According to Kleiner’s analysis of the Native Arts of the Americas, the following is a summary of the events that lead to the production and discoveries of America before the 1300s.
Before the Europeans had discovered the “New World,” some of the world’s largest cities such as Teotihuacan flourished the Western Hemisphere and heavily influenced Mesoamerica as a whole. A civilization known as the Maya was one of the most famous in America before the 1300s, and were renowned for their capabilities in construction of temple-pyramids, mathematics, astronomy, complex written language, and even historical records. Chichen Itza is one of the most preserved locations of this civilization, which resides on the Yucatan Peninsula. The Mayan culture was respectfully dated to the Postclassic period beginning in 900 CE. Along the Chichen Itza’s northern plaza is a pyramid-like temple dedicated to the feathered-serpent god of Kukulcan. The Mayan’s used astronomical knowledge in order for the illusion
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The surviving objects dated not as far back, and instead only remain from around the last 2,000 years. The North American cultures are divided into territories based on their geography, language, and social and artistic patterns. The land mostly consisted of small groups of hunter-gatherer communities and at times even agricultural based communities. The Eskimos of Alaska and the Inuit of Canada are known to be the most artistically productive inhabitants of the North before the arrival of the Europeans. These cultures were known for their fishing and farming skills due to an advanced irrigation system, roads, and cliff dwellings. The Eastern Woodlands were known for their farming potential ranging from Canada to Florida to the great plains of Mississippi. Left behind were traces of earth mounds, which were used for burial or elite resident
Forgotten and lost, this city laid wrapped in vegetation, covered with forest it once commanded. Its temples as side trees, webbed with vines, and walls of ferns. Tropical rain lashing at the crumbling surfaces of stone architecture built by armies of workers. The darkness of the night guided by owls and the day by parrot shrieks. Statues of gods lay along the remaining stone hedges. It was not till 1839 the American lawyer John Lloyd Stephens and English artist Fredrick Caterwood, rediscovered the magnificence of the Tikal Mayan civilization. Development in the Mayan society began with hunters and gatherers leading to sedentary life and agriculture. Then early Maya civic then the highest point of the Tikal at middle Maya civilization.
archaeology (digs for artifacts, examinations of burial sites, close study of ancient constructions such as the cliff dwellings of the western United States, or the mounds left by the mound-builder peoples of the southeastern United States); comparative religion and folklore -- the study of creation myths, legends, and folktales told by Indian peoples; medicine -- tracing such biological factors as human bloodtypes to show how different peoples (the Aztec, the Comanche, the Seminole, the Kwakiutl) may well share a common ancestry, or studying the differing responses of Indian and European peoples to diseases to illustrate how contact between the cultures occasionally proved fatal to the indigenous culture; geology, climatology, and ecology -- to reconstruct the land as the Indians found it, to identify the ways they lived off the land and in harmony with it, and to provide a basis for comparison between Indian and European understandings of the relationship between human beings and the natural world;
The Mayans were also a very advanced in the field of science. They had their own system of written language (hieroglyphics), their own unique astronomical observations, their unique (and first in the world) 365 day calendar, and most importantly to this report, their own unique architecture. The Mayans, unlike other European cultures, did not borrow ideas of religion, culture, art, or architecture from other civilizations (outside of the Yucatan Peninsula). Although other peoples from the Central American area influenced them, they did not steal architec...
When you mention Alaska and the Arctic Circle, one envisions igloos, dog sleds, and invariably, Eskimos. However, little do most know, that what most refer to as Eskimos is actually a generalization representing three distinct groups. In order to understand the societies that live in this region and acknowledge their cultural differences we must explore the different groups that inhabit this region of which there are two: the Inuit, and the Yupik.
Quinn, David B. North America From Earliest Discovery to First Settlements. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1977.
Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States: 1492-present. New York: HarperCollins, 1999. Print.
Conquest and War in the art of America before 1300 that is very common sign. And after 1300, natural culture and human culture occupy a leading role in the art of America. The two examples of art will be show the difference between the art of America before 1300 and the art of America after 1300. “Base of North Acropolis and Temple I” and “Grizzly Bear House-Partition Screen” are from different time, “Base of North Acropolis and Temple I” is art of America before 1300, and the other one is after 1300.
The Mayans are American Indian people who lived in southern Mexico (Miller "Maya" Grolier). The Yucatan was the center of the Mayan civilization from about the 1st century B.C. ("Yucantan" Grolier). They flourished in Mexico and central America from 250 to 1600 A.D. ("History of Agriculture" Grolier). Their ancestors had crossed the Bering land Bridge from Asia (Miller "Maya" Grolier). Honduras was once a part of the Mayan Empire. It had flourished between 250 and 950 A.D. (Seligson "Honduras" Grolier). The Mayans also had lived in Mexican states: Yucantan and Chiapas, British Honduras, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador (Burland 1770)
The Mayans were an influential ancient civilization who created many things that are still used in modern society such as mathematics, the calendar, and pottery techniques. The traditions of the Maya were what connected the different cities because they did not have one single city ruling their civilization (Maloy 12). First of all, the Mayans did not believe in natural beauty. Instead they shaped their beauty by crossing their babies eyes, adding clay to enlarge their noses, and flattening their foreheads with a board(26). Another tradition that the Maya had was that they buried the dead under their house so as to keep them close (21). If the deceased were not buried under the house of the family then they would most likely be buried in caves. This was because the Maya believed that the spirit took a journey through caves to get to the underworld. Therefore, if the dead were buried in caves they would have a shorter journey to the underworld (29). In order to keep track of time the Maya used two different calendars. Their religious calendar consisted of 260 days meanwhile their farming calendar consisted of 365 days (32). In fact the Maya calendar was one of the most accurate in the ancient world (Maya Culture). To entertain themselves the Maya created a sport where they used body parts other than their hands and feet to get a ball through a hoop. The losing team was believed to often be killed as an offering (Maloy 27). In order to sustain their society the Mayans built reservoirs to maintain a water source and discovered a way to farm using swamps (12). In addition to farming in swamps the Maya used the slash and burn method to create more room for crops. However, with this technique they could only plant crops in that area for...
Start the day off by visiting one of the 7 wonders of the Modern World. The great city, Chichen Itza, located in deep jungle of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, flourished between the 9th and 13th centuries A.D. It was also a sophisticated urban center and center of regional trade. The Mayans emerged around 3,000 years ago in present-day Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, and Mexico.
Dixon, E. James. Quest for the origins of the First Americans. University of New Mexico Press. 1993.
Early on, Teotihuacan was a rival of another city called Cuicuilco but, when that community was destroyed by a volcano c. 100 CE, Teotihuacan became dominant in the region. Archaeological evidence suggests that Teotihuacan was an important religious center which was devoted to the worship of a Great Mother Goddess and her consort the Plumed Serpent. The Plumed Serpent god Kukulkan (also known as Gucamatz) was the most popular deity among the Maya. Like many of the cities which now lie in ruin throughout the southern Americas, Teotihuacan was abandoned sometime around 900 CE. The El Tajin Period: 250-900 CE – This period is also known as the Classic Period in Mesoamerican and Mayan history. The name `El Tajin’ refers to the great city complex
The Hieroglyphic stairway erected by King Smoky Shell is so far the most famous of all Copan's monuments. It is here you can see the system of writing developed by the Mayan people. The Hieroglyphic stairway is full of Glyphs, a pictorial form of writing. ...
Chichen Itza is a historical site in Mexico located on the Yucatán Peninsula. The city was once a populated Mayan city. At one point Chichen Itza was a major part of the Northern Mayan Lowlands. The city is thousands of years old and built in the pre-Columbian era (the time before the wave of Europeans after the discovery made by Christopher Columbus) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chichen_Itza ). The city is a very historical site and is visited by over one million tourists every year (http://www.chichenitza.com/ ). Even though it is not booming with the people that once lived there, it is still incredibly popular and busy throughout the year. The most popular part of the archeological city is El Castillo, a Mayan pyramid that dominated the
The transformation between the simple hunter-gathers society and the complex Mayan state occurred from the Pre-Olmec Period between 1200 and 400 BC to the Late Classic Maya society between AD 700 and 800.The Pre-Olmec Period signified pre-complex society due to the structure of egalitarianism and diversity in cultures, this is significantly different to the Maya society that witness not only the upheave of literature, counting system, religious ideology and political hierarchy. What is significant about this era is these innovations not only created social classes and allowed high upkeep for large population densities, they were able to unify the geopolitical sphere of cities under the same language and belief system through accepted iconography in art repre...