Mayan Art and Temples

Paper Summary:

The Mayan culture was bound up in their religion and tied to it by the art and artifacts. This paper focuses on how they built their impressive temples and how they turned their buildings into ceremonial art. It also examines Mayan art including hieroglyphics and sculptures.

From the Paper:

" The Maya must have valued art highly. It was incorporated into their lives by virtue of their public buildings being works of art. From their delicate and intricate profiles of kings and gods carved into hand sized pieces of jadestone to their depiction of a massive Quetzelcoatle, the feathered serpent, winding his way down the face of a pyramid, they had art in their daily lives. They decorated their cities inside and out it seems. They carved huge reliefs and stelae, which served a function, but were still amazing works of art in their own right. They could be as clean and sharp as the edge of an obsidian dagger and as massive and brutal as a god carved in the corner stone of a temple high above the plain. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Angelfire.com Pre-Columbian Art and Architecture no date Retrieved 12-6-06 From: http://www.angelfire.com/realm/shades/nativeamericans/precolumbionart.htm
• Lostcivilizations.net Mayan Art. Maya no date Retrieved 12-6-06 from: http://www.lost-civilizations.net/mayan-art.html
• Wsu.edu.com Civilizations in America: The Maya 6-6-1999 Retrieved 12-6-06 from: http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/CIVAMRCA/MAYAS.HTM

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