1. PRECOLUMBIAN ART

2. Pre-Columbian art is the visual arts of the aboriginal American Indian cultures that evolved in Meso-America (part of Mexico and Central America) and the Andean region (western South America) prior to Spanish exploration and conquest in the 16th century

3. Major Pre-Columbian Civilizations

4. OLMEC
The Olmec were the first major civilization in Mexico following a progressive development in Soconusco. They lived in the tropical lowlands of south-central Mexico, in the present-day states of Veracruz and Tabasco.

5. Olmecs around BC
Olmec works of art, made of stone, clay, and jade, represent the first sophisticated artistic style that had been discovered in the Americas.

6. Olmec art continued to be an influence for more than 2300 years.
Codices were folding books made out of bark or animal skin throughout Mexico and Central America. These books told the stories about chiefs or conquests through pictures.

7. MAYANS
The best-known of the classical civilizations of Mesoamerica. Originating in the Yucatan around 2600 B.C., they rose to prominence around A.D. 250 in present-day southern Mexico, Guatemala, western Honduras, El Salvador, and northern Belize.

8. Lands of the Mayans
The Yucatan Peninsula

9. Olmec Influence on the Mayans
Maize
Ceremonial centers with temple pyramids
Calendar based on the Olmec one
Ball games
Rituals involving human sacrifice

10. Agriculture
Soil in Mesoamerican lowlands was thin and quickly lost fertility
Mayans built terraces to retain the silt and therefore greatly improved agricultural production
Raised maize, cotton, and cacao
Cacao was a precious commodity consumed mostly by nobles and even used as money
Cacao tree

11. Mayan Cultivation of Maize
Chac, God of Rain 

12. Mayan Underground Granaries: Chultunes

13. Cities
From about 300 to 900, the Maya built more than eight large ceremonial centers
All had pyramids, palaces, and temples
Some of the larger ones attracted dense populations and evolved into genuine cities
The most important was Tikal
Small city-kingdoms served as the means of Mayan political organization

14. Tikal
Tikal was the most important Mayan political center between the 4th and 9th Centuries
Reached its peak between 600 and 800 with a population of nearly 40,000
The Temple of the Jaguar dominated the skyline and represented Tikal’s control over the surrounding region which had a population of about 500,000

15. Overview of Tikal (Guatemala)
Temple of the Masks

16. Temple of the Jaguar 154 feet high
Served as funerary pyramid for Lord Cacao, Maya ruler of the late 6th and early 7th centuries

17. Chichen-Itza - Pyramid

18. Chichen-Itza - Observatory

19. Chichen-Itza - Ball Court

20. Mayan Glyphs
sky king house child city
Mayan Mathematics

21. Mayan Glyphs

22. Mayan Codex
Maya codices (singular codex) are folding books stemming from the pre-Columbian Maya civilization, written in Maya hieroglyphic script on Mesoamerican paper, made from the inner bark of certain trees, the main being the wild fig tree or Amate
Paper, generally known by the Nahuatl word amatl, was named by the Mayas huun. The folding books are the products of professional scribes working under the patronage of the Howler Monkey Gods.
The Maya developed their huun-paper around the 5th century, the same era that the Romans did, but their paper was more durable and a better writing surface than papyrus.
The codices have been named for the cities in which they eventually settled. The Dresden codex is generally considered the most important of the few that survive.
A detail of the Dresden Codex, one of only 6 Mayan codices , or painted books, to survive the Conquest