All Essays

Ancient American Art in The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing
Series
Double Crocodile Pendant, Gold, shell, Cocle (Macaracas)
The earliest evidence of metallurgy found in the Isthmus of Panama can be dated between the second and third centuries CE.
Orlando Hernández Ying
May 27
A flying panel metate (tablelike object of stone) with five felines worked into the legs on the metate's underside
Ancient artists of Costa Rica demonstrated great artistic skill in creating stone works such as metates, zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figures, and spheres.
Francisco Corrales Ulloa
May 21
Bare-chested female ceramic figure wearing a multistrand necklace with a sizable pendant and a decorated head cover.
Artistic representations of power emerged from multiple cultural traditions in coastal Ecuador during the period between 300 BCE and 600 CE.
Florencio Delgado Espinoza
May 7
Red and white double-chambered ceramic bottle with a seated human figure holding a Spondylus shell
Tanto la sociedad wari como la tiwanaku prepararon el terreno para imperios andinos posteriores.
José Ochatoma Paravicino
March 6
Red and white double-chambered ceramic bottle with a seated human figure holding a Spondylus shell
The artistic expressions of the Wari and Tiwanaku societies dominated the Central Andes for nearly five hundred years (600–1000 CE).
José Ochatoma Paravicino
March 6
Dark smooth bannerstone carved in the shape of a double-bitted axe
Bannerstones were made by nomadic hunter-gatherer peoples in the eastern half of North America between 6000 and 1000 BCE during the Archaic period.
Anna Blume
February 18
A red and white ceramic vessel with sculptural figures on the deck arranged in a ritual scene
In the first millennium CE, several communities in the northern highlands of Peru shared a distinctive tradition that is known today as the Recuay.
Hugo C. Ikehara–Tsukayama
January 31
Gold pendant of a human figure wearing an elaborate headdress
Ancient Colombia was home to societies that created numerous styles of metalwork from 500 BCE to the sixteenth century.
Héctor García Botero
December 5, 2024
Gold and silver nose ornament in the shape of a face wearing a crescent-shaped nose ornament, large earspools, and a turbaned headdress
Metals were greatly prized resources for the ancient Peruvians, esteemed for their importance in the cosmology of their communities.
Luisa Vetter Parodi
December 5, 2024
Gold and silver nose ornament in the shape of a face wearing a crescent-shaped nose ornament, large earspools, and a turbaned headdress
Los metales fueron recursos muy preciados por los antiguos peruanos, estimados por su importancia dentro de la cosmología de sus comunidades.
Luisa Vetter Parodi
December 5, 2024