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.




![Casting a Shadow: Creating the Alfred Hitchcock Film [Paperback] Schmenner, Will and Granof, Corinne](https://artwheelshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/81D2s-ypoAL._SY466_-1-300x450.jpg)


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![The Wyvern Collection: Medieval and Later Ivory Carvings and Small Sculpture [Hardcover] Williamson, Paul](https://artwheelshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/61YR4fz0JsL._SY466_-1-300x450.jpg)
![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)
![A Journey to the Centre of the Earth [Hardcover] Verne, Jules](https://artwheelshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/91IP4-MT0PL._SY425_-1-300x425.jpg)
![Itchiku Kubota: Kimono in the Tsujigahana Tradition [Paperback] Kitamura, Tetsuro & Tomoyuki Yamanobe (Essays) and Well-illustrated](https://artwheelshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/31oJwwY33gL-1.jpg)

![Aphrodite and the Gods of Love [Paperback] Kondoleon, Christine & Phoebe C. Segal (editors)](https://artwheelshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/81X3edEty6L._SY466_-1-300x450.jpg)
![The Path to the Guru: The Science of Self-Realization according to the Bhagavad Gita [Paperback] Teitsworth, Scott](https://artwheelshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/911q0UrKVNL._SY385_-1.jpg)