Mesoamerica: Did you mean...?

A life-size ceramic 'baby' figurine from the Olmec civilization of Mexico, Mesoamerica, 12th-9th century BCE. The significance of these figures, often depicting infantile gestures, is not clear. They may represent deities...

The Classic Period ball court of Monte Alban (150-650 CE). The ball game was popular across Mesoamerica and the objective was to put a rubber ball through a hoop placed high on each wall. Any part of the body could be used...

A hammered silver nose ornament from Mesoamerica. Colima or Mixtec, 12-14th century. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

For the Maya, reliable food production was so important to their well-being that they closely linked the agricultural cycle to astronomy and religion. Important rituals and ceremonies were held in honour of specialised workers...

The stone head sculptures of the Olmec civilization of the Gulf Coast of Mexico (1200 BCE - 400 BCE) are amongst the most mysterious and debated artefacts from the ancient world. The most agreed upon theory is that, because...

The Mayan religious text, the Popol Vuh (known by many names, among them, The Light That Came From Beside The Sea) is the Quiche Maya story of creation translated into Spanish in the early 18th century...

The Popol Vuh recounts the story of twins who journeyed to Xibalba. For the Maya, their round of adventures serves as a metaphor for timeless, repeating cycles and for the...

The Tizoc Stone is a huge stone cylinder from the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan which depicts a sun-disk on its flat upper surface and carries a frieze around its outer edge showing Aztec warriors and the Aztec king Tizoc, whose...

Mesopotamia (from the Greek, meaning "between two rivers") was an ancient region located in the Near East (Middle East) bounded in the northeast by the Zagros Mountains and in the southeast by the Arabian Plateau...

The Maya Civilization flourished between 250-950 although it drew upon earlier civilizations such as that of the Olmecs (1500 - 200 BCE) and Zapotec (600 BCE - 800 CE) and lasted through the Post-Classic Period of 950-1524...