MFA 6 months on: Ancient American galleries
I'm starting on the lower ground level. The whole wing is organized roughly chronologically, so that as you go higher up, you go forward in time. But on the Lower Ground level, things are pretty mixed up: ancient American art from one, two, and three millennia ago mingles with Native American art from the 21st century, ship models and maritime art, colonial objects from the baroque period, 17th and early 18th decorative arts, colonial embroidery, and a period room combining elements of 17th and 18th century New England domestic style.
The very first works we see - a line up of burial urns by the K'iche Maya of ancient Guatemala - get the blood racing. Made during the high point of Mayan civilization (650-850AD) they're bold, monumental, and full of fascinating details. The MFA has straightened out the labels for this, which were out of order, and it now has a slightly hectic graphic on the glass behind the display. But it's a fine display, and a very dramatic welcome to the whole wing.
Note the urn depicting the all-important Maize god holding two heads of corn, evoking new life, regeneration, Spring. It's on a burial urn, remember. Doesn't Christian cosmology have a similarly dualistic attitude to life and death? And what about the importance of blood sacrifices in so many Ancient American cultures, alluded to in many pieces here, including a ritual torture figure screaming out in agony, his anus doubling as the blow-hole of a whistle... It's unfathomably strange, and (crucifixion, anyone?) oddly familiar. The curator in charge of these galleries is Dr. Dorie Reents-Budet, a specialist in Maya ceramics, who divides her time between the MFA and Charlotte, NC. Working with Elliot Bostwick Davis, the wing's head curator, and w ith some very fine material (thanks Landon Clay), she's done it brilliantly. According to Davis, these ancient American galleries have, more than any other aspect of the wing, surprised collectors, generating a great deal of interest, which may translate to more gifts.
Anyone remember that Columbian soccer goalie, who returned home after the World Cup and, as punishment for letting in a goal or two, met a grisly end? He came to mind when I was taking in a small ensemble of works that highlight the importance of "football" to the Maya. It was not soccer, as such - rather, it was a competition which revolved around keeping a ball off the ground, without using one's hands.
The display includes a large seated man, thought to be a ball player, from Mexico, and several trophies modeled on equipment used in the game (look out for the darkly compelling "hacha," a trophy made from black diorite, above). It used to be said that the losers of this game were sacrificed. Scholars have rejected this simplistic account. But it was true that, in the name of certain ritualistic traditions, sacrifices were frequently made at the end of important games.
Ancient Aztec Trade - News
He works across the world persuading museums to return ancient artefacts to Egypt, Italy, Greece and other countries suffering looting. Last year, Dr Gill, worked with two other experts to persuade London fine art dealers Bonhams to withdraw four Roman
It's there as a reminder of the next part of the story of ancient central and south American cultures: discovery, conquest, disease, destruction, economic exploitation, trade, migration, all of it on a staggering, world-altering scale.
The sights and sounds of the ancient world echoed throughout the hills of Agoura on Friday morning. Minstrels mingled with ninjas; Mayan Aztecs with Africian Camel herders, all at Lindero Canyon Middle
Chia was once a staple food for diet and trade by indigenous populations throughout the southwest and Mexico. According to some studies, ancient Aztecs used chia as a high-energy endurance food. It was said that Aztec warriors only needed the
An ancient city in the middle of the desert, Petra must be seen to be believed. In terms of awe-inspiring history and spectacle, it's up there with Uluru, Rome and the Aztec ruins. It's one of the seven wonders of the Ancient World.
Ancient Aztec Trade - Bookshelf
The ancient civilizations of Mesoamerica, a reader
These are the well-documented and paradoxical pochteca, and this is the usual twentieth-century image of Aztec trade. But it is a skewed and incomplete ...Ancient Aztec
... Tribute system • A violent end 38-43 6 Aztec Daily Life Pioneering work ... the Aztec • Marvelous middens • Textiles and tree bark • Tribute and trade ...Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and republican, a historical, geographical, political, statistical and social account of that country from the period of the invasion by the Spaniards to the present time; with a view of the ancient Aztec empire and civilization; a historical sketch of the late war; and notices of New Mexico and California,
The greater part of Aztec trade was, nevertheless, carried on by barter ; and, thus, we find that the large taxes which were derived by Montezuma from the ...Ancient trade and tribute, economies of the Soconusco region of Mesoamerica
89) shown along with tortilla baskets. in just such a context in the ancient Aztec sources (Figure 4-1B). Accordingly, the presence of the shattered remains ...Chicomoztoc: A Search for the Aztec Treasure and the Missing History of the Aztec Empire
Chapter 4 Aztec Trade Routes Some friends have suggested that “one large ... ( see A History of Ancient Mexico, by Bernardino De Sahagun /Bandelier, p.35). ...Day-by-day Note Directory
Ancient Aztec: Information about Ancient Aztec
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