Arts and Architecture
Maya Art and Architecture
The Maya were very gifted in arts. They made paints from minerals and plants. Mayans in Chiapas, Mexico made murals which show nobles and priests,battle scenes, ceremonies and a human sacrifice. Mayans also made steles, upright stone slabs which they often placed in front of temples. Steles usually stood between 5 and 12 feet tall. Some steles even went up to 30 feet! Steles typically had 3-dimensional carvings of gods rulers. Another important art was weaving. The Maya wove colorful and complex cloths. Women wove embroidered tunics called 'huipiles' and made lengths of cloth for trading. Many women still use the same techniques today. They make their huipiles with same design. People from different towns can be distinguished by the colors and patter of their clothing.
The temple-pyramids that the Maya built were made of hand-cut limestone bricks. What makes Mayan buildings unusual is that they have a type of arch called a corbel vault. Builders stacked stones so they gradually angled into a triangular archway. At the top of the arch one stone connected the sides that that almost touched. The archway always had 9 layers to represent the nine layers of the underworld. |
Aztec Art and Architecture
The Aztecs greatly valued poetry and it was often sung or recited to music. Music and dance was very important in ceremonies, and in one dance 4 dancers jumped off a pole that they were attached to by a rope and spun around the pole. This dance is much like the maypole dance. The Aztecs were very gifted painters and sculptors and their work surpassed that of any Mesoamerican group. They used brilliant colors to paint pictures of gods and ceremonies. Sculptors made stone statues and reliefs in temples.Aztecs carved people and animals out of jade. The Aztecs are best known for their massive stone temples and the architecture of Tenochtitlan. Tenochtitlan was built on a lake and had three passages to the mainland. Instead of having roads they had canals. It also had double staircases. Tenochtitlan was the capitol of the Aztec empire
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