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art: The Americas 93 court, and the sun The ornament is composed of many parts, which are joined by tiny, delicate clasps The Aztec Empire, along with Teotihuacán, was one of the most powerful civilizations in pre-Columbian Mesoamerican history The Aztec (also known as Mexica) were immigrants who came from a mysterious northern land called Aztlán In central Mexico they established the Triple Alliance, a network of three polities that exerted hegemonic control over neighboring areas The heart of the Aztec Empire was Tenochtitlán, a stunning city of boulevards and canals that was located on an island in a lake After the conquest the Spaniards drained the lake, and Tenochtitlán became Mexico City The Aztec were notorious for their practice of human sacrifice as well as for their totalitarian and warlike manner of rule, and the beauty and spirituality of Aztec art have nearly been eclipsed by their scandalous reputation The Aztec were prolific artists whose monuments, sculpture, ornaments, architecture, and manuscripts were deeply meaningful and filled with symbolism Major themes in Aztec life and art include religion, sacrifice, and politics; all of these ideas were completely enmeshed Unlike the Maya, who tended to depict rulers and warriors, the Aztec portrayed their gods One of the most astonishing Aztec sculptures is the 11-foot, 6-inchtall statue of Coatlicue (ca 1487–1520), which was discovered in Mexico City Coatlicue is an important goddess in the pantheon, as she is the mother of Huitzilopochtli, the primary deity of the Aztec The monumental statue shows the goddess decapitated and without her feet or hands In place of her head, two serpent heads symbolize flowing blood Coatlicue was a victim of murder at the hands of her children, but the statue portrays her not as a sympathetic victim but rather as an imposing, menacing figure The most famous Aztec sculpture is called the Calendar Stone (ca 1502–20) This enormous disc measures 11 feet in diameter It is carved in relief and represents an extremely complex system of cosmological symbols Calendar Stone is actually a misnomer, as the work functions not as a calendar but rather as a record of different epochs as perceived by the Aztec In the center of the disc is a face, which represents perhaps either the earth or a solar creature Radiating from the central figure are the 20 day signs, which are part of the 260day divinatory calendar, and other cosmological symbols The Aztec also created charming sculptures of plants and animals, such as a gourd, a dog, a grasshopper, a flea, a toad, and many serpents The sculpture of a dog is particularly appealing The heavy stone animal has large paws like a puppy and sits in the position of a wolf baying at the moon However, the carved mouth is upturned at the corners as if it is smiling Many of these animals appear so delightful that it is difficult to imagine that a culture like that of the Aztec was capable of creating them However, the Aztec were deeply connected to the natural world, in terms of both spirituality and daily life The function of these animals is not known, but the care and observation evident in their creation suggest that these animals were quite culturally meaningful Northwest Coast of North America One of the greatest discoveries in the second half of the 20th century was that of Ozette (in 1970) Ozette was a Native American settlement in modern-day Washington State that was occupied before the conquest and inhabited until about the 16th century Owing to a mudslide that preserved objects at the site, archaeological excavation has yielded tens of thousands of artifacts Especially remarkable is the preponderance of wooden objects, which are especially unlikely to survive intact over several centuries (compared with other durable materials, such as stone) Many of the objects from Ozette were created for practical use: There were tools, carved tool handles, bowls, and boxes One tool handle in particular is carved with a human face While the lower part of the handle remains uncarved, the top is formed into a simplified and somewhat abstract face with recognizable, elongated features A wooden box called a kerf box (in which one piece of wood is bent into shape, rather than made of joined multiple parts) has incised, simplified outline images of whales, an important animal resource for this water-based community The significance of the whale could have been supernatural or related to hunting or both The North American Southwest In the southwestern region of the present-day United States (modern-day Arizona), the Hohokam (ca 500–ca 1400) were known for their painted bowls with both geometric and abstract human forms The painting of the Hohokam is especially repetitive Geometric designs serve as a background for schematic and abstract human figures engaged in various activities, such as playing musical instruments or dancing It is often difficult to distinguish males from females owing to lack of specific detail, but it is possible to guess based on hairstyle or dress East of the Hohokam territory the Mogollon people occupied modern-day New Mexico beginning around 500.The Mogollon also had a compelling tradition of pottery; archaeologists have found bowls in burial sites, placed over the faces of the deceased The meaning of this practice is mostly a mystery, but one interesting detail is that most of these bowls have a hole punched out of the bottom Scholars have suggested that the hole is the result of a ritualistic process of “killing” the bowl before it was buried, indicating that many Native
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