Jeremy Velasco's Art History Blog

 The Mesa Verde National Park, located in the south western slope of Colorado near Grand Junction, was created in 1906 and is said to be the largest archeological site in the United States as well as one of the largest in the world.  Beginning around 1000 C.E, the Ancestral Puebloan peoples built and created over 600 structures into the cliff faces as Mesa Verde. These structures were built using natural materials such as stone, mortar, plaster and mud. The completed structures were mainly used as homes and residences but there were also cases of these structures being used for storage or for ritual purposes.  Kiva "Spruce Tree House" located at Mesa Verde One of the largest and most famous cave dwelling located in Mesa Verde is the Cliff Palace. The Cliff Palace is so large it is said to contain over 120 individual rooms as well as 20+ larger circular rooms. These buildings ranged from 1-4 stories tall and some of them even reached the ceiling of the rocks containing them. D

              The Paracas Textile, woven from cotton and camelid fiber, discovered in southern Peru A Textile is a type of cloth or woven fabric. One of the most incredible textiles of pre-Columbian America is the Paracas Textile. Dating back to nearly 2,000 years ago, the Paracas Textile comes from the south coast, Paracas, Peru. The Paracas Textile measures two by five feet. Despite this textile being relatively small in size, it is said to contain a vast amount of information about the people who lived in ancient Peru.  The Paracas Textile is currently a part of a collection at the Brooklyn Museum of Art and has been since 1938. Despite the age and delicacy of the textile it is said to still show vibrant colors and all of the fine details are still perfectly intact. They say that the arid climate in southern Peru is so dry, any organic materials that may be buried there can actually be preserved.                               Border figures of the Paracas Textile, shows incredible d

 Dr. Amy Nygaard Mickelson, "Jane Alexander,  Butcher Boys ," in  Smarthistory , September 29, 2020, accessed November 3, 2020,  https://smarthistory.org/jane-alexander-butcher-boys/ .   In 1985 and 86' while still a graduate student at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South African artist Jane Alexander created the life-sized sculpture titled Butcher Boys. This piece of art work consists of three "monstrous" figures sitting casually on a wooden bench. These figures were composed of reinforced plaster, animal bones, horns, oil paint, and of course the wooden bench they sit atop. Many observations of the piece lead to the same questions; are the figures man or beast? And what do they represent? Butcher Boys on display at South African National Gallery in Cape Town The artist Alexander goes on to explain how Butcher Boys causes discomfort in its viewers because their form comes very close to ours as humans, but their anatomy contains many non human

  Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. “Lydenburg Heads (ca. 500 A.D.).” In  Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/lyde/hd_lyde.htm (October 2000) The topic I decided to write about this week is the Lydenburg Heads of Lydenburg, South Africa. The Lydenburg Heads is a set of 7 separate terracotta heads that were discovered in the Eastern part of South Africa, The oldest head is thought to be from around 500 A.D. and the others are thought to be from the same time period because of similarities and details between all of the heads.    Left: one of the "near life sized" heads could be worn over the head. Right: one of the smaller Lydenburg heads. The long snout can be representative of a significant animal or creature. The Lydenburg Heads are actually the earliest known examples of Iron Age art south of the equator and because of this, the heads are considered a national treas

 https://smarthistory.org/aksumite-coins/     Coins are uniquely significant and give us a greater insight into the history of Aksum. These coins are said to be significant not only because they provided evidence of a form of currency in Aksum but also because they depicted its rulers. The way these coins were inscribed has given us insight into the fact that Aksumites were both knowledgeable and literate people.       Early indicators suggested the main use of these coins was for trade internationally. The earliest coins were struck in gold and silver and followed weight standards established by the Roman Empire. These coins represented King Endybis (c. 270-290 C.E.) and symbols such as the crescent and disc were said to represent the religion of southern Arabia, to which Aksuma was accustomed to.  Aksumite gold coin. Bust represents King Endubis, triangular ribbon behind, wrapped in wheat. King Ezana took power in 340 C.E and brought along Christianity to the people of Africa. The ki

 https://smarthistory.org/japan-jomon-heian/      The Jomon period, between c.10,500 - c. 300 B.C.E, was Japan's Neolithic Period. The term neolithic is most commonly used in connection with agriculture and this is the case because during this time period many people obtained food by gathering, fishing, and hunting. It was also during this time period that the concept of crop cutivation and animal domestication was introduced.Similar to many other Neolithic cultures around the world, it was the women who were responsible for the earliest pottery and works of art with clay.  "Flame-rimmed" deep bowl from middle Jomon Period     This pottery was constructed from the bottom up using coils of wet clay mized with other natural materials suchs as mica or even seashells. From there, the pots are smoothed, both inside and out, using unique geometric patterns for decoration. Many of these decorations were achieved by pressing rope or cord against the still wet, malleable clay. Pot