pre-Columbian civilizations, the aboriginal American Indian cultures that evolved in Meso-America (part of Mexico and Central America) and the Andean region (western South America) prior to Spanish exploration and conquest in the 16th century. The pre-Columbian civilizations were extraordinary developments in human society and culture, ranking with the early civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and China. Like the ancient civilizations of the Old World, those in the New World were characterized by kingdoms and empires, great monuments and cities, and refinements in the arts, metallurgy, and writing; the ancient civilizations of the Americas also display in their histories similar cyclical patterns of ... (100 of 56,460 words)
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Principal sites of Meso-American civilization.
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Olmec colossal basalt head in the Museo de la Venta, an outdoor museum near Villahermosa, Tabasco, Mexico.
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Vessel in the form of a shark, slip-painted ceramic, Colima, Mexico, 200 bce–500 ce; in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
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hacha"/> Totonac axe (hacha) made of andesite, from Veracruz, Mexico, 700–900 ce; in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
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Ruins of one of the main buildings of the ancient Mayan city of Chichén Itzá, south-central Yucatán state, Mex.
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Mayan vessel with mythological scene, ceramic, Guatemala, 8th century; in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
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The corn god (left) and the rain god, Chac, drawing from the Madrid Codex (Codex Tro-Cortesianus), one of the Mayan sacred books; in the Museo de América, Madrid.
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Handicrafts of the Tarasco Indians on display in Tzintzuntzan, Mex.
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Siguense veynte y seis addiciones desta postilla (1560–79; “A Sequence of Twenty-six Additions to the Admonitions”) by Franciscan Bernardino de Sahagún. The 26 additional admonitions to the appendix of Sahagún’s doctrinal writings exhort the Aztecs to pursue Christian virtues. The writings preserve a record of the Aztec culture and Nahuatl language.
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An illustration from a reproduction of the Codex Magliabecchi depicting an Aztec priest performing a sacrificial offering of a living human heart to the war god Huitzilopochtli.