Art and Architecture in the Ancient World: The Americas

North America

During the Ice Age, a frozen land bridge known as Beringa stretched across the Bering Strait from Asia to Alaska. From about 50,000-11,000 b.c.e., intermittent waves of Asian and Siberian peoples migrated across Beringa, down into North America and, eventually, into Central and South America. These early peoples brought with them a Stone Age technology, giving the era its name, the Lithic (Stone) period.

By 9000 b.c.e., specific groups can be identified by their spearpoint-making technologies and territories. Two of these groups are the Old Cordilleran culture in the Cascade region of the Columbia River and the Desert culture in the Great Basin area of the American Southwest. The Desert culture developed the first-known woven basketry in the Americas. As the weather warmed and game disappeared, gathering activities intensified. This period is known as the Archaic (Foraging) Age (8000-1000 b.c.e.), a time of advancements in tool making and basket weaving. During the Archaic Age, peoples developed into three principal cultures: the Cochise, Old Copper, and Red Paint. The Cochise culture (8000-1 b.c.e.) of Arizona and New Mexico was the first to cultivate corn, perhaps learned from contact with peoples in Mexico. The Cochise, who lived in pit houses covered with brush roofs, fashioned figurines of clay. The Old Copper complex (4000-1000 b.c.e.) in the Great Lakes area learned to heat and hammer copper into tools and jewelry. The Red Paint culture (3000-500 b.c.e.) of New England and Eastern Canada were a people named for their practice of lining their graves with powdered red hematite, perhaps as an offering representing life-giving blood. They also placed tools and sculptures in the graves, presumably for use by the deceased in the afterlife.

The Southwest cultures (9500 b.c.e.-700 c.e.), named for the southwest region of America in which they lived, are divided into three main cultures. The Mogollon culture, or Mountain People (200 b.c.e.-1200 c.e.), are named for the mountains that lie along the southern borders of New Mexico and Arizona and are thought to be the earliest culture in the Southwest to pursue agriculture, a practice that allowed the Mogollon to settle in one place, build houses, and create pottery for storage of food and other items. The ingenious Mogollon pit houses, dug deep into the earth and covered with branches, maintained a relatively constant temperature compared with the exterior environment. Very large pit houses were probably used as kivas (ritual spaces). The early Mogollon made simple brown clay pottery and wove blankets and baskets. The Hohokam culture, or Vanished Ones (1-1400 c.e.), was a desert-dwelling culture that practiced agriculture, complex irrigation, pit house construction, and advanced decorative pottery and textile making. The Anasazi culture, or the Ancient Ones (100-1300 c.e.), resided on the high plateaus of the Four Corners region (Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona). The Anasazi lived in pit houses like their contemporaries (the famed Anasazi pueblo-style structures were constructed after 750 c.e.). The early phase of the Anasazi culture is referred to as Basketmaker II because of their sophisticated basket-weaving skills.

In the midwestern and eastern areas of North America, Woodland cultures (1400 b.c.e.-1500 c.e.) and Mound Builders (1000 b.c.e.-700 c.e.) developed. The earliest of these, the Adena culture (1000 b.c.e.-100 c.e.), originated in the Ohio River Valley. This agricultural society constructed round wattle-and-daub houses, with wide overhanging roofs supported by four interior poles. The Adena practiced an elaborate type of mound burial that involved the inclusion of grave goods, with quality and quantity based on the deceased’s social position. Burial mounds were typically circular, but effigy mounds took many forms, including that of a huge coiled serpent in Ohio. Another mound-building culture, located in Ohio, Illinois, and parts of the Mississippi River Valley, was the Hopewell culture (300 b.c.e.-700 c.e.). The Hopewell elaborated on the Adena practices of mound building and the inclusion of burial goods in tombs. Unlike the Adena, the Hopewell lived in circular, domed wigwams.

Mesoamerica

The term Mesoamerica (Middle America) refers to the geographical area of southern Mexico and Central America. The chronology of Mesoamerica is divided into four phases: the Prehistoric period (about 12,000-2000 b.c.e.), a time of migrations south through Mexico and down into the Yucatan and Central America; the Pre-Classic or Formative period (2000 b.c.e.-250 c.e.), during which agriculture and cities developed; the Classic period (250-900 c.e.), the apex of Mesoamerican cultures; and the Post-Classic period (900-1519 c.e.), a period of diffusion, decline, and invasion by Europeans.

During the Pre-Classic phase, the Olmec culture (c. 1200-400 b.c.e.) arose along the Mexican coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The Olmec culture is often referred to as a “mother” culture because it was the source of many Mesoamerican cultural traits, such as highly stratified societies, hereditary kingship, elaborate ceremonial centers, pyramid temples, and strong central control over highly organized workforces. Unique to the Olmec are the creation of basalt stone heads ranging in height from 6 to 8 feet (1.8 to 2.4 meters), which probably represented kings. Contemporary with the Olmec was the Colima culture of western Mexico, noted for its elaborate shaft graves that housed multiple tombs and a wide array of ceramic grave figurines representing everyday life in Pre-Classical Mexico.

The transition from the Pre-Classic to the Classic phase is exemplified in the major ceremonial center established at Teotihuacan (1-750 c.e.), northeast of Mexico City. Teotihuacan was divided into quadrants with wards based on ethnicity and social status. During massive building programs, older temples were left intact and covered over with new temples, leaving an excellent record for archaeologists. The Maya culture, originating as early as 1000 b.c.e., reached its height in the Classic period, during which the Maya constructed their great ceremonial centers in Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, and southern Mexico. Once believed to be a society of peaceful priests and timekeepers, the Maya were, in fact, an aggressive culture based on kingship, ritual bloodletting, warfare, and human sacrifice. The Maya developed an elaborate cosmology and recorded it in complex hieroglyphics and detailed calendars. Central to every Maya center were temple pyramids, which housed tombs of the kings; observatories for tracking movements of celestial bodies; and ball courts, in which ritual games were played.

South America

In South America, ancient Andean cultures developed along the Andes Mountains, with urban centers in the coastal deserts, rural centers in the mountains, and forest peoples in the eastern Amazon region. During the Preceramic period (before pottery), a Stone Age culture of nomadic hunters and gatherers sought shelter in Panaulauca cave in central Peru (8000-1800 b.c.e.). Burials testify to a respect for the dead, possibly indicating a belief in the afterlife or the practice of ancestor worship. Cave paintings from the region depict camelids (vicuna, llama, and alpaca), which would have provided fiber for textiles, leather for sandals and ropes, bone for tools, and meat for food. The camelids also served as pack animals for the ancient Andean cultures, which never developed the wheel.

Between 2500 and 1800 b.c.e., hunting and gathering was replaced by agriculture. The first cities in South America arose along the dry western coasts, where elaborate irrigation systems were constructed to bring water from the mountains. The Chavin culture (1000-200 b.c.e.), named for its central location at Chavin de Huantar in the Peruvian Andes, constructed religious centers composed of U-shaped platforms opening up to the mountains from which came their life-giving water. Stone relief sculptures and stirrup spouted vessels reveal the Chav¡n interest in animals and nature. The Chavin wrapped their dead in patterned textiles that denoted the deceased’s family and clan.

Between 50 and 800 c.e., the Moche culture dominated the coastal regions of Peru. The Moche constructed adobe houses on raised platform mounds, as well as temple mounds and pyramids. Without the aid of the potter’s wheel, the Moche created an abundance of skillful ceramics, most notably naturalistic portrait vessels, which were placed in tombs alongside other items for use in the afterlife.

Roughly contemporary with the Moche was the Nasca culture (c. 100 b.c.e.-600 c.e.). The Nasca lived in the southern desert of Peru, where they developed an elaborate religion based on water and irrigation. Nasca homes were constructed of tied canes plastered over with mud; their ceremonial centers included temples and pyramids. Like other Andean cultures, the Nasca excelled at ceramics and textiles. They are most noted, however, for their giant geoglyphs (earth writing). By removing the top layer of dark, oxidized desert surface to expose the lighter sediments below, the Nasca created huge designs on the desert floor, from abstract geometric forms to gigantic monkeys, birds, fish, spiders, and even a 450-foot-long (137-meter-long) hummingbird. The exact purpose of the Nasca lines is unknown, but archaeologists speculate that they were part of a religious ritual to ensure the fertility of the earth.

Bibliography

Coates, Anthony G., ed. central America: A Natural and Cultural History. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1997.

Josephy, Alvin M., Jr., et al. The Native Americans: An Illustrated History. Atlanta, Ga.: Turner, 1993.

Kauffmann-Doig, Federico. Ancestors of the Inca: The Lost Civilizations of Peru. Memphis, Tenn.: Lithograph, 1998.

Von Hagen, Adriana, and Craig Morris. Cities of the Ancient Andes. London: Thames and Hudson, 1998.