Archaeology Museum - Juarez, Mexico
Page 13
These reliefs are from Monte Alban, a site
in the mountains of the southwestern Mexican state of Oaxaca.
They were originally called "danzantes" (or "dancers"),
but they are now thought to represent sacrificed war captives,
either as a warning of the horrors of war or a demonstration
of the prowess of the captors. The figures show a strong Olmec
influence, showing how far Olmec ideas had spread from their
origins on the opposite coast of Mexico. The exact identity
of the people who made them is unknown, however.
Sources:
- Ancient Americas Exhibit,
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York (visited
August, 2003).
- Benson, Elizabeth, and
de la Fuente, Beatriz, eds. Olmec Art of Ancient Mexico.
New York: National Gallery of Art/Harry Abrams,1996.
- Bernal, Ignacio. A History
of Mexian Archaeology: The Vanished Civilizations of Middle
America. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1980.
- Coe, Michael. The Maya.
New York: Thames and Hudson, 1999.
- Conti, Flavio. The Grand
Tour: Centers of Belief. Boston: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,
1978.
- De la Fuente, Beatriz.
Escultura Monumental Olmeca. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional
Autonoma de Mexico, 1973.
- Feuchtwanger, Franz. The
Art of Ancient Mexico. London: Thames and Hudson, 1954.
- Gyles, Anna Benson, and
Chloe Sayer. Of Gods and Men: The Heritage of Ancient Mexico.
New York: Harper and Row, 1980.
- Henderson, John. The World
of the Ancient Maya. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997.
"Maya," in Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia.
New York: Simon and Schuster/Softkey International Inc.,
1996.
- Miller, Mary Ellen. The
Art of Mesoamerica: From Olmec to Aztec. New York: Thames
and Hudson, 1986.
- Stuart, Gene. The Mighty
Aztecs. Washington: National Geographic Society, 1981.
- Bushnell, G. H. S. The First Americans.
New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972.
- Litvak King, Jaime. Ancient Mexico: An
Overview. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1999
ed.
- Ancient Mexico web site (http://www.ancientmexico.com).
- Campbell, Paulette. “The Art of Mestizaje: Fusion in Latin America.” Humanities, November-December 2000. Washington: National Endowment for the Humanities, 2000.
- Jones, David, and Brian Molyneaux. The Mythology of the American Nations: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Gods, Heroes, Spirits, Sacred Places, Rituals, and Ancient Beliefs of the North American Indian, Inuit, Aztec, Inca, and Maya Nations. London: Hermes House/Anness Publishing Ltd., 2004.
- National Museum of Anthropology web site (http://www.inah.gob.mx).
- Payne, Robert. Mexico City. New York: Harcourt Brace and World Inc., 1968.Pazstory, Esther. Pre-Columbian Art. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
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