Spring 2004

LAS 327 • 5-MAYA ART AND ARCHITECTURE

Course Description

This course surveys the art and architecture of the ancient Maya and other cultures, such as the Olmec, with whom their cultural history is intertwined. Analysis and interpretation of the art will be based primarily on its role as a transmitter of cultural information and worldview. We will focus primarily on the shared ideologies that characterize Mesoamerican, and particularly Maya, civilizations from the 2nd millennium BC until the arrival of the Spanish at the time of the Conquest. Several class periods will be devoted to familiarizing the student with the workings of the Mesoamerican calendrical and hieroglyphic systems.

back