Learning Curve Mesoamerica: from the ancient Maya to magical realism

Over 3000 years ago, a great civilisation arose in the hills and jungles of central Mexico, creating dazzling traditions of city-building, religion and art. The Aztecs (or Mexica, as they called themselves) embodied the culmination of this process, before being toppled politically by the Spanish in 1521. In this lecture, explore the mighty Aztec empire, and discover how its myths and traditions have influenced modern Mexico and artists such as Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo.

Sacred mountains, subterranean rivers, caves and smouldering volcanos are at the heart of ancient Mesoamerican myth and cosmology. These special places were considered divine symbolic centres of the universe, and whole cities and kingdoms were built around them. In this lecture, we look at the pre-Aztec peoples, their sacred landscapes and the great city of Teotihuacan (sometimes called the ‘Rome of the Americas’). Learn how pre-Hispanic ideas of sacred cosmology influenced later arts and religion, including the famous ‘Black Madonna’ Virgin of Guadalupe.

Few topics in archaeology remain as compelling as the sudden and unexplained collapse of the major Mayan city-states from around 800 CE. In this lecture, explore the artistic and mythic world of the Maya, including their unique expertise in mathematics, astronomy, calendrics and writing. Visiting the jungles of the Yucatan, Chiapas and the Guatemalan highlands, discover the growth and decline of the classic Mayan cities, and how their culture survived this and later Spanish colonialism to advance to a contemporary artistic and spiritual revival.

Unbeknownst to the Mesoamerican world centred on Mexico, a second centre of pre-Columbian civilisation developed independently far to the south in the Peruvian Andes. Although the vast Incan Empire and enigmatic site of Machu Picchu are perhaps the best known, South America was home to many complex cultures and civilisations with their own unique mythic and artistic worlds. In this lecture, learn about the ‘lost’ cities and cultures of South America, and explore the ways in which they continue to influence arts and politics in the 21st century.