Pre-Columbian art
Pre-Columbian art thrived throughout the Americas from at least 13,000 BCE to the European conquests, and sometimes continued for a time afterwards. Many Pre-Columbian cultures did not have writing systems, so visual art expressed cosmologies, world views and philosophy of these cultures, as well as serving as mnenomic devices. Unfortunately, many of the surfaces, such as woven textiles, typically have not been preserved, but Precolumbian painting on ceramics, walls. The Mesoamerican cultures are divided into three periods, Pre-classic Classic Post-classic. The Pre-classic period was dominated by the highly developed Olmec civilization, the Olmecs produced jade figurines, and created heavy-featured, colossal heads, up to 2 meters high, that still stand mysteriously in the landscape. The Mesoamerican tradition of building large ceremonial centres appears to have begun under the Olmecs, during the Classic period the dominant Civilization was the Maya. Like the Mississippian peoples of North America such as the Choctaw and Natchez and they practised their own forms of hieroglyphic writing and even advanced astronomy.
Mayan art consequently focuses on rain and fertility, expressing these images mainly in relief and surface decoration and stylized figures were used to decorate architecture such as the pyramid temple of Chichén Itzá. Murals dating from about 750 CE were discovered when the city of Bonampak was excavated in 1946, the Post-classic period was dominated by the Toltecs who made colossal, block-like sculptures such as those employed as free-standing columns at Tula, Mexico. The Mixtecs developed a style of painting known as Mixtec-Puebla, as seen in their murals and codices, in the Andean region of South America, the Chavín civilization flourished from around 1000 BCE to 300 BCE. The Chavín produced small-scale pottery, often human in shape but with features such as bird feet, reptilian eyes. Representations of jaguar are a theme in Chavín art. The Chavin culture is noted for the spectacular murals and carvings found its main religious site of Chavin de Huantar, these works include the Raimondi Stela, the Lanzón.
Contemporary with the Chavin was the Paracas culture of the southern coast of Peru and these amazing productions, some of which could measure ninety feet long, were primarily used for as burial wraps for Paracas mummy bundles. Paracas art was influenced by the Chavín cult, and the two styles share many common motifs. On the south coast, the Paracas were immediately succeeded by a flowering of artistic production around the Nazca river valley, the Nazca period is divided into eight ceramic phases, each one depicting increasingly abstract animal and human motifs. These period range from Phase 1, beginning around 200 CE, to Phase 8, the Nasca people are most famous for the Nazca lines, though they are usually regarded as making some of the most beautiful polychrome ceramics in the Andes. On the north coast, the Moche succeeded the Chavin, for the Moche, ceramics functioned as a primary way of disseminating information and cultural ideas
Pre-Columbian era
For this reason the alternative terms of Precontact Americas, Pre-Colonial Americas or Prehistoric Americas are in use. In areas of Latin America the term used is Pre-Hispanic. Other civilizations were contemporary with the period and were described in European historical accounts of the time. A few, such as the Maya civilization, had their own written records, because many Christian Europeans of the time viewed such texts as heretical, men like Diego de Landa destroyed many texts in pyres, even while seeking to preserve native histories. Only a few documents have survived in their original languages, while others were transcribed or dictated into Spanish, giving modern historians glimpses of ancient culture. Indigenous American cultures continue to evolve after the pre-Columbian era, many of these peoples and their descendants continue traditional practices, while evolving and adapting new cultural practices and technologies into their lives. Now, the study of pre-Columbian cultures is most often based on scientific.
Asian nomads are thought to have entered the Americas via the Bering Land Bridge, now the Bering Strait, genetic evidence found in Amerindians maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA supports the theory of multiple genetic populations migrating from Asia. Over the course of millennia, Paleo-Indians spread throughout North and South America, exactly when the first group of people migrated into the Americas is the subject of much debate. One of the earliest identifiable cultures was the Clovis culture, with sites dating from some 13,000 years ago, older sites dating back to 20,000 years ago have been claimed. Some genetic studies estimate the colonization of the Americas dates from between 40,000 and 13,000 years ago, the chronology of migration models is currently divided into two general approaches. The first is the short chronology theory with the first movement beyond Alaska into the New World occurring no earlier than 14, 000–17,000 years ago, followed by successive waves of immigrants. The second belief is the long chronology theory, which proposes that the first group of people entered the hemisphere at an earlier date, possibly 50.
In that case, the Eskimo peoples would have arrived separately and at a date, probably no more than 2,000 years ago. The North American climate was unstable as the ice age receded and it finally stabilized by about 10,000 years ago, climatic conditions were very similar to todays. Within this timeframe, roughly pertaining to the Archaic Period, numerous archaeological cultures have been identified, the unstable climate led to widespread migration, with early Paleo-Indians soon spreading throughout the Americas, diversifying into many hundreds of culturally distinct tribes. The paleo-indians were hunter-gatherers, likely characterized by small, mobile bands consisting of approximately 20 to 50 members of an extended family and these groups moved from place to place as preferred resources were depleted and new supplies were sought. During much of the Paleo-Indian period, bands are thought to have subsisted primarily through hunting now-extinct giant land animals such as mastodon, Paleo-Indian groups carried a variety of tools
Inca society
The Inca society was the society of the Inca civilization in South America. The Inca Empire, which was centred in what is now called Peru, Bolivia and southern Colombia and lasted from 1438 to 1533 AD, the Inca state was known as the Kingdom of Cusco before 1438. Over the course of the Inca Empire, the rulers used conquest and peaceful assimilation to incorporate in their empire a large portion of western South America, the last Inca stronghold, the Neo-Inca State in Vilcabamba was conquered by the Spanish in 1572. Population estimates for the Tawantinsuyu society range from as few as 4 million people to more than 37 million, most estimates are between 6 and 14 million people. The reason for these estimates is that, despite that the Inca kept excellent census records using their quipus. Almost all of them were destroyed by the Spanish in the course of their conquest, Incan women were typically married at the age of sixteen, while men married at the age of 20. In Inca society, due to regulations, men of lower rank could only have one wife.
The aristocracy, starting with the curaca, were allowed to engage in polygamy, trial marriages were typical within Inca culture. In this type of marriage, the man and woman would agree to try out being married to one another for a few years. At the end of time, the woman could go home to her parents if she wished. However, once the marriage was made final, they could only divorce if the woman was childless, women would almost always marry men in the same social class as themselves. However, while it was rare for them to marry a man with a higher social ranking. The only way for a woman to alter her social ranking would be if a man of higher ranking took notice of her. In the Inca society, a wedding was not a joyous celebration, instead, it was looked at more as a business-like agreement. Therefore, for the Inca, marriage was an agreement between two families. Once a woman was married, she was expected to collect food and cook, watch over the animals, a woman’s household obligations would not change after she became pregnant.
The simple abstract geometric forms and highly stylised animal representation in ceramics, wood carvings, the motifs were not as revivalist as previous empires. No motifs of other societies were used with the exception of Huari
Nazca culture
They built an impressive system of underground aqueducts, known as puquios, that still function today. The Nazca Province in the Ica Region was named for this people, Nazca society developed during the Early Intermediate Period and is generally divided into the Proto Nazca, the Early Nazca, Middle Nazca and Late Nazca cultures. From 500 AD, the civilization started to decline and by 750 AD the civilization had fallen completely and this is thought to have occurred when an El Niño triggered widespread and destructive flooding. Evidence suggests that the Nazca people may have exacerbated the effects of floods by gradually cutting down Prosopis pallida trees to make room for maize. These trees play an important role as the ecological keystone of this landscape, in particular preventing river. Gradual removal of trees would have exposed the landscape to the effects of climate perturbations such as El Niño, leading to erosion and leaving irrigation systems high and dry. Early Nazca society was made up of local chiefdoms and regional centers of power centered around Cahuachi, scholars have developed theories resulting from various excavations at Cahuachi and suggest that the site was the center for rituals and feasting relating to agriculture and fertility.
This may have been as a result of deterioration, the eventual collapse of the center may have been a result of that decline. Cahuachi lies in the portion of the Nazca Valley and was initially occupied during the late Paracas phase. It is unique among all other Nazca sites in the region, the people modified the natural huacas into pyramid mounds for ceremonial and religious purposes. Excavations at Cahuachi have given archaeologists key insights into the culture, the material remains found at the site included large amounts of polychrome pottery and fancy textiles, trace amounts of gold and spondylus shell, and an array of ritual paraphernalia. The remains of pottery found at Cahuachi led archaeologists to believe that the site was specifically non-urban, the ratio of plain, utilitarian pottery to fine, polychrome pottery was 30% to 70%. If it was a center, the amount of utilitarian ceramics would have probably been higher. Among the foodstuffs found were the Three Sisters, maize and beans, as well as peanuts and it appears that the site was abandoned at the very end of Nazca 3/early Nazca 4.
Although there are possible reasons for the collapse of Cahuachi. Later Nazca society was structured in a fashion as it had been before. Likely related to the arid and extreme nature of the environment, Nazca religious beliefs were based upon agriculture, much as in the contemporary Moche culture based in northwest Peru, shamans apparently used hallucinogenic drugs, such as extractions from the San Pedro cactus, to induce visions. The use of substances is depicted in art found on pottery related to the Nazca
Thames & Hudson
Thames & Hudson is a publisher of illustrated books on art, architecture and visual culture. With its headquarters in London, England, it has a company in New York and subsidiaries in Melbourne, Singapore. In Paris, it has a subsidiary company, which is engaged in the distribution of English-language books. It has been an independent, family-owned company since its founding in 1949, Thames & Hudsons World of Art series is especially well-known. Thames & Hudson was established by Walter Neurath who was born in Vienna in 1903 and he left that city, where he ran an art gallery and published illustrated books with an emphasis on education, arriving in London in 1938. He initially worked as director of Adprint, a business established by fellow Viennese émigré Wolfgang Foges. Neurath’s concept was the first sign of many innovations that through Thames & Hudson he would introduce to the world of publishing. Eva Neurath, who had arrived in London in 1939 from Berlin and worked alongside Neurath at Adprint, co-founded the company as partner.
Among the ten titles that were published in Thames & Hudson’s first publication season in 1950, English Cathedrals, a testament to the company’s strong belief from the very start in the longevity of books, it remained in print until 1971. Also appearing in the first year of publication was Albert Einstein’s Out of my years, the company remained at that address, eventually expanding to five houses, until 1999. In 1958, Thames & Hudson launched what is one of its series, the World of Art. Characterized by their size and black spines – little black artbooks – the series expanded in just seven years to include 49 titles. More than fifty years later, over 300 titles have appeared in the series, more than 100 titles were published in the series over a 34-year period. In 1964 the company’s production director introduced what are commonly known as ‘French folds’, dust jackets that are folded over on top. In 2004 a four-volume monograph on Pritzker Prize–winning architect Zaha Hadid was published, having built one of the most important publishing houses in Europe in fewer than two decades, Walter Neurath died in 1967 at the age of 63.
Sculptor Henry Moore wrote, His death is a loss to our cultural life, walter’s son, who with his sister Constance had joined the company in 1961, became managing director, Constance served as art director for several decades. In the United States, the New York company, which had closed in 1953, was re-established in 1976 and it was initially led by Paul Gottlieb, who became president of Harry Abrams publishers in New York. In 1979 he was succeeded by Peter Warner, who served the company for thirty years, will Balliett has been president of Thames & Hudson Inc. since 2009
Wari culture
The Wari were a Middle Horizon civilization that flourished in the south-central Andes and coastal area of modern-day Peru, from about AD500 to 1000. Wari, as the capital city was called, is located 11 km north-east of the modern city of Ayacucho. This city was the center of a civilization that covered much of the highlands, the best-preserved remnants, beside the Wari Ruins, are the recently discovered Northern Wari ruins near the city of Chiclayo, and Cerro Baul in Moquegua. Also well-known are the Wari ruins of Pikillaqta, a short distance south-east of Cuzco en route to Lake Titicaca, early on, the Wari expanded their territory to include the ancient oracle center of Pachacamac, though it seems to have remained largely autonomous. Later the Wari became dominant in much of the territory of the earlier Moche, the reason for this expansion has been debated, it is believed to have been driven by religious conversion, military conquest, or the spread of agricultural knowledge. Buildings in Wari and in other government centers had doorways that were blocked up, as if the Wari intended to return.
But by the time this happened, the Wari had faded from history, in the meantime, the dwindling residents of the Wari cities ceased all major construction. Archaeological evidence shows significant levels of violence, suggesting that warfare. With the collapse of the Wari, the Late Intermediate Period is said to begin, little is known about the details of the Wari administrative structure, as they did not appear to use a form of written record. But, the emphasis on homogeneous administrative architecture and evidence for significant social stratification suggests a complex socio-political hierarchy, the discovery in early 2013 of an undisturbed royal tomb, El Castillo de Huarmey, offers new insight into the social and political influence of the Wari during this period. During its expansion period, the Wari state established architecturally distinctive administrative centers in many of its provinces and these centres are clearly different from the architecture of Tiwanaku, which is believed to have been a more federalized state by some scholars.
Using these administrative centers, the Wari greatly influenced the surrounding countryside and they created new fields with terraced field technology and invested in construction of a major road network. Several centuries later, when the Inca began to expand their empire, Wari Empire Willkawayin Tiwanaku Tiwanaku empire Middle Horizon Pocra culture Chuqi Pukyu Collier, Simon et al. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Latin America and the Caribbean, Excavations at Wari, Peru. Gordon F. McEwan, The Middle Horizon in the Valley of Cuzco, william H. Isbell and Gordon F. McEwan, eds. Huari Administrative Structure, Prehistoric Monumental Architecture and State Government, katharina J. Schreiber, Wari Imperialism in Middle Horizon Peru. Violence and the Wari Empire, A Social Bioarchaeology of Imperialism in the Ancient Andes, bergh, by Judith H. Dobrzynski, The Wall Street Journal, October 24,2012 Who Was Who in the Middle Horizon Andean Prehistory by Patricia J. Knobloch
Cupisnique
Cupisnique was a pre-Columbian culture which flourished from ca.1500 to 500 BC along what is now Perus northern Pacific Coast. The culture had a style of adobe clay architecture but shared artistic styles. The relationship between Chavin and Cupisnique is not well understood, and the names are used interchangeably. For instance, the scholar Alana Cordy-Collins treats as Cupisnique a culture lasting from 1000 –200 BC, izumi Shimada calls Cupisnique a possible ancestor of Mochica culture with no mention of Chavin. Anna C. Roosevelt refers to the manifestation of the Chavin Horizon. dominated by the Cupisnique style. A Cupisnique adobe temple was discovered in 2008 in the Lambayeque valley in the area of the site of Ventarron. The newly discovered temple is close to the Ventarron temple. This temple sheds some light on the connection between the Cupisnique and the Chavin because of shared iconography, in fact, some other related temples have been discovered in the area recently. The Chavin people who came after the Cupisnique built an adjacent to Collud about three hundred years later, this location is named Zarpan.
All three temples are close together, and form a single archaeological site, there are many shared elements between all three locations. For example, one element is that of the Spider Creator god with his net. This motif appears to persevere from the 4, 000-year-old temple of Ventarrón all the way to the Moche culture, the temple found in 2008 includes imagery of the spider god, thought to be associated with rainfall and warfare. The spider god image combines a spiders neck and head, with the mouth of a large cat, the only decapitator creature that by nature decapitates its victims heads is the spider. The reason the Moche and the Cupisnique are sometimes referred to interchangeably is due to their similarities in ceramic designs. The Moche were the most “vibrant” in incorporating the cupisnique society of the cultures that had a base population of farming and fishing along with a middle. The main connection between the Cupisnique and the Moche is the incorporation of the theme where there exists a decapitator.
Below are images of the main five decpitators from both the Cupisnique and the Moche culture, scholars believe that the parallelism between Moche and Cupisnique iconography is not just coincidental, rather the Moche were “the heirs to a belief that they subscribed to in practice”. The Cupisnique people are sometimes spoken of as a due to two main reasons
Paracas culture
The Paracas culture was an Andean society between approximately 800 BCE and 100 BCE, with an extensive knowledge of irrigation and water management and significant contributions in the textile arts. It was located in today is the Ica Region of Peru. The Paracas Cavernas are shaft tombs set into the top of Cerro Colorado, there is evidence that these tombs were reused over centuries. In some cases, the heads of the deceased were taken out, apparently for rituals, the associated ceramics include incised polychrome, negative resist decoration and other wares of the Paracas tradition. The associated textiles include many complex weave structures as well as elaborate plaiting and knotting techniques, the necropolis of Wari Kayan consisted of two clusters of hundreds of burials set closely together inside and around abandoned buildings on the steep north slope of Cerro Colorado. The associated ceramics are very fine plain wares, some white and red slips and other with pattern-burnished decoration.
Each body was bound with cord to hold it in a position, before being wrapped in many layers of intricate, ornate. The Paracas Necropolis embroideries are now known as some of the finest ever produced by Pre-Columbian Andean societies, burials at the necropolis of Wari Kayan continued until about 250 CE, and many of the mortuary bundles include textiles like those of early Nazca. While the Paracas culture developed in this region between about 1200 BCE and 100 BCE, the Topará culture is thought to have invaded from the north at approximately 150 BCE, sawyer, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which contains material on Paracas culture
Lima
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the coastal part of the country. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms an urban area known as the Lima Metropolitan Area. With a population of almost 10 million, Lima is the most populous area of Peru. Lima was founded by Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro on January 18,1535 and it became the capital and most important city in the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru. Following the Peruvian War of Independence, it became the capital of the Republic of Peru, around one-third of the national population lives in the metropolitan area. Lima is home to one of the oldest higher-learning institutions in the New World, the National University of San Marcos, founded on May 12,1551 during the Spanish colonial regime, is the oldest continuously functioning university in the Americas. In October 2013 Lima was chosen to host the 2019 Pan American Games and it hosted the December 2014 United Nations Climate Change Conference and the Miss Universe 1982 pageant.
In October 2015 Lima hosted the 2015 Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group, according to early Spanish articles the Lima area was once called Itchyma, after its original inhabitants. However, even before the Inca occupation of the area in the 15th century and this oracle was eventually destroyed by the Spanish and replaced with a church, but the name persisted, the chronicles show Límac replacing Ychma as the common name for the area. Modern scholars speculate that the word Lima originated as the Spanish pronunciation of the native name Limaq, linguistic evidence seems to support this theory as spoken Spanish consistently rejects stop consonants in word-final position. Non-Peruvian Spanish speakers may mistakenly define the city name as the direct Spanish translation of lime, the city was founded in 1535 under the name City of the Kings because its foundation was decided on January 6, date of the feast of the Epiphany. This name quickly fell into disuse and Lima became the name of choice, on the oldest Spanish maps of Peru.
The river that feeds Lima is called Rímac and many people assume that this is because its original Inca name is Talking River. However, the inhabitants of the valley were not Incas. This name is an innovation arising from an effort by the Cuzco nobility in colonial times to standardize the toponym so that it would conform to the phonology of Cuzco Quechua, later, as the original inhabitants died out and the local Quechua became extinct, the Cuzco pronunciation prevailed. Nowadays, Spanish-speaking locals do not see the connection between the name of their city and the name of the river runs through it. They often assume that the valley is named after the river, historically, the Flag of Lima has been known as the «Banner of Perus Kings City»
Huaco (pottery)
Huacos are not mere earthenware but notable pottery specimens linked to ceremonial, artistic or aesthetic uses in central Andean, pre-Columbian civilizations. The Huari, along with the Nazca, the Moche and others, were among the creators of figurines who passed down through history their unique skills in ceramics. The Incas, who absorbed all the cultures in the time of its expansion, since the time of the Spanish conquest of Peru, these types of pieces have been found in pre-Columbian sites like temples and burials, as well as other kinds of ruins. These sites, especially if they are of a meaning, are called generic huaca or waqa in native Quechua. In Peru, a huaquero is a person that digs in ancient pre-Columbian ruins illegally in order to get pieces of artwork. The bridge handles are characteristic of cultures, some used many colors, while others used black. Inca Empire adopted all sorts of shapes and qualities, the term huaco was reserved for any copies not reserved for daily use but the luxury or ritual.
Normally these ceramic pieces are associated with notable features, when the pieces are sculptural ceramics, huacos are characterized by pictorial richness. There are many kinds of pots and containers covered with gaudy polychrome motifs, usually anthropomorphic representations of animals or mythological, two-toned Moche pottery is characterized by complex painted scenes detailing a narrative level. Examples of erotic huacos, make the Moches 800-year period the longest unbroken erotic ceramics tradition in the world, in the 1570s during the Spanish conquest of Peru, Viceroy Francisco de Toledo and his clerical advisers worked to destroy many erotic huacos, though some extant artifacts have survived. In both cases the huaco is associated with complexity and not with regular use as a container on account of its physical dimensions. The slender Incan vessels known as aryballos, even opulently created examples, are not usually considered huacos since their utilitarian character is too pronounced, the National Museum of the Archaeology and History of Peru in Lima, Peru houses a large number of ceramic artifacts.
The nearby Larco Museum houses a collection of Moche ceramics and is well known for its collection of erotic pottery
