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The Andes mountain range is one of the greatest mountain chains of the world. Located along the western coast of South America, it runs about 4,500 miles from Cape Horn nearly to Panama. The average height of the mountains is about 12,000 feet. The riches of the Andes include:
gold
platinum
silver
copper
mercury
lead
iron
Surprisingly, this rugged terrain was home to a great ancient civilization — the Incas. In this lesson, we'll look at the culture, art and architecture of these people and their predecessors.
They left no written history but their descendants have maintained many aspects of the culture, and the cities, temples and artifacts they left behind tell us their story.
OBJECTIVES
OBJECTIVES
Identify the art of pre-Classic and Classic civilizations.
Discuss the rise and fall of the Inca Empire.
Describe the sacred city of Machu Picchu.
Discuss a variety of Inca artifacts.
VOCABULARY
VOCABULARY
viracocha
creator and ruler of all living things
ANDEAN CIVILIZATIONS
ANDEAN CIVILIZATIONS
Chavín de Huantar, an archaeological site in the Central Andean Area built around 900 BC
We can divide Andean civilizations into three periods: pre-Classical, Classical, and post-Classical. As you remember from the previous lesson, "pre-Columbian" refers to the time before Columbus came to the Americas.
Pre-Classical — The Chavín
The earliest known civilization in the Andes was the Chavín, which developed around 1250 BC and continued for about a thousand years in the northern highlands of Peru.
By 700 BC, the Chavín had developed a highly sophisticated society that managed to spread its influence through peaceful means over much of the Peruvian coast.
Their religion centered around a feline deity, the jaguar. The temple lay at the heart of society, and all economic and social life revolved around it. Arts such as pottery, weaving, and metallurgy were well developed. The Chavín people were renowned for their skill in architecture and urban development.
Chavin de Huantar is an archaeological site in the Central Andean area built around 900 BC and was the most important religious site to the Chavins. At this site there are numerous stone sculptures of heads that depict both human and jaguar facial features.
A typical example of Chavín ceramics is the stirrup-spout vessel. This vessel has a stirrup-shaped handle and a flat bottom. The body (made from a mold) is usually decorated with abstract designs. This is a good example:
The Chavín also made body ornaments of hammered gold or repoussee.
CLASSIC PERIOD — THE MOCHE
CLASSIC PERIOD — THE MOCHE
The best-known civilization of the Classic Period was the Moche, located near Trujillo in Peru where ruins of enormous adobe pyramids have been found. One of the structures measures a whopping 450-by-750 feet and is estimated to contain 130 million mud bricks. Early discoveries about the Moche came from their artwork and their richly decorated pottery.
You can see the evolution of the stirrup-spout vessel. Simple colors are used, but the body of the vessel is a realistic depiction of a human face.
The Moche also depicted scenes from their religious and military affairs in murals and friezes on the walls of temples. Among the scenes depicted are images of human sacrifice, believed to be at the great Moche pyramids. There were devastating floods at the time of the sacrifices that flattened their temples. To the Moche, the catastrophe meant the gods were angry. The Moche believed the sacrifices were the only way to please them.
A deity that is often found in Moche art is the Decapitator who was half-man, half-jaguar and is often portrayed holding a sacrifical knife in one hand, and the severed head of a sacrifice in the other.
The Moche also created ornate body ornaments, using gold, silver and copper. These pieces were then inlaid with semi-precious stones such as turquoise and lapis lazuli. Notice the geometric designs and animal motifs as well as another rendition of the mythological Decapitator.
POTTERY OF THE NAZCA CULTURE,
POTTERY OF THE NAZCA CULTURE,
SOUTHERN PERU
SOUTHERN PERU
The pre-Columbian Nazca, who lived in southern Peru about the same time as the Moche, developed advanced design techniques for decorating pottery.
A piece of Nazca pottery with a serpent motif
The pre-Columbian Nazca, who lived in southern Peru about the same time as the Moche, developed advanced design techniques for decorating pottery.
The Nazca painted images directly onto the clay pots instead of creating figures from the clay as the Moche did.
POST-CLASSICAL — THE INCA EMPIRE
POST-CLASSICAL — THE INCA EMPIRE
Next let's explore the art of the Inca civilization. In approximately 1100, a small warrior tribe from the southern highland area of Peru migrated to the valley of Cuzco. There they built a city that would become the heart of their society. For the next 300 years, they systematically conquered their neighbors and created an empire. Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, who lived from 1391-1471, is considered by some historians to rank with history's greatest conquerors and rulers. He transformed the Kingdom of Cuzco into an empire and is sometimes referred to as "the Napoleon of the Andes."
Pachacuti's Inca Empire
Pachacuti's Inca Empire
His son Topa Inca Yupanqui expanded the empire even further. The Inca Empire reached its peak geographically under Topa's son Huayna Capac and extended approximately more than 2,500 miles from north to south, and about 500 miles from east to west. The present-day countries of Chile, Peru, and Ecuador were all part of the final reaches of the empire. This immense territory was occupied by millions of indigenous peoples of varying tribal backgrounds.
However, Huayna Capac died without appointing a successor. He had two sons who both wanted to rule the empire. This caused a civil war, which ended in 1532. The empire was in a weakened state when Spanish explorer Francisco Pizarro arrived. The Incas thought the fair-skinned Spaniards were gods described by their religious mythology. Rather than fight the relatively small number of Spanish soldiers (about 180), whom they could have easily defeated, the Incan ruler Atahualpa offered them a roomful of gold. The Spanish plundered the empire and killed Atahualpa for his generosity in 1533. Within the next fifty years, the Incan Empire was destroyed.
Temple of the Sun
Temple of the Sun
The Incan civilization has left behind ruins of large temples, palaces, fortresses, and public works. Although they did not possess the technology of wheeled transportation, they still built enormous buildings of stone, including the great Temple of the Sun at Cuzco.
Not only did the Incas build great temples, but they also engineered:
rope suspension bridges
irrigation canals
aqueducts
Inca cities were designed to harmonize with the landscape. Each stone was carefully shaped and precisely fitted.
To learn more about Incan Engineering, read this article at the PBS website.
Inca Foundations at Cuzco, Peru
Inca Foundations at Cuzco, Peru
Inca foundations, an example of Inca engineering
So how good were the Incan engineers? They made their buildings of carefully fitted stones without the use of mortar and yet the foundations of those buildings stand to this day in modern Cuzco. Andean Indians still use these ancient techniques.
The best surviving example of Inca architecture is the city of Machu Picchu, a name that means "old peak" in the Inca language. In 1911, an archaeologist from Yale named Hiram Bingham discovered this ancient city high in the Andes Mountains, invisible from sight below.
Palaces, temples, public baths, and homes have all been found among the ruins of this sacred city.
The emperor Pachacuti built Macchu Picchu, located northwest of Cuzco, as a mountain retreat.
The architecture of Machu Picchu mirrors three levels of Incan society: on one side are the well-built houses for the nobility; on the other, beyond the central plaza, is the area where scholars and artists resided. The farmers lived below them.
A sacred mound that looked like a sundial comprised the religious center of the city.
After the end of Pachacuti's reign in 1471, Machu Picchu fell into disuse, and was forgotten, even by the Incas. It survived the Spanish conquest of the 1530s due to its location high in the Andes.
INCAN RELIGION AND ARTIFACTS
INCAN RELIGION AND ARTIFACTS
For the Incas, religion was an important organizing factor of their society. Viracocha was the supreme god, but they also worshipped a variety of gods and goddesses. Their frequent ceremonies and rituals were enacted to ensure good harvests They also had rituals to cure disease and ensure good health. Sometimes animals such as llamas were sacrificed, and on rare occasions the Incas also sacrificed humans.
Inca Artifacts
The Spanish destroyed many Incan artifacts in their hunger for precious metals and because of the missionary zeal to abolish the Incan religion, but some objects did survive, especially in the tombs.
We do not find large freestanding statues in Incan art the way we see with the Egyptians or buildings adorned with sculpture as we see in Ancient Greece.
Incan sculpture consisted of small figurines made of metal and bowls shaped like animals. We know this because these artifacts have been found buried with mummies!
Check out this site to learn about the ice mummies and see some of the artifacts that were buried with them.
Other examples can be seen here.
As you learned from these articles, textiles were also an important art form for the Incans. They used cotton and wool from animals, which was often colored with vegetable or mineral dyes. They created designs by using paint, stamps, embroidery and applique and sometimes decorated their costumes with feathers.
The Peruvian coast has a dry climate, which allowed these early textiles to survive in the desert tombs for more than two millennia.
LET'S REVIEW!
LET'S REVIEW!
In this lesson, you have covered the following topics:
The ancient Andean civilizations can be divided into three categories: the pre-Classical, the Classical, and the post-Classical.
The Chavín people created stone temples and beautiful pottery. The Moche built adobe pyramids. Their artwork was designed to appease the gods.
The Incas were one of the great civilizations of all time. They built cities of precisely cut stone and left artifacts of pottery, metalwork and fabric.
Much of Inca artwork was motivated by their religion.
Machu Picchu, a sacred city high in the mountains, contains ruins that help us understand the Inca civilization. Vestiges of their culture survive today in their Peruvian descendents.
Take this Quiz before moving on.
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