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35 Cards in this Set
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Calendar stone |
10’ in diameter. a round relief sculpture. We dont know if it was a kings monument or what. It is assumed that is was set into a wall. It is basically a sun disk, surrounded by 2 seprent bodies (rattlesnakes), that open to review the face of a god (Tezcatlipoca) and paired with Quetzalcoatl. There is no calendar function of this. but it does have to do with cosmic time. The middle is a 4 ollin, a sign for the destrcution of the era we are in. It is the earth monster in the middle. So as opposed to being seperated, the face of the earth monster is even with the level of the sun. So it shows the the earth monster devouring the earth. Should this be set in the floor and not in a wall? |
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Temple stone |
it looks like a mini temple, but it is actually a throne that a king sat on. It is the appropriate size. It is covered with dates, that are off reigning periods. they are also cosmic dates. The back of the back rest is a sun disk. A king and a god are keeping up the sky. The back side of this stone is a cactus with an eagle sitting on it. He sits on the earth monster so it stays beneath him. As he sits there, he is seperating the earth monster from the sun |
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Stone of Tizoc |
Tizoc was a god who ruled for years. It is 8.5’ is diameter and 3’ high. It is a drum shaped circle, but it is more like an oreo. The top layer is a sun disk. The bottom cookie is just teeth. The stone is shaped like a gladiators stone. He is over compensating inhis kings monument. In the imagery, tizoc is dressed as a warrior and he has by the hair, his enemy oponent. They are equal in rank, and fighting hand to hand. Over the head, there is a glph on every 15 repeated scene. the glyph is taking credit for all of the territories that the kings before him took. He is missing a foot. |
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Chacmool |
stood in front of the temple of the tlaloc side. It is a warrior on its back, holding an offering plate on its stomach. One this is being offered at the Templo Mejor - human sacrifices. His eyes look like he is wearing goggles. This is similar to Tlaloc. It might be representative. |
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Bowl |
made for sacrifice of hearts, Each rim is decorated with hearts. Then feathers. The entire bowl is made of jade. It is has 4 ollin on the inside. We are doing these sacrifices for the catastrophe. There is also an image carved underneath. It is a weird little frog goddess. She has a row of four teeth. She is very supernatural looking. At the moment of destruction, all will be devoured. |
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Twin Temple (Templo Mayor) |
Aztec are all about war dominance, but right in the middle is a religious precint. We cant see anything tho cuz its under Mexico city. There are a bunch of temples because the Aztec had a bunch of gods. Temple mejor is the biggest temple with a double staircase, which lead to two different places. Is is also called the twin temple. The twins are Huitzilopochti and Tlaloc. They are perfect duality pairings. Part represent wetness, part represents dryness. The sun rises over the right side in the dry sides and over the wet sides in the rainy seasons. List the 4 ways that they are perfect pairings - test. Sacrifical bodies were thrown off the timple. At the bottom of the H side is one more sculpture. |
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Coyolxauhqui stone |
H’s sister. a bunch of dismembered body parts in a masive stone. It is about 10.5’ in diameter. It is basalt, but that probably doesnt matter. It is a high relief sculpture. She is shown naked, as part of her humiliation. It has a belt with a human skull, like her mother. Special sacrifical victims had balls of down in her hari,w hich could be the balls. Each of Hs brothers became a star, but she became the moon. The Sun chases the moon from the sky everynight. In this moment she is also an earth monster that devours everything. |
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Coatlicue |
H’s mother. 8.5’ tall. She is made of basalt. She is horrifying and that is the point. She is vaguely human looking. Her legs end in a claw. Her skirt is made of rattle snakes. Her belt is tied with snakes and a human skull belt buckle. She was a priestess or someone who sweeps out the temple. At the hill of snakes, she is sweeping out the temple. She makes a dust bunny, and she realizes it is a bunch of feathers, so she shoves them into her shirt, and is miraculously impregnated with H. She has 400 children who are ashamed as to how she got pregnant, and they cut off her head, out of her body comes H and he kills his 399 brothers and one sister. This is what is being reinacted at the temple, when there is a sacrifice. There is a debate about what is coming out of between her legs. People think it could be menstral blood. The snakes at the top of the sculpture is blood from her head being cutoff |
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Tlaloc |
Local God of Lake Texcoco / Valley of Mexico. He is the local guy that always here. God of water and the lake. He has those big buggy eyes. He is on the left side of the temple. He is the god of agriculture. It shows vegetaion being grown from the tope. It is blue and green. |
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Huitzilopochtl |
Patron God - Carried on back when wandering around the dessert. He is the god of war and fire. |
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Tezcatlipoca |
God of Creation. During creation he got his foot bit off by a monster. |
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Quetzalcoat |
God of Creation (from the Creation Story) |
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Goddess Mural |
paintings on the walls of every apartment complex. They are in the courtyard of the apartments. All 2000 have one. We see people parading around dressed up. They have big scrolls. We think they are heads of households with a bag of incense, and they have prayers coming out of their other hands. |
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Incense burners |
sculptual and beautiful. 2 part piece. There are fragments of them found in every apartment complex. They are made out a pieces of ceramic made in molds. Everyone is using the same imagery but no two are alike. They are for worshiping gods. You dont need a priest |
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Apartment Complexes |
All of the housing is laid out on a grid system laid out on a N-S axis. These are what they put all of their energy into after 200 years. Each complex held between 60 - 100 people. They were all family groups. They buried their ancestors in the courtyards. We find in the garbage heaps that each of the apartment building had traits from people from other regions. This place remind me of SF. A bunch of different neighborhoods. The city must have been loud and budy because there is only one door way and no windows. But their are ceiling wells for air. Each courtyard had a little alter that is a mini version of a talud/tablero structure. |
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Basalt Water Goddess |
Basalt is volcanic material. It is 12’6” tall. It weighs 22 tons. It was not found where we think it oriinally stood. We think it stood in front of the pyramid of the moon. She is wearing a cotton pancho. She is a blocky figure. She is wearing a necklace, and has a whole in her chest. She has the huge earspools, which we saw in Olmec. This means elite status. Her face might be a mask, it is not very human. She is wringing water out of her wet pancho. The whole in her chest would have been jade, which always represents water. She is a water goddess. She almost has an architectural form because she is kind of shaped like Tablud/Tablero. “The city is her and she is the city” |
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Pyramid of the Sun |
pyrmaid along the avenue on the right side. It is bigger and the older one. There is a staircase up the front of it. It also has irregular seperation. It is meant to go up to the top. Why were people going to the top of the temple? It is 215’ high. And 700’ on each side at the base. It is a huge labor project. it is the biggest pyramid in the Americas. Why is it where it is? It is built on top of a cave. We found tunnel right at the base of the stairs, the cave goes to the middle of the prmaid. The cave is a lava tube. It is a voclanic cave. They built the manmade mountain on top of it. maybe this is why there is not a plaza. |
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Pyramid of the Moon |
at the end of the avenue of the dead. Beyond the pyramid of the moon is an extinct volcano. It is called cerro gordo. that means fat hill. The purpose of the pyramid of the moon is to call attention to the volacnic activity. |
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Teotihuacan site layout (1-750 CE) |
Avenue of the Dead - Runs north south. today there is 2 miles of it that you can walk along. It was originally 4 miles long. The whole avenue of the sun ends in a void plaza that reflects the pyramid of the moon. The pyramid of the sun doesnt have a perfect pairing plaza. The Avenue’s purpose was to connect the two pyramids. It is off a bit N-S but it wasnt meant to be N-S. |
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Olmec (1200-600 BCE) |
The extension of the civilization depended on the advancement of agricultrue. The Olmec are sometimes called the mother culture |
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Colossal Heads (San Lorenzo) |
10 have been found at San Lorenzo. often wears a protective helmet which was worn by the Olmec in battle. They are carved from bassalt |
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The Wrestler (San Lorenzo) |
It seems like being able to move and having life force is important. It is basalt |
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Hero Twins (San Lorenzo) |
are in a line in front of a jaguar. They are fully human and their power seems to be invested in what they are wearing. Their regailia is a fancy costume that is supposed to tell us something. The crinkly edges on the side of the headdress is for the crinkly paper used in prayer. Also a mirror on their forehead. There is also a box with an x on their chest. it may be related to the jaguar or the sun. hey are holding an object “the ceremonial bar” It seems to be the thing they are holding out to the jaguar. Maybe they are going to turn it upright, we think that because olmec art is about movement. This is not a human morphing into a jaguar. It is a human with a jaguar looking mouth. |
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Ware jaguar(San Lorenzo) |
half human half jaguar. They have a very downturned mouth, which could have fangs or just gummy. If its gummy it could be combing a jaguar with a baby. They have kind of baby mouths and baby fat. The corner of the mouth is intended. The upper lip is fat and curved up. The nose is flat and pugged nose, and being half covered by the lip. It also has almond eyes. It sometimes has a clieft in its head. |
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La Venta(site) (900 - 600 BCE) |
The site is a built environment. That means a huge amount of labor, time, and conception. There are not a lot of evidences of houses here or SL. It seems to be a ritual site. Everyone is a farmer in this society. After building the plateau, the biggest project was the pyramid. |
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Kunz “Axe” (LV) |
Jade thing where the guy is holding a copy of himself. Jade becomes a precious item, and we dont see it in S.L period. Maybe trade was possible during La Venta so they could get Jade. It was not found at LV. Why is it an axe. The body tapers at the end like an axe blade. it was never used for that because jade is very fragile, and nothing about it makes it weaponable. It is a selt (small carving that is hand held. They cannot stand up on their own. If you are using these is ritual ways they are being held. He is holding a selt to his chest. |
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Pyramid(LV) |
badly damaged - today it looks like an upside down cupcake with rivets. It is badly eroded. The Pyramid is like 110 ft tall. It is estimated that it would have taken 800,000 individual days of labor. This would have taken a fairly large population years to build. It seems like a manmade mountain. It is surrounded by mountains and these people think mountains are important. |
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Sunken Courtyards of Laventa |
is it in the back of the courtyard that is sunken in. This is where all the cool stuff is. It is next to the pyramid and perimetered by the basalt columns. Underneath the surface of the courtyard is where we found offering 4 and the mosaic pavement. The courtyard does not have the altars. |
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Mosaic Pavement(LV) |
this is the most impressive thing buried here. They are found 19.6 ft below where the ground is now. It is kind of in the shape of a mask.There are 100 tons of serpentine being brought 100 miles. We think that they are building an Ocen 19.6 ft below ground level to create an underworld. This is Mayan mythology. It could be cave and mountain being paired together. |
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Offering #4(LV) |
this is the coolest thing. It is precious material that is buried in the ground in a ritual way. it is in the same courtyard but only a couple feet down. It was found in a specific arrangement so they would be undistubed. it is made up of 1 figures. 15 of these standing human figures are carved of jade, the other is carved of basalt. (Same as collasal heads). They are standing against a background of upright stones. They mimic the basalt columns at the surface. Someone is probably doing something important in front of these. They are naked humans with no dicks, but they might have been dressed, like dolls. But they are perfectly preserved, and we cant find a single shred of cloth. They also have holes in their ears but we cant find earings. Maybe they are priests in their natural state. The Basalt figure is clearly different. He is the performer everyone is watching. They arent doing anything which is weird for Olmec art. The Basalt guy is clearly different, which makes him important. Not necessarily a king, |
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Altars #4 + #5 |
Flat topped table with a person sitting underneath it. We know that these are throwns. So a ruler sat on top of the table. 6-7 ft tall. In a way they make up fo the loss of the collosal heads. In maya culture, rulers sit on things like this covered in jaguar pelt. If you look at the altar, there is a jaguar carved in the front of the altar. The litttle guy undernath is earing the eagle head dress. This guy is 100% human. He is strong. His hands are in the smae position as the twins, and he is holding a rope. then when we follow the rops it goes to another guy on the side seen in profile. We think that the rope signifies his descent, like mom and dad are on the side of the altar, so he is connected to them. It is like he is leaning out from the entrance of a cave. around the outside of the cave mouth seems to be plants. Altar #5 we see the cave and a leader sitting cross legged leaning out of it. And he is wearing a headdress. He is holding a kid that is the warejaguar. Along the side of the altar are people carrying warejaguars that are very alive. |
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Las Limas Figure |
not found in La Venta, but belongs to the la venta phase. It was found in a church in 1965 where local farmers found it in the field and brought it into their church because they thought it was madonna and the child. It is holding the warejaguar. It is the same subject matter as altar 5. But this person has no signs of power. On its chest it is wearing a box with an x on its chest. |
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Chalcatzingo(site |
outside of Olmec heartland but clearly a trading village. Their mountains are full of caves because they are limestone. |
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“El Rey” Cave Relief (Chalcatzingo) |
It is clearly not going to be a ruler portrait, but if olmec have relationship with people here, they would want to let the pople know that they are in power, or maybe the olmec go here to worship at a mountain site. There is a drawing of a cave mouth, with a jaguar eye ball on the top. Plants are shown coming out of the edges of the profile. SO the cave mouth is also a jaguars mouth. Sitting in the opening is a human being, holding somehthing important. This person is wearing a ton of ragalia. It is ensuring crop fruitility. There is moisture coming out of the cave. |
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Olmec (1200-600 BCE) |
culture |
