crafts: The Americas 255 pean travelers in consultation with indigenous informants, reconstruct preconquest history in the Americas.) Mobilized into three major imperial capitals, known as the triple alliance—Tenochtitlán, Texcoco, and Tlatelolco—the Aztec Empire came to dominate nearly the entire expanse of what is present-day Mexico from about 1200 to 1521 c.e Clusters of households in various barrios (neighborhoods) tended to specialize in one particular product for both personal consumption and tribute payment to the empire As in Teotihuacán, artisans specialized in lapidary work (the cutting and polishing of precious stones), woodworking, feather working, weaving, and metallurgy What distinguished Aztec crafts from their predecessors, however, was their incorporation Female standing figure; slip-painted ceramic, Huastec culture, Mexico, ca 100–ca 600 (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, gift of the Art Museum Council in honor of the museum’s 25th anniversary, Photograph © 2006 Museum Associates/LACMA) of exotic materials imported from lands as distant as eastern North America and northern South America, facilitated by traveling merchants known as pochteca Turquoise from the American Southwest and feathers from tropical Central America, for example, are common materials found in Aztec crafts obtained through long-distance trade Feathered objects were of special significance to the Aztec, crafted by specialists into elaborate multicolored headdresses and shields for elites and warriors Detailed illustrations of feather workers in Fray Bernadino de Sahagun’s famous encyclopedic work about Aztec culture, the Florentine Codex (1577), provides invaluable information for reconstructing how craft workshops were organized and the types of objects produced, particularly those of perishable materials that have survived to the present day in small numbers In addition to feather work, wooden objects were ubiquitous in the Aztec Empire, and bowls, weapons, sculptures of deities, and furniture were created for all sectors of society Wooden objects for commoners were generally simple and unadorned, while those for elites were often more elaborate and inlaid with precious stones, imported shells, gold, and silver In the Andes artisans used diverse materials to produce crafts like baskets and finely woven textiles; metalwork of copper, gold, and silver; and ceramic and wooden vessels A distinctively Andean craft object is the wooden kero, or ceremonial drinking cup Artisans carved decorative motifs on the exterior of the keros, often depicting animals and humans interspersed with geometric designs This craft tradition began in the Tiwanaku Empire located in present-day western Bolivia (ca 100–ca 1000) and continued through the colonial period Portable crafts were important in the Andes throughout the medieval period, serving as utilitarian items, ceremonial objects, and grave goods As in Mesoamerica, feathered goods like tunics and headdresses were highly valued and reserved only for elites On the southern coast of Peru archaeologists discovered large rectangular mosaics fashioned from macaw feathers and decorated with depictions of birds, suggesting an intimate link between medium and subject Gold and silver miniature sculptures, a craft tradition that flourished from pre-Inca cultures and survives to the present day, probably served as amulets or divinatory objects and represented revered animals, such as llamas, as well as humans These objects were often wrapped in textiles and left in burials and as offerings at huacas, or sacred sites Some examples survive in which the human figurines are adorned with doll-sized clothing and feather work is executed in painstaking detail The seafaring Taíno culture was the last indigenous group to inhabit the Caribbean (including present-day Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic)