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Atlantean Figures
The Atlantean figures are four anthropomorphic statues belonging to the Toltec culture in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. These figures are "massive statues of Toltec warriors". They take their post-Columbian name from the European tradition of similar Atlas or Atalante figures in classical architecture. Though the most famous Atlantean figures reside in Tula, the Olmecs were the first to use Atlantean figures on a relief discovered in Potrero Nuevo. Mayan sculptors also created "Atlantean" figures in Chichen Itza. Furthermore, the Aztecs also created warrior statues strongly inspired by these Atlantean figures in Tula. Composition The Atlantean figures in Tula are hand-carved statues made from the available stone in the area: limestone, sandstone, and volcanic rock. To carve them, sculptors would have used stone tools, such as chisels for fine sculpting, scrapers of various sizes, and stone hammers. Additional smaller and softer stones were used for smoothing. The process of crea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Telamones Tula
In European architectural sculpture, an atlas (also known as an atlant, or atlante or atlantid; plural atlantes)''Aru-Az , Michael Delahunt ArtLex Art Dictionary , 1996–2008. is a support sculpted in the form of a man, which may take the place of a column, a Pier (architecture), pier or a pilaster. The Roman term for such a sculptural support is Telamon#In architecture, telamon (plural telamones or telamons). The term ''atlantes'' is the Greek plural of the name Atlas (mythology), Atlas—the Titan (mythology), Titan who was forced to hold the sky on his shoulders for eternity. The alternative term, ''telamones'', also is derived from a later mythological hero, Telamon, one of the Argonauts, who was the father of Tela ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maya Peoples
The Maya peoples () are an ethnolinguistic group of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. The ancient Maya civilization was formed by members of this group, and today's Maya are generally descended from people who lived within that historical region. Today they inhabit southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and Honduras. "Maya" is a modern collective term for the peoples of the region, however, the term was not historically used by the indigenous populations themselves. There was no common sense of identity or political unity among the distinct populations, societies and ethnic groups because they each had their own particular traditions, cultures and historical identity. It is estimated that seven million Maya were living in this area at the start of the 21st century. Guatemala, southern Mexico and the Yucatán Peninsula, Belize, El Salvador, and western Honduras have managed to maintain numerous remnants of their ancient cultural her ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesoamerican Stone Sculpture
Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. Within this region pre-Columbian societies flourished for more than 3,000 years before the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Mesoamerica was the site of two of the most profound historical transformations in world history: primary urban generation, and the formation of New World cultures out of the long encounters among indigenous, European, African and Asian cultures. In the 16th century, Eurasian diseases such as smallpox and measles, which were endemic among the colonists but new to North America, caused the deaths of upwards of 90% of the indigenous people, resulting in great losses to their societies and cultures. Mesoamerica is one of the five areas in the world where ancient civilization arose independently (see cradle of civilizati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesoamerican Archaeology
Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. Within this region pre-Columbian societies flourished for more than 3,000 years before the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Mesoamerica was the site of two of the most profound historical transformations in world history: primary urban generation, and the formation of New World cultures out of the long encounters among indigenous, European, African and Asian cultures. In the 16th century, Eurasian diseases such as smallpox and measles, which were endemic among the colonists but new to North America, caused the deaths of upwards of 90% of the indigenous people, resulting in great losses to their societies and cultures. Mesoamerica is one of the five areas in the world where ancient civilization arose independently (see cradle of civilizati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
History Of Sculpture
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sculptural processes originally used carving (the removal of material) and modelling (the addition of material, as clay), in stone, metal, ceramics, wood and other materials but, since Modernism, there has been an almost complete freedom of materials and process. A wide variety of materials may be worked by removal such as carving, assembled by welding or modelling, or moulded or cast. Sculpture in stone survives far better than works of art in perishable materials, and often represents the majority of the surviving works (other than pottery) from ancient cultures, though conversely traditions of sculpture in wood may have vanished almost entirely. However, most ancient sculpture was brightly painted, and this has been lost. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maya Stelae
Maya stelae (singular ''stela'') are monuments that were fashioned by the Maya civilization of ancient Mesoamerica. They consist of tall, sculpted stone shafts and are often associated with low circular stones referred to as altars, although their actual function is uncertain. Many stelae were sculpted in low relief, although plain monuments are found throughout the Maya region. The sculpting of these monuments spread throughout the Maya area during the Classic Period (250–900 AD), and these pairings of sculpted stelae and circular altars are considered a hallmark of Classic Maya civilization. The earliest dated stela to have been found ''in situ'' in the Maya lowlands was recovered from the great city of Tikal in Guatemala. During the Classic Period almost every Maya kingdom in the southern lowlands raised stelae in its ceremonial centre. Stelae became closely associated with the concept of divine kingship and declined at the same time as this institution. The production of ste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caryatid
A caryatid ( or or ; grc, Καρυᾶτις, pl. ) is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head. The Greek term ''karyatides'' literally means "maidens of Karyai", an ancient town on the Peloponnese. Karyai had a temple dedicated to the goddess Artemis in her aspect of Artemis Karyatis: "As Karyatis she rejoiced in the dances of the nut-tree village of Karyai, those Karyatides, who in their ecstatic round-dance carried on their heads baskets of live reeds, as if they were dancing plants". An atlas or telamon is a male version of a caryatid, i.e. a sculpted male statue serving as an architectural support. Etymology The term is first recorded in the Latin form ''caryatides'' by the Roman architect Vitruvius. He stated in his 1st century BC work ''De architectura'' (I.1.5) that the female figures of the Erechtheion represented the punishment of the women of Caryae, a town near Spart ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chacmool
A chacmool (also spelled chac-mool) is a form of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican sculpture depicting a reclining figure with its head facing 90 degrees from the front, supporting itself on its elbows and supporting a bowl or a disk upon its stomach. These figures possibly symbolised slain warriors carrying offerings to the gods; the bowl upon the chest was used to hold sacrificial offerings, including pulque, tamales, tortillas, tobacco, turkeys, feathers and incense. In an Aztec example, the receptacle is a cuauhxicalli (a stone bowl to receive sacrificed human hearts). Chacmools were often associated with sacrificial stones or thrones.Miller and Taube 1993, 2003, p. 60. Aztec chacmools bore water imagery and were associated with Tlaloc, the rain god. Their symbolism placed them on the frontier between the physical and supernatural realms, as intermediaries with the gods. The chacmool form of sculpture first appeared around the 9th century AD in the Valley of Mexico and the northern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Toltecayotl
Toltecayotl is a Nahuatl word derived from " tōltēcātl" which as used by the Nahuas to refer to the members of the Toltec civilization that preceded them in the basin of Mexico, as well as a generalized meaning of "artisan". Modern use The introduction and dissemination of that title in the academic world is due to anthropologist Miguel León-Portilla who, in 1980, published a book titled ''Tōltēcayōtl, aspects of the Nahuatl culture''. León Portilla's interpretation of the concept of Toltecayotl is based on a set of principles that were collected in the '' Huēhuehtlahtōlli''Must point out that the "Huehuetlahtolli" is a series of texts collected from Nahua informers by Spanish missionaries: by the 16th century, the archaeological Toltec had disappeared. or 'book of the ancient words', which includes traditional parliaments preserved by oral tradition and other documents. The main are the following: Criticism of the use of the term ''Toltequity'' is also the gener ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Valley Of Mexico
The Valley of Mexico ( es, Valle de México) is a highlands plateau in central Mexico roughly coterminous with present-day Mexico City and the eastern half of the State of Mexico. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, the Valley of Mexico was a centre for several pre-Columbian civilizations, including Teotihuacan, the Toltec, and the Aztec. The ancient Aztec term ('Land Between the Waters') and the phrase Basin of Mexico are both used at times to refer to the Valley of Mexico. The Basin of Mexico became a well known site that epitomized the scene of early Classic Mesoamerican cultural development as well. The Valley of Mexico is located in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt. The valley contains most of the Greater Mexico City, Mexico City Metropolitan Area, as well as parts of the State of Mexico, Hidalgo (state), Hidalgo, Tlaxcala, and Puebla. The Basin of Mexico covers approximately in the NNE-SSW direction with length to width dimensions of approximately to The Valley of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley of Mexico within the high Mexican central plateau, at an altitude of . The city has 16 boroughs or ''demarcaciones territoriales'', which are in turn divided into neighborhoods or ''colonias''. The 2020 population for the city proper was 9,209,944, with a land area of . According to the most recent definition agreed upon by the federal and state governments, the population of Greater Mexico City is 21,804,515, which makes it the sixth-largest metropolitan area in the world, the second-largest urban agglomeration in the Western Hemisphere (behind São Paulo, Brazil), and the largest Spanish language, Spanish-speaking city (city proper) in the world. Greater Mexico City has a gross domestic product, GDP of $411 billion in 2011, which makes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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