Description
From the first millennium B.C. until the arrival of Europeans in the 16th century, artists from across the ancient Americas created small-scale architectural effigies to be placed in the tombs of important individuals. These works in stone, ceramic, wood, and metal range from highly abstracted, minimalist representations of temples and houses to elaborate complexes populated with figures, conveying a rich sense of ancient ritual and daily life. Although described as models, these effigies were created not so much as reflections or prototypes of existing structures, but rather as critical, conceptual components of funerary practice and beliefs about an afterlife.

![Grand Design: Pieter Coecke van Aelst and Renaissance Tapestry (Metropolitan Museum of Art (Hardcover)) [Hardcover] Cleland, Elizabeth](https://artwheelshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/71eoIqSeqpL._SY466_-1-300x450.jpg)

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![Panaesthetics: On the Unity and Diversity of the Arts (The Anthony Hecht Lectures in the Humanities Series) [Hardcover] Albright, Daniel](https://artwheelshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/71tyEo5BxYL._SY385_-1.jpg)

![California Design Biennial 2003 Pasadena Museum of California Art (California Design Biennial, 2003) [Paperback] Wesley Jessup](https://artwheelshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/81eFQUbQhbL._SY385_-1.jpg)
![Scales of Sustainability Las Escalas De La Sostenibidad (Quaderns d'Arquitectura y Urbanisme, 225) [Paperback] Paul Virilio](https://artwheelshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/31IZrr-zjpL-1.jpg)

![Make It New: Abstract Painting from the National Gallery of Art, 19501975 [Paperback] Cooper, Harry; Breslin, David and Jolly, Matt](https://artwheelshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/61i1k-PWaAL._SY522_-1-300x450.jpg)
![The Kaufmann Collection: The Early Furniture of Gustav Stickley [Hardcover] Thomas K. Maher](https://artwheelshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/11qAK05MfkL-1.jpg)
![2G 25 Josep Lluís Mateo, International Architechture Review (2G, 25) [Paperback] Wilfried Wang; Aaron Betsky; Manuel Delgado; Akos Moravánski and Ignasi de Solà-Morales](https://artwheelshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/31X61SEGVPL-1.jpg)