Art for the Mayans was a reflection of their lifestyle and culture. For the Mayans art took several forms including: painting paper, plaster, carvings in wood and store, clay, stucco models, and terra cotta figurines from molds. Metal was very scarce and so it wasn’t commonly used. Amman Art during the period, 200 to 900 has been considered the most sophisticated and beautiful of the New World. There is few remaining Amman Art, which includes funerary pottery, ceramics, a building in Bondsman (which is around Chaps, Mexico), has several murals.
What is interesting is that Amman art gave almost free reign to the artist. The artist was not required to produce a work that fit any particular rules. The art usually didn’t depict anonymous priests and unnamed Gods. Some archaeologists believe that art was only produced by the wealthy. Most of the people who lived were farmers who had to work hard to make a living. It is presumed that most of the art was done by sons of kings, and the artworks made were given as gifts or sold to other wealthy landowners. An interesting fact is that Mayans were one of the few civilizations that he artists signed their name to their work.
The Amman architecture is the method the men spoke to the gods. The first Amman pyramid was said to be built in Extant, Guatemala, Just before the birth of Christ. The Amman architecture is one of the most recognizable. Each pyramid was dedicated to a deity whose shrine was at the peak. At the height of the Amman civilization, cities like Chicken Ditz, Diktat, Kamala were created. Amman cities were spread all throughout Mesospheric. Locations of cities were not planned to a great extent. In fact, most cities seem to be placed haphazardly.
The Mayans easily adapted their cities to their surroundings. Cities that were in northern Yucatan existed on flat limestone plains, while cities built in the mountains or on hills such as, Summation, used the topography to raise their towers and temples very high. At the centre of all Amman cities were large plazas, which held governmental and religious buildings such as the pyramid temples and ball-courts. Although it seems that most planning was done in a haphazard manner, the Mayans placed very special attention to the directional orientation of temples and observatories.
They were always constructed in accordance with Maya interpretation of the orbits of the stars. Outside of ritual centers were the formation of lesser nobles, smaller temples, and individual shrines. These less sacred structures had much more privacy. Outside of the urban core were the less permanent and modest homes of common people. In essence, it was the most sacred and noble buildings in the centre and the further one got from the center the lower of importance the dwelling was in the Amman hierarchy.
In the classic Era the Mayans focused on great monuments (such as temples), public plazas. Interior Space was entirely secondary. In the later-post classic era the Greater Amman cities developed into more fortress-like defensive structures that lacked plazas. The Mayans actually developed several unique building innovations, including the corbel arch which was a false arch achieved by stepping each successive block, from opposite sides, closer to the center, and capped at the peak. MATERIALS The Mayans lacked many construction technologies.
They didn’t have metal tools, pulleys, and even the wheel – or at least they didn’t use the wheel as a means to help in work. Amman architecture was based on manpower. All stone was taken from local arises, and they mostly used limestone. It wasn’t only used because there was an abundance of it but because it was easy to be worked with. The mortar generally consisted of crushed, burnet, and mixed limestone that is similar to cement, and it gave a stucco finishing. PROCESS The King or priests would supervise the labor of the common people.
The peasants would work on the construction projects as a method to pay homage to the king and the state, and the construction typically took place when they were unable to do their agricultural work. The laborers would carry loads of materials on their backs of roll hem on logs to get them from the source, usually a quarry, to the site. The Mayans also had specialized workers such as architects who would oversee the construction of the buildings. STYLE Amman architects did not build in right angles.
They relied on bilateral symmetry meaning it you were to cut the building right down the middle, each anal would lo like a mirror image of the other side. They would also build temples on top of temples. This is one method on how they made some pyramids so large.
