talud-tablero

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architectural design of rectangular panel (tablero) with inset is placed over a sloping wall (talud); clear marker of Mesoamerican architecture

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polychrome 

multicolored stone

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Insence Burner, Teotihuacan 

prominent structure that tops a pyramid in monumental Mesoamerican architecture that increases height of structure

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The ritual destruction or killing of warriors or captives, exchanging human blood for the blood of the gods at creation

"In this way, sacrifice as directed toward an 

expiatory or reciprocal end differs from 

warfare or violence as social or political acts."

sarcophagus 

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Sarcophagus Lid, Tomb of Pakal

flesh-eating stone, stone facing holding individual in tomb

(1) Roofcombs 

(2) 'Maya' Arch (Corbel Arch)

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reclining figures holding plates that served as sacrificial/offering

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Chacmool, Temple of the Warriors, Chichen Itza, Postclassic Maya

natural sinkhole 

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Cenote, Chichen Itza

mixture of indigo (vegetal dye) and fine clay; seen in the temple rooms of Bonampak

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Room 3, Structure 1 [Temple of the Murals], Bonampak, 790 CE

raised fields used in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan 

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room used for religious rituals typically reserved for males; features subterranean layout, an enclosing wall with bench, and a roof entrance with ladder

Possibly related to mythic origins; people emerging from underground thru sipapu (hole in floor) 

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Great Kiva, Chetro Ketl, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, 

 image carved into or pecked out of rock face

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Petroglyph, Chaco Canyon 

 image painted onto rock surface

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Pictograph, Horshoe Canyon, Utah

Contour Rivalry 

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 ability to see same image as composed of either two profile forms or one frontal, central image; 

seen on Lanzon at Chavin de Huantar 

ability to rotate and image 180 degrees to produce a new legible image; seen on the Raimondi Stela at Chavin de Huantar 

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Raimondi Stela, Chavin de Huantar 

designs created in large scale on the earth (geo) surface

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Spider Geogplyph, Peru 

Reduce-fire Ceramics 

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Ceramic technique used by the Moche in Peru; 

(1) Reducing the amount of oxygen during the firing process

(2) Clay carbonizes and/or fire smudges surface

(3) Brown to black coloration

(4) Burnishing for luster

Oxidized Ceramics 

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Another ceramic technique used by the Moche in Peru

(1) Allowing in considerable amounts of oxygen into firing process 

(2) Clay takes on its natural color or only slight change

(3) White to red coloration

(4) Paint and/or slip decoration

Ornaments of Power 

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Earspool, Peru, Intermediate Period [Moche], 100-600 CE 

Ornaments/jewelry worn by Moche rulers representing: 

Supernatural - Hide the physical ruler underneath

Immortality - Provide a sense of permanence

Power - Display material and social wealth

Ideology - Place ruler within greater cosmology

architectural feature where one part is set into wall to support a feature extending beyond façade; seen in the tenoned heads at Tiwanaku 

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Tenoned heads, Semi-subterranean temple, Tiwanaku, Bolivia

Quipu 

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Cumpi

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Dumbarton Oaks Tunic, Late Horizon [Inca], 1473-1532 CE