1. “Unthinking Eurocentrism” (left) Joaquin Torres-Garcia (Uruguay, ) Map of South America, (right) André Breton (French Surrealist poet, ) Surrealist Map of the World, 1929
In the Surrealist "Map of the World," 1929, the Pacific Ocean is central, the United States does not exist.  Mexico, Russia, Alaska, China, and Labrador are large and important.

2. Dimaxion map

3. Voyages of Christopher Columbus, 1492, 1493, 1502

4. The Taíno: The Caribbean before European Conquest

5. Taíno Zemi, Dominican Republic, cotton, shell, and human skull, 75 in H, Anthropological museum, Turin, Italy

6. Taíno Duho, Dominican Republic, wood and manatee bone, 45 x 62 in, Museum of Dominican Man, Santo Domingo; (right) detail of duho carving

7. Taíno (left & center) Zemi, clay & stone; (right) stone belt or yoke, C.E.1200 to 1500

8. Taíno reliquaries, hollow earthenware, C.E.1200 to 1500

9. Taíno, ritual objects: monkey-effigy ax, stone (left) and rattle, incised clay (right), C.E.1200 to 1500

10. Latin America was the main destination of the millions of people enslaved and taken out of Africa between 1500 and The U.S. received about 523,000 enslaved immigrants. Cuba alone got more. Spanish America absorbed around 1.5 million and Brazil at least 3.5 million. Their descendants form about half of the population in the Caribbean and Brazil – the two historic centers of sugar production.

11. Taíno, Zemi, (left: back view), Dominican Republic, after 1515 CE, wood, cotton, shell, and glass, 32” H, National Ethnographic Museum, Rome. Combines Taino, European, and African materials, a syncretic spiritual object made for a high ranking cacique

12. Raphael, The School of Athens (Philosophy), 1511, from the fresco suite made for the Pope’s Vatican Library, Vatican City, Rome, Italy

13. El Escorial, palace-monastery of Philip II of Spain, mid-16th Century, this vast complex was the center of the Counter-Reformation in Europe funded by the enormous wealth drawn from Latin America. The Reformation had begun in 1517.

14. El Escorial, designed by Juan Bautista de Toledo, Spanish architect and sculptor who had studied under Michelangelo in Rome.

16. Diego Velázquez (Spanish 1599-1660), Las Meninas, 1656
Diego Velázquez (Spanish ), Las Meninas, Velázquez was the leading painter of the Spanish Golden Age. The influence of his painting is unsurpassed in the history of art.

17. Hispaniola, Taino/Arawak, 1500 CE
For the next quiz, know locations and dates for cultures covered in lecture only. You can use the dates given here or in your textbook. You will be asked to mark them on the same map we used to identify modern nation states of Central and South America.

18. Olmec
Jadite mask, 10th-6th C. BCE
Centralized along the Gulf Coast of Mexico around the modern city of Veracruz, the Olmec culture appeared as early as 1500 BCE and lasted until about 400 BCE. The Olmec are the first of the great Mesoamerican civilizations and laid the foundations for those that followed.

19. Olmec: the first, parent, Mesoamerican high civilization, 1500–400 BCE
Olmec: the first, parent, Mesoamerican high civilization, 1500–400 BCE. Map showing sites and sites of influence and (right) Colossal Head, one of 10 Olmec heads, four San Lorenzo in Veracruz, Mexico, over 9ft high, Early Pre-classic. C BCE.

20. Olmec culture. The yellow dots represent ancient habitation sites; the red dots represent artifact finds.

21. Olmec head: (left) excavation, Veracruz, ca 1942; (below) at Anthropological Museum, Xalapa. The largest of the colossal heads is over 9’ high and weighs more than 25 tons, made of basalt, a stone that was brought from the Tuxtla mountains. (upper right) National Geographic artist rendering of transportation of colossal head.

23. (left) Olmec ”Wrestler,” basalt figure of a bearded man, Veracruz, 26” H National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City (right) Olmec, Las Limas Monument, greenstone, “priest” holding Rain God deity from Las Limas, Veracruz, Middle Preclassic period, 21.5” high. Knees and shoulders incised - profile heads of four Olmec gods with cleft heads: considered Olmec Rosetta Stone, but all assertions of meaning are scholarly speculation

24. Right shoulder Right leg Left shoulder Left leg
Las Limas Monument shows an androgenous youth holding a were-jaguar infant. The tatoo-like incised dieties (below) on shoulders and knees are thought to represent the Olmec pantheon. The four supernaturals show several common Olmec motifs, in particular the cleft head.
Right shoulder
Right leg
Left shoulder
Left leg

25. Olmec culture, San Lorenzo, first site, Early Preclassic, (c
Olmec culture, San Lorenzo, first site, Early Preclassic, (c.1000 BCE) drainage system has been compared with Nile civilizations of Egypt

26. Olmec, north end of Altar 5 at La Venta
Olmec, north end of Altar 5 at La Venta. Two adult figures carry were-jaguar babies

27. La Venta, Stele with Three Kings, Olmec

28. Olmec, La Venta, mosaic serpentine “floor” that had been carefully buried (See Miller)

34. Olmec carved jade and serpentine figures and celts (ceremonial hand axes) and figures, excavated at a corner of a basalt courtyard, La Venta, figurines (found arranged as a tableau) are c. 8”H; celts are 9” to 10” H. Cranial deformation, loincloths, half-open mouths with deformed teeth

35. Olmec “frontier”: hollow figures, white slipped ceramic, all 11-16” H, Early Formative ( BCE) Later Mesoamerican cultures induced crossed eyes during infancy – sign of beauty and elegance

36. Olmec, "Hollow baby" white ware figure, c
Olmec, "Hollow baby" white ware figure, c BCE, Museo Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México

37. Teotihuacán ["the place where one becomes a god“] looking down the Avenue of the Dead from the Pyramid of the Moon; map of Teotihuacán heartland and area of influence. C AD

38. Teotihuacán with archaeological map

39. (left) The only finished free-standing monument found at Teotihuacán in front of the Pyramid of the Sun, reportedly of a water goddess, Early Classic period, Ht 10 ft; (right) Stone mask, Early Classic, shell inlay, turquoise mosaic

40. Teotihuacán ceramics: (left) tripod vase with sgraffito (“cloisonné) design of Quetzalcoatl (feathered serpent) CE; (right) sgraffito vessel with Tlaloc (rain/storm god) usual goggle-shaped eyes and fanged mouth. Cloisonné pottery involves coating the vessel's surface with a lime stucco-like substance then applying colors between incised lines.

41. Teotihuacán, Quetzalcoatl (Feathered Serpent), exterior sculptural decoration, Temple of Quetzalcoatl, the major temple structure within the administrative ceremonial center believed to have been built ca. 200/250 C.E. by a powerful ruler of Teotihuacán

42. Burial of warriors sacrificed at the dedication of the Temple of Quetzalcoatl, Teotihuacán, c CE. Note human mandibles and maxilla necklaces and spear heads

43. Teotihuacán, Patio of Quetzalpapalotl (Quetzal-Butterfly”) Palace, with year symbol roof carvings; (below right) mural in true fresco technique showing Tlaloc (rain god) and (left) a artist's reconstruction of the "Tlalocan" (paradise of the rain god) fresco

44. Teotihuacan palace courtyard, reconstructed

48. “Toltec” in Nahuatl means master builders. The Toltec formed a warrior
aristocracy that gained ascendancy in the Valley of Mexico CE c.900 after the fall of Teotihuacan. A period of southward expansion began c.1000 and resulted in Toltec domination of the Maya of Yucatan from the 11th to the 13th centuries.

49. Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico, Temple of the Warriors, Early Post-classic. Toltec-Maya. Note Chacmool figure at top and colonnades that once supported a roof. Compare Toltec Pyramid B at Tula.

50. Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico, Temple of the Warriors, Early Post-classic. Toltec-Maya. Chacmool figure at top
Photo courtesy Joel Swonsen

51. Pyramid B of Tula Grande, civic/religious center of Tula, Hidalgo, the Toltec capital Post-Classic site view and map. At its apogee Tula covered 5.4 sq. miles and contained a population of 30,000 – 40,000

52. Toltec, Tula Atlantes, Pyramid B
Toltec, Tula Atlantes, Pyramid B. Temple roof supports carved as Toltec warriors (front & back views),15ft high; (below) Tula stone bas-reliefs from Coatepantli (Serpent Wall) relief carvings of human skull in the jaws of a snake

53. Toltec, 10th -12th Century, CE) stone “chacmool” (red jaguar) from Tula, only complete one of seven at site, Post-Classical period

54. Toltec, Tula, plumbate-ware jar covered with mother-of-pearl and other shell mosaic. Supposed depiction of Quetzalcoatl emerging from the jaws of a feathered coyote

55. Toltec ceramic bowls, (left) Mazapan (Teotihuacan) red-on-buff bowl; (right) imported Papagayo Polychrome painted pottery.

56. and the great Toltec diaspora
The ruin of Tula, 1156 or 1168 AD
and the great Toltec diaspora
Nahuatl poem:
Everywhere there meet the eye,
Everywhere can be seen the remains of clay vessels,
Of their cups, their figures,
Of their dolls, of their figurines,
Of their bracelets,
Everywhere are their ruins,
Truly the Toltecs once lived here

57. Aztec Empire in 1519; (right) Aztec Eagle Warrior, hollow, life-sized ceramic recovered from the Great Temple excavations. According to legend, Azteca (Mexica) tribe entered central Mexico from “Aztlan” in AD 1111.

58. Aztec, Tenochtitlán: (left) artist’s historical rendering, (right) map made by Cortez from memory, published in There were three major causeways that ran from the mainland into the city which was divided into four districts and populated by more than two hundred thousand people. In 1521, Cortez demolished the ceremonial center during the course of the longest continuous battle ever recorded in military history.
“The city is spread out in circles of jade,
Radiating flashes of light like quetzal plumes,
Beside it the lords are borne in boats:
Over them extends a flowery mist.”
Nahuatl poem

59. Aztec, Codex Mendoza, mid-16th century, early colonial period, made for the Viceroy of New Spain. This image from the Codex Mendoza, which tells the history and customs of the Aztecs, illustrates the founding of Tenochtitlán in 1325.
Flag of Mexico

60. Aztec, Templo Mayor (Great Temple); (right) excavation site in 1978 the heart of the sacred precinct in their capital city, Tenochtitlán (now in Mexico City). Only the base remains of what was once a massive double pyramid, which represented the hill where Huitzilopochtli (wee-tsee-loh-poch'-tlee), the god of god of war and of the sun, of the Aztec origin myth, was born

61. Aztec, Tenochtitlan, Templo Mayor ruins: Painted reclining sacrificial Chacmool figure; Tzompantli (skull rack)

62. Aztec, colossal stone relief of Coyolxauhqui (coh-yohl-shau'-kee, Moon Goddess) from Great Temple of Tenochtitlan, Late Post-Classic, c 11ft w; Coatlicue (Serpent Skirt), an earth goddess who gave birth to the Aztec tribal deity, Huitzilopochtli, stone, 8 ft. h

63. Aztec Calendar Stone from the Great Temple, Late Post-Classical period
Aztec Calendar Stone from the Great Temple, Late Post-Classical period. The monolithic sculpture was excavated in the Zócalo, Mexico City's main square, on December 17, Measuring about 12 ft in diameter, 4 ft in thickness, and weighing 24 tons, the original basalt version is on display at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. It contains a hieroglyphic and pictographic layout of how the Aztecs measured time, and was primarily a religious and cosmological artifact.

65. Aztec feathered shields with war symbols