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Mesoamerican architecture is the set of architectural traditions produced by pre-Columbian cultures and civilizations of Mesoamerica, traditions which are best known in the form of public, ceremonial and urban monumental buildings and structures. The distinctive features of Mesoamerican architecture encompass a number of different regional and ...
Copan, 'Reviewing Stand' with simian musicians Labna, Palace, vaulted passage. The layout of the Maya towns and cities, and more particularly of the ceremonial centers where the royal families and courtiers resided, is characterized by the rhythm of immense horizontal stucco floors of plazas often located at various levels, connected by broad and often steep stairs, and surmounted by temple ...
The word xicalcoliuhqui (Nahuatl pronunciation: [ʃikaɬkoˈliʍki]) means "twisted gourd" (xical- "gourdbowl" and coliuhqui "twisted") in Nahuatl. [1] [2] [10] The motif is associated with many ideas, and is variously thought to depict water, waves, clouds, lightning, a serpent or serpent-deity like the mythological fire or feathered serpents, as well as more philosophical ideas like cyclical ...
Detail of the intricate pattern work characteristic of classic Maya art, 450 Sutter Street. Kukulkanob public pavilion in Mérida.. Though the name of the style refers specifically to the Maya civilization of southern Mexico and Central America, in practice, this revivalist style frequently blends Maya architectural and artistic motifs "playful pilferings of the architectural and decorative ...
Mesoamerican art — The artistic expression documented for Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures and civilizations. Including Mesoamerican visual arts, music, dance, literature, decorative motifs, and iconography.
As the major predator of Mesoamerica, the jaguar was revered by pre-Columbian societies, and adoption of jaguar motifs by the ruling elite was used to reinforce or validate leadership. [18] However, this does not explain the werejaguar motif in and of itself, and the possible origins of the motif have engaged scholars for over a half century.
An archetypical baby-face figurine from Las Bocas.. The "baby-face" figurine is a unique marker of Olmec culture, consistently found in sites that show Olmec influence, [4] although they seem to be confined to the early Olmec period and are largely absent, for example, in La Venta.
World trees are a prevalent motif occurring in the mythical cosmologies, creation accounts, and iconographies of the pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica. In the Mesoamerican context, world trees embodied the four cardinal directions , which also serve to represent the fourfold nature of a central world tree, a symbolic axis mundi that ...