Indigenous Americas

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This course is a part of AP®︎ Art History, a 13-course Topic series from Khan Academy.

Art of the Indigenous Americas is among the world’s oldest artistic traditions. While its roots lie in northern Asia, it developed independently between c. 10,000 B.C.E. and 1492 C.E., which marked the beginning of the European invasions. Regions and cultures are referred to as the Indigenous Americas to signal the priority of First Nations cultural traditions over those of the colonizing and migrant peoples that have progressively taken over the American continents for the last 500 years.

This course contains 23 segments:

Chavín de Huántar

Mesa Verde cliff dwellings

Mesa Verde and the preservation of Ancestral Puebloan heritage

Mesa Verde and the preservation of Ancestral Puebloan heritage - Speakers: Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank and Dr. Steven Zucker

Maya: The Yaxchilán Lintels

Yaxchilán—Lintels 24 and 25 from Structure 23 and structures 33 and 40

Fort Ancient Culture: Great Serpent Mound

Unearthing the Aztec past, the destruction of the Templo Mayor

Unearthing the Aztec past, the destruction of the Templo Mayor (Mexico City) Speakers: Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank and Dr. Steven Zucker

Templo Mayor at Tenochtitlan, the Coyolxauhqui Stone, and an Olmec Mask

The Sun Stone (The Calendar Stone)

The Sun Stone (or The Calendar Stone), Aztec, reign of Moctezuma II (1502-20), discovered in 1790 at the southeastern edge of the Plaza Mayor (Zocalo) in Mexico City, stone (unfinished), 358 cm diameter x 98 cm depth (Museo Nacional de Antropología) Speakers: Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank and Dr. Beth Harris

Coyolxauhqui Stone

Coyolxauhqui Monolith (Aztec), c. 1500, volcanic stone, found Templo Mayor, Tenochtitlan, excavated 1978 (Museo del Templo Mayor, Mexico City) Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank

Olmec mask (Olmec-style mask)

Olmec mask (Olmec-style mask), c. 1200 - 400 B.C.E., jadeite, 4 x 3-3/8 x 1-1/4 inches found in offering 20 buried c. 1470 C.E. at the Aztec Templo Mayor (Museo del Templo Mayor, Mexico City) Speakers: Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank and Dr. Steven Zucker Items buried in offerings included ceramic vessels, stone sculptures, obsidian blades, seashells, greenstone, and objects gathered from earlier locales (like Olmec sites and the city of Teotihuacan). The Olmecs are known as “rubber people,” a name given to the peoples of the Gulf Coast after the Spanish Conquest. We don’t know what they called themselves. Jadeite was quarried in the Sierra de las Minas in Guatemala, and was imported to the Gulf Coast of Mexico. Items acquired via trade or tribute [by the Aztecs] included feathers, obsidian, jadeite, cotton, cacao, and turquoise.

Feathered headdress

Feathered headdress, Aztec, reproduction (National Anthropology Museum, Mexico City) Original: Feathered headdress, Mexico, Aztec, early 16th century, quetzal, cotinga, roseate spoonbill, piaya feathers; wood, fibers, amate paper, cotton, gold, gilded brass (World Museum, Vienna) The headdress is also called the “Penacho of Moctezuma II.” “Moctezuma II’s Headdress” was first mentioned in a European inventory in 1596, when it was acquired by Austrian Archduke Ferdinand II von Tyrol. It was listed there as “a Moorish hat.” It was likely an object sent from Mesoamerica to Europe by Hernan Cortes, but it is unknown whether it actually belonged to Moctezuma II himself. A conversation with Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank and Dr. Beth Harris

Terms and Issues in Native American Art

by Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank

About geography and chronological periods in Native American art

Eastern Shoshone: Hide Painting of the Sun Dance, attributed to Cotsiogo (Cadzi Cody)

City of Cusco

Maize cobs

Machu Picchu

All-T’oqapu Tunic

From quills to beads: the bandolier bag

Shoulder Bag, 1840-1850, Delaware, Lenni Lenape, cotton, wool, silk, glass beads, tinned iron, brass, bone, 29 1/2 inces high (Newark Museum of Art, Purchase 2017 Mr. and Mrs. William V. Griffin Fund  2017.10) A conversation with Dr. Adriana Greci Green and Dr. Beth Harris A Seeing America video

Bandolier Bag

Transformation masks

Puebloan: Maria Martinez, Black-on-black ceramic vessel