Mesoamerican Architecture is the set of architectural traditions produced by the pre-Columbian cultures and civilizations of Mesoamerica, which are best manifested in the form of monumental structures, temples and public, ceremonial and urban buildings. The distinctive characteristics of Mesoamerican architecture bring together numerous regional and historical styles that are significantly interrelated. These styles developed as a result of the intense cultural change that took place in the area of Mesoamerican cultures for thousands of years (Mesoamerican chronologies). This architecture is recognized for its pyramids, the largest buildings outside of Ancient Egypt.
An interesting and exhaustively researched topic in Mesoamerican studies is the relationship between worldview, religion, geography, and architecture. Certain data suggest that many particularities of Mesoamerican architecture responded to religious and mythological ideas. For example, the layout of most cities seems to be influenced by the cardinal points and the symbolic and mythological meanings they have in Mesoamerica.
Another striking aspect of Mesoamerican architecture is its iconography. The monumental buildings were decorated with images of religious and cultural importance and in many cases with writing in some Mesoamerican writing systems. The iconographic decoration and the texts are important contributors to current knowledge of pre-Columbian society, history and religion in Mesoamerica.
Chronology
The different tables show us the phases of Mesoamerican architecture and archeology and their correlation with the specific cultures, cities, styles and buildings that are notable from this period.
Urban planning and worldview
The duplication of the cosmos
An important part of the religious practices of the Mesoamericans was to replicate their beliefs in concrete and tangible ways, in effect making the world an embodiment of their beliefs.
.[1] This means that the Mesoamerican city was built in the form of a microcosm that manifests the same division that exists in mythical-religious geography. The division between the underworld and the human world was important due to the cyclical principle of life, death and rebirth. The underworld was represented by the northern cardinal direction, so in Mesoamerican cities you usually find buildings, which in some way are associated with the underworld, located in the northern part of the city.
Pre-Columbian Architecture
Introduction
Mesoamerican Architecture is the set of architectural traditions produced by the pre-Columbian cultures and civilizations of Mesoamerica, which are best manifested in the form of monumental structures, temples and public, ceremonial and urban buildings. The distinctive characteristics of Mesoamerican architecture bring together numerous regional and historical styles that are significantly interrelated. These styles developed as a result of the intense cultural change that took place in the area of Mesoamerican cultures for thousands of years (Mesoamerican chronologies). This architecture is recognized for its pyramids, the largest buildings outside of Ancient Egypt.
An interesting and exhaustively researched topic in Mesoamerican studies is the relationship between worldview, religion, geography, and architecture. Certain data suggest that many particularities of Mesoamerican architecture responded to religious and mythological ideas. For example, the layout of most cities seems to be influenced by the cardinal points and the symbolic and mythological meanings they have in Mesoamerica.
Another striking aspect of Mesoamerican architecture is its iconography. The monumental buildings were decorated with images of religious and cultural importance and in many cases with writing in some Mesoamerican writing systems. The iconographic decoration and the texts are important contributors to current knowledge of pre-Columbian society, history and religion in Mesoamerica.
Chronology
The different tables show us the phases of Mesoamerican architecture and archeology and their correlation with the specific cultures, cities, styles and buildings that are notable from this period.
Urban planning and worldview
The duplication of the cosmos
The southern part represented life, sustenance, rebirth and generally contained structures related to the continuity and daily function of the city state, as well as monuments delineating noble lineages as well as residential neighborhoods, markets, etc.
Between the two halves of the north/south axis was the plaza, which often contained steles resembling the World Tree, axis mundi and a field for the Ball Court, which served as a crossroads between the two worlds.
Some scholars of Mesoamerican culture believe that in the religious symbolism associated with architecture, the pyramids were mountains, the stelae represented trees, and the wells and cenotes were caves that gave access to the underworld.
The main civic and ceremonial buildings were oriented astronomically, mostly towards the positions of the Sun on the horizon on certain dates, which tend to be separated by multiples of 13 and 20 days, that is, of the elementary periods of the Mesoamerican calendrical system. This fact and the distribution of the dates recorded in the year of the seasons indicate that the guidelines made possible the use of observational calendars, whose function was to facilitate the proper programming of agricultural work and the associated ceremonies. Such conclusions are based on the results of systematic investigations in several Mesoamerican regions,[2][3] including central Mexico,[4] the Mayan Lowlands,[5][6] the regions of Oaxaca and the Gulf of Mexico[7] and Western and Northern Mesoamerica.[8] While solar orientations predominate, some prominent buildings were aligned towards the extremes of Venus,[9] being a notable example. the Governor's Palace in Uxmal.[10] Orientations towards the extremes of the Moon have also been documented,[11] which are particularly common on the Northeast Coast of the Yucatán Peninsula, where the cult of the goddess Ixchel, related to the Moon, was very important during the Postclassic.[12].
The Square
In the heart of the Mesoamerican cities there were large plazas surrounded by the most important buildings such as the Royal Acropolis, enormous temple-pyramids and occasionally fields for the ball game.
The main pyramids
Often the most important temples sat at the top of the pyramids, presumably closer to the heavens. While recent discoveries point to the use of the pyramids as funerary monuments, the temples themselves rarely contain burials. Located at the top of the pyramids, about sixty meters high as in El Mirador "El Mirador (Mayan city)"), the temples were impressive and beautifully decorated structures, they were usually roofed with material more perishable than rock. Many of these temples may have served as a form of propaganda.
The Ball Game Field
The ritual ball game was a symbolic journey that exchanged a great Turk for them and the underworld with the world of the living, many ball fields are located in the central area of the city functioning as a connection between the northern and southern sectors. There are Ball Fields with different styles of which the most common is the "I" shaped field, but some of these have slightly inclined sidewalks like in Copán and others have vertical walls like in Chichén Itzá. Many ball fields had stone rings embedded in the walls (Chichén Itzá) and many of them were decorated with symbolic iconography.
Residential areas and palaces
The palaces were spacious and usually highly decorated, they were located near the center of the city and housed the elite population. A larger palace, with many rooms and different levels, is sometimes known as an Acropolis. However, most of the time they were one story and had many small rooms and at least one interior patio, these structures seem to take into account the needs of a residence, as well as the decoration required by the status of the inhabitants. Archaeologists agree that many palaces housed tombs. The tomb of an ancient ruler was discovered at Copán under four hundred years of subsequent remodeling, and the northern acropolis of Tikal appears to have been the site of numerous burials dating to the Classic and Preclassic periods.
Construction Materials
A surprising aspect of the large Mesoamerican structures is the lack of advanced technology that would have made their construction possible. Without metal tools, without pulleys and perhaps even without the wheel, this architecture required labor in abundance. However, outside of this enormous requirement, the materials seem to have been within reach. They mainly used limestone, which was soft enough to be quarried with stone tools, to be hardened after placement. In addition to the structural use they gave to limestone, most of the mixture they used was made of crushed limestone, burned and mixed with other elements, thus imitating the properties of cement, it was widely used for stucco finishes and as mortar. However, later improvements in extraction technique reduced the demand for limestone-based stucco, but it remained a crucial element of pillars and lintels. In the case of the common rooms, the main elements were adobe, wood and wattle, however, signs have been discovered of what could have been residential houses built with limestone.
Styles
Megalithic
The architectural construction technique that uses large blocks of limestone (ca. 100 x 50 x 30 cm) covered by a small layer of stucco. This style predominated in the northern region of the Mayan territory during the Preclassic and the beginning of the Classic era.
References
[1] ↑ Mary Miller and Karl Taube, introduction to "The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the
[2] ↑ Aveni, Anthony F. (2001). Skywatchers: A Revised and Updated Version of Skywatchers of Ancient Mexico. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-70504-2.
[3] ↑ Šprajc, Ivan (2018). «Astronomy, Architecture, and Landscape in Prehispanic Mesoamerica». Journal of Archaeological Research 26 (2): 197-251. doi:10.1007/s10814-017-9109-z.: https://dx.doi.org/10.1007%2Fs10814-017-9109-z
[10] ↑ Šprajc, Ivan (2015). «Governor’s Palace at Uxmal». En Ruggles, Clive L. N., ed. Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy. New York: Springer. pp. 773-781.
[11] ↑ Šprajc, Ivan; Sánchez Nava, Pedro Francisco (2017). «Orientaciones lunares en la arquitectura maya». Arqueología Mexicana XXIV (143): 76-83.
An important part of the religious practices of the Mesoamericans was to replicate their beliefs in concrete and tangible ways, in effect making the world an embodiment of their beliefs.
.[1] This means that the Mesoamerican city was built in the form of a microcosm that manifests the same division that exists in mythical-religious geography. The division between the underworld and the human world was important due to the cyclical principle of life, death and rebirth. The underworld was represented by the northern cardinal direction, so in Mesoamerican cities you usually find buildings, which in some way are associated with the underworld, located in the northern part of the city.
The southern part represented life, sustenance, rebirth and generally contained structures related to the continuity and daily function of the city state, as well as monuments delineating noble lineages as well as residential neighborhoods, markets, etc.
Between the two halves of the north/south axis was the plaza, which often contained steles resembling the World Tree, axis mundi and a field for the Ball Court, which served as a crossroads between the two worlds.
Some scholars of Mesoamerican culture believe that in the religious symbolism associated with architecture, the pyramids were mountains, the stelae represented trees, and the wells and cenotes were caves that gave access to the underworld.
The main civic and ceremonial buildings were oriented astronomically, mostly towards the positions of the Sun on the horizon on certain dates, which tend to be separated by multiples of 13 and 20 days, that is, of the elementary periods of the Mesoamerican calendrical system. This fact and the distribution of the dates recorded in the year of the seasons indicate that the guidelines made possible the use of observational calendars, whose function was to facilitate the proper programming of agricultural work and the associated ceremonies. Such conclusions are based on the results of systematic investigations in several Mesoamerican regions,[2][3] including central Mexico,[4] the Mayan Lowlands,[5][6] the regions of Oaxaca and the Gulf of Mexico[7] and Western and Northern Mesoamerica.[8] While solar orientations predominate, some prominent buildings were aligned towards the extremes of Venus,[9] being a notable example. the Governor's Palace in Uxmal.[10] Orientations towards the extremes of the Moon have also been documented,[11] which are particularly common on the Northeast Coast of the Yucatán Peninsula, where the cult of the goddess Ixchel, related to the Moon, was very important during the Postclassic.[12].
The Square
In the heart of the Mesoamerican cities there were large plazas surrounded by the most important buildings such as the Royal Acropolis, enormous temple-pyramids and occasionally fields for the ball game.
The main pyramids
Often the most important temples sat at the top of the pyramids, presumably closer to the heavens. While recent discoveries point to the use of the pyramids as funerary monuments, the temples themselves rarely contain burials. Located at the top of the pyramids, about sixty meters high as in El Mirador "El Mirador (Mayan city)"), the temples were impressive and beautifully decorated structures, they were usually roofed with material more perishable than rock. Many of these temples may have served as a form of propaganda.
The Ball Game Field
The ritual ball game was a symbolic journey that exchanged a great Turk for them and the underworld with the world of the living, many ball fields are located in the central area of the city functioning as a connection between the northern and southern sectors. There are Ball Fields with different styles of which the most common is the "I" shaped field, but some of these have slightly inclined sidewalks like in Copán and others have vertical walls like in Chichén Itzá. Many ball fields had stone rings embedded in the walls (Chichén Itzá) and many of them were decorated with symbolic iconography.
Residential areas and palaces
The palaces were spacious and usually highly decorated, they were located near the center of the city and housed the elite population. A larger palace, with many rooms and different levels, is sometimes known as an Acropolis. However, most of the time they were one story and had many small rooms and at least one interior patio, these structures seem to take into account the needs of a residence, as well as the decoration required by the status of the inhabitants. Archaeologists agree that many palaces housed tombs. The tomb of an ancient ruler was discovered at Copán under four hundred years of subsequent remodeling, and the northern acropolis of Tikal appears to have been the site of numerous burials dating to the Classic and Preclassic periods.
Construction Materials
A surprising aspect of the large Mesoamerican structures is the lack of advanced technology that would have made their construction possible. Without metal tools, without pulleys and perhaps even without the wheel, this architecture required labor in abundance. However, outside of this enormous requirement, the materials seem to have been within reach. They mainly used limestone, which was soft enough to be quarried with stone tools, to be hardened after placement. In addition to the structural use they gave to limestone, most of the mixture they used was made of crushed limestone, burned and mixed with other elements, thus imitating the properties of cement, it was widely used for stucco finishes and as mortar. However, later improvements in extraction technique reduced the demand for limestone-based stucco, but it remained a crucial element of pillars and lintels. In the case of the common rooms, the main elements were adobe, wood and wattle, however, signs have been discovered of what could have been residential houses built with limestone.
Styles
Megalithic
The architectural construction technique that uses large blocks of limestone (ca. 100 x 50 x 30 cm) covered by a small layer of stucco. This style predominated in the northern region of the Mayan territory during the Preclassic and the beginning of the Classic era.
References
[1] ↑ Mary Miller and Karl Taube, introduction to "The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the
[2] ↑ Aveni, Anthony F. (2001). Skywatchers: A Revised and Updated Version of Skywatchers of Ancient Mexico. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-70504-2.
[3] ↑ Šprajc, Ivan (2018). «Astronomy, Architecture, and Landscape in Prehispanic Mesoamerica». Journal of Archaeological Research 26 (2): 197-251. doi:10.1007/s10814-017-9109-z.: https://dx.doi.org/10.1007%2Fs10814-017-9109-z
[10] ↑ Šprajc, Ivan (2015). «Governor’s Palace at Uxmal». En Ruggles, Clive L. N., ed. Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy. New York: Springer. pp. 773-781.
[11] ↑ Šprajc, Ivan; Sánchez Nava, Pedro Francisco (2017). «Orientaciones lunares en la arquitectura maya». Arqueología Mexicana XXIV (143): 76-83.