Pre-Columbian civilizations were primarily agricultural, with maize (corn) being developed as the dietary staple in Mesoamerica, and the potato in Andean Peru and Bolivia. Until the relative secularism of the Post-Classic period, religion was also central to the formulation and development of pre-Columbian American culture. Religious ideas and rituals, however, were largely determined by the concerns of agricultural societies for crop fertility. Much pre-Columbian art and architecture, therefore, is involved with astronomy, which helped the Native Americans determine appropriate times for planting and times for harvesting.

The Maya of pre-Columbian America depended on maize for their subsistence. This ceramic figure was made by a Maya artisan (about AD 600-800). It is a representation of a maize god, with jewelry made of kernels and an elaborate headdress. The piece was originally brightly colored. The figure's simplified form is characteristic of Maya ceramic work. Nefsky/Art Resource, NY

Two types of urban design were developed. One was the ceremonial center, a complex of structures primarily consisting of religious and administrative buildings constructed around plazas, but without common dwellings or streets. It is conjectured that only the secular and religious rulers and their courts lived in these centers, while the majority of the population resided on small farms in a surrounding suburban zone. The other type, true cities, had streets organizing residences of rich and poor, as well as plaza-oriented temples and administrative buildings. Recent mapping projects at sites in Mesoamerica have shown that what were once thought to be ceremonial centers had resident populations of commoners and were thus more like true cities. Both ceremonial complexes and true cities served as centers for religion, government, and commerce. Important for supplying necessities and luxuries, commerce also provided the routes for transmitting ideas, technology, and art forms and motifs.

In Tikal, Guatemala, many Maya ruins of the 3rd and 4th centuries have been excavated and studied. The area, one of the largest Maya ceremonial centers, is believed to have sustained a population of 50,000 until it was abandoned, for unknown reasons, in the 10th century. Kevin Schafer/ALLSTOCK, INC.

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