Indigenous Americas

QUICK HISTORY

• Indigenous cultures of North America date back to 10,000 BCE but  most artifacts date only from the last 2,000 years

• Geography plays a huge role in Andean Art. Coastal plains acted individually while in the mountains they united against the elements.

• Old civilizations are used as foundations for new ones. (building upon preexisting sites)

• Artworks were often part of a workshop where many worked on one piece

• Pre-Columbian cultures occupy what is now Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and parts of El Salvador before Christopher Columbus invaded the area

• The Aztec Empire was the dominant power in Mesoamerica before Henan Cortes overthrew them

• Developed huge city-states that prominently featured temple complexes rivaling any on Earth

• Rapid decline of civilizations in the 16th c. due to the introduction of disease by the Europeans

• With the arrival of the Europeans, the native people of North and South America were destroyed and persecuted. Archeology, oral tradition, documents, and museum records are the basis for research.