ARH 3200 - Art of the Ancient Americas

3 Class Hours 0 Laboratory Hours 3 Credit Hours
Prerequisite: ARH 2750.
This course surveys the arts of select Pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica and the Andes up to and including the time of contact with Europe. Major empires and groups surveyed include Chavin, Moche, Tiwanaku, Inca and Olmec, Teotihuacan, Maya and Aztec. Terracotta and stone figurative sculpture, architecture, textiles, earthworks, metals and ceramics are the principal art media under consideration. Emphasis is placed on the study of key monuments and media within a chronological framework, but also on the principles and concepts that underlie Andean and Mesoamerican cultures. The interrelation of art with religion, myth and history will be a continuing theme, with consideration of shamanism, statecraft, ritual, and nature as culture.