art: introduction complex than the hill-like mound structures built elsewhere Schematically, its design resembles an amphitheater: It is a semicircular structure formed of six concentric, 100-foot-wide earth platforms divided by five 35-foot-wide radial passages between Archaeologists believe that housing structures were built on the platforms Another type of mound was built slightly northeast of Louisiana at Sapelo Island in Darien, Georgia The Sapelo Island Shell Rings are large, enclosed circular mounds built of oyster and other oceanic shells Th is is one of several similar structures and dates to about 2170 b.c.e The Adena culture (1000–100 b.c.e.) also built conical burial earthen mounds They were composed of packed earth upon foundational buildings, and they sometimes included wooden tombs This period was characterized by an increased importance placed on funeral ceremony and also trade The emphasis on burial is especially seen in the Hopewell culture (200 b.c.e.–400 c.e.) of modern-day Ohio This culture built circular or elliptical burial earthen mounds similar to those created by the Mississippian cultures nearly a millennium later In fact, resemblance between the two cultures led the Mississippian mounds to be misidentified as Hopewellian until relatively recently The western Anasazi during the Basketmaker II Period (560 b.c.e.–700 c.e.) built rock-shelter sites in the last few centuries b.c.e Archaeologists have found small settlements with hearths and storage spaces as well as burial and storage chambers lined with stone slabs See also art; astronomy; borders and frontiers; building techniques and materials; calendars and clocks; cities; climate and geography; death and burial practices; drama and theater; empires and dynasties; family; festivals; household goods; hunting, fishing, and gathering; illumination; literature; migration and population movements; military; natural disasters; nomadic and pastoral societies; religion and cosmology; sacred sites; science; settlement patterns; social organization; sports and recreation; storage and preservation; towns and villages; trade and exchange; writing 87 Rodolfo Fattovich, “The Development of Urbanism in the Northern Horn of Africa in Ancient and Medieval Times.” Available online URL: http://hometown.aol.com/_ht_a/ skipbdahlgren/sdahlgren/fattowich.pdf Downloaded on December 1, 2006 Henri Frankfort, The Art and Architecture of the Ancient Orient, 5th ed (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1996) Peter Garlake, Early Art and Architecture of Africa (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002) Jeff Karl Kowalski, ed., Mesoamerican Architecture as a Cultural Symbol (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999) George Kubler, The Art and Architecture of Ancient America (Baltimore: Penguin Books: 1962) Helen Leacroft, The Buildings of Ancient Mesopotamia (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1975) Seton Lloyd, Ancient Architecture: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Crete, Greece (New York, N.Y.: Harry N Abrams, 1974) Alexander G McKay, Houses, Villas, and Palaces in the Roman World (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998) Mary Ellen Miller, The Art of Mesoamerica: From Olmec to Aztec (London: Thames and Hudson, 2001) Mary Ellen Miller, Maya Art and Architecture (London: Thames and Hudson, 1999) William N Morgan, Precolumbian Architecture in Eastern North America (Gainesville, University Press of Florida, 1999) Donald Preziosi and Louise A Hitchcock, Aegean Art and Architecture (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000) Ingrid D Rowland and Thomas Noble Howe, Vitruvius: Ten Books on Architecture (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999) W Stevenson Smith, The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1999) John W Stamper, The Architecture of Roman Temples (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005) Rebecca Stone-Miller, Art of the Andes: From Chavín to Inca (London: Thames and Hudson, 1995) Bindia Thapar, Introduction to Indian Architecture (North Clarendon, Vt.: Tuttle, 2005) Mark Wilson-Jones, Principles of Roman Architecture (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000) ▶ art FURTHER READING introduction James C Anderson, Roman Architecture and Society (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997) Dieter Arnold, The Encyclopedia of Ancient Egyptian Architecture, trans Sabine H Gardiner (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2003) Kenneth Briggs and Janet Briggs, Ziggurat: How Ur Gave Birth (Langhorne, Penn.: Chora House Press, 1998) Ching-Hua Ju and Hua-Liang Peng, Ancient Chinese Architecture, 10 vols (New York: Springer, 1998) John R Clarke, The Houses of Roman Italy (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1991) Somers Clarke and R Engelbach, Ancient Egyptian Construction and Architecture (Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications, 1990) Ancient human beings around the world painted on rocks The purposes of these ancient rock paintings are not known Archaeologists often suggest that they were religious works, because religion has been one of the most powerful motivators of artists Perhaps the depictions of animals, humans, hunts, and war were intended to make hopes into reality It was common in ancient cultures to believe that art was more than mere representation of something concrete, that an artistic depiction of something made it actual fact That is, the act of creating art was simultaneously the creating of reality For instance, the depiction of a bird actually created a real bird in the