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Dumbarton Oaks Studies in Pre-Columbian Art and Archaeology
A Possible Focus of Andean Artistic Influence in Mesoamerica
Mino Badner

There is general agreement that Mesoamerican and Central Andean peoples influenced one another to some degree before the Spanish conquest. Yet the specific participants and the exact nature of their contact is not understood. The primary purpose of this paper is to trace the origin of certain components of the Izapa style. The frequent incidence of similarity among a small group of monuments suggests fairly intense influence and, therefore, supports the belief that the Pacific coast of Guatemala and Chiapas was once a focus of Andean artistic contact in Preclassic Mesoamerica.