstract

Introduction: the lands and the peoples - Mesoamerica - the Andean environment the chronological problem anthropology and American antiquity diffusion or polygenesis? the history of art the place of the artist - the early hunters, early villagers, the theocracies, the terminal stages. Part 1 The Mexican civilizations: early central Mexico - formative - 3000-500 BC, Teotihuacan - 100 BC - AD 750 - chronology, architecture, sculpture, painting, Xochicalco central Mexico after AD 800 - the Toltec revolution - architecture, sculpture, the Chichimec interlude, the Aztec confederacy - architecture, sculpture, painting the Gulf coast - the Olmec style - ideographic forms, colossal heads, relief sculpture, figurines of and jade, painting, the central coast - architecture, stone sculpture, clay figurines and heads, the Huastec southern Mexico - the classic Zapotec style - architecture, stone sculpture, sculpture, wall painting, the Mixtecs - mitla, the marriage reliefs, murals, painted books and maps, ceramics Western Mexico - the stone-workers of Guerrero, the potters of Colima, Jalisco, and Nayarit, Michoacan, the northern plateaus. Part 2 The Maya and their neighbours: the Maya tradition - architecture: classic Maya - geographical divisions, temporal divisions, classic architecture - the Peten, the river cities, the dry forest - Rio Bec, the well country - Los Chenes, the hill country - the Puuc the Maya tradition - sculpture and painting: sculpture - commemorative monuments and figural reliefs, jades, pottery, architectural decoration painting - pottery painting from the Toltec Maya to the Spaniards - architecture - Chichen Itza, the east coast, the problem of Tula, sculpture - full-round figures, processional reliefs, painting - murals, manuscripts the neighbours of the Maya - the Guatemalan highlands, Eastern Central America - the Ulua marbles, Costa Rican mainland sculpture, the Pacific coast. Part 3 The Andean civilizationis: the northern Andes - Colombia and Ecuador - northern Central America, Colombia - architecture, sculpture, metalwork, the Pacific equatorial coast the central Andes - early northern Peru - pre-Chavin remains, Ancash art the upper north - Mochica and Chimu central Peru the south coast valleys - Paracas and Nazca the south highlands - Altiplano, Tiahuanaco, Mantaro Basin, Cuzco. (Part contents).