750 - 1250

The patterns on this vessel evoke animal or snake skins. An artist used a resist method, applying resin or wax to block later applications of colors. By removing the resin, he revealed the lighter-colored ...

900 - 1100

An artisan produced this knife at the height of the Middle Sicán period. On it, a god wears a turquoise-inlaid crown and jeweled ear spools, and holds a tumi in his hand. The Sicán associated this deity ...

About 700

Archaeologists have found stone masks, which may have functioned in a funerary context, at the ancient site of Teotihuacan. A major urban center in central Mexico, this civilization reached its height ...

200 BC - AD 100

The cultures of ancient West Mexico associated power and social status with the ownership of land. Proof of ancestry, in the form of deep shaft tombs, was essential to claim property. Multiple chambers ...

About 450, Epoch III

Cosijo was among the most important gods of the ancient Zapotec people. They invoked this deity, associated with rainfall, as the "great spirit within the lightning." Representations of Cosijo combine ...

300 - 700 (Period IV - V)

A sculptor made this tripod metate from a single piece of extremely brittle volcanic stone. The legs, pierced through and adorned with interlocking geometric motifs, each show an inverted bird whose head ...

600 - 900

Artists usually depicted the heavily lined face of Huehueteotl ("Old God") as nearly toothless. Many Mesoamerican groups, including the Veracruz, Aztec, and Zapotec, honored him. They considered this household ...

Colonial period (1532-1821), 18th century

Here, seven Inca men in full-feathered regalia meet two musicians in Spanish apparel. The Inca used vessels like this qero for drinking beer made from maize (corn). Various Andean cultures, from the ancient ...