The arts of the ancient Americas are diverse, visually arresting, and sometimes enigmatic. In this wide-ranging catalogue, nearly six hundred works of art from Mesoamerica southward are presented, with particular emphasis on the lesser-known area of ancient Costa Rica. Included are works from Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, created in clay, stone, metal, wood, fiber, bone, and shell. Important pieces receive in-depth treatment - a two-thousand-year-old Costa Rican female shaman effigy, the earliest known sculptural rendition of the Maya hieroglyph for the animal spirit, and gold earspools probably worn by a high official in the Chimu Empire of Peru. A major emphasis is placed on the shamanic experience of transformation into animal selves, since this subject preoccupied artists throughout the ancient Americas. New and exciting research, including ground-breaking geological analyses of greenstones ("jades") by William B. Size, makes this catalogue an act of discovery. Rebecca Stone-Miller is curator of art of the ancient Americas at the Michael C. Carlos Museum and associate professor of art history at Emory University.
- ISBN10 1928917054
- ISBN13 9781928917052
- Publish Date 1 March 2003
- Publish Status Out of Stock
- Out of Print 12 July 2009
- Publish Country US
- Imprint University of Washington Press
- Format Paperback
- Pages 328
- Language English