The Chinchorro people settled in coastal bays of the Atacama Desert, in what is present-day Chile, around 7,000 BC and developed a technique for mummification around 5,000 BC. That's roughly 2,000 years before the ancient Egyptians. Yet, while the Egyptians were a complex civilization mummifying elite pharaohs, the Chinchorro were pre-ceramic hunter-gatherers with a more egalitarian approach to honoring the dead.

The incredible preservation, especially of human mummies, has furnished us with a glimpse at mortuary traditions and rites associated with the first settlers beginning at least 9,000 years ago, through to the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadors. 

The hieroglyphic writing of the Egyptians went beyond the direct representations used with images: they constituted a complex system of signs that was read like modern alphabetic scripts and conveyed very precise messages.

The symbols used in hieroglyphic writing look like little pictures of people, animals and objects, it’s easy to assume that the hieroglyphs represent those things. Instead, some hieroglyphs signify sounds in the ancient Egyptian language, just as the characters in the Roman alphabet do. Others are ideographic signs, which represent concepts but don’t have a sound attached.

Though the system was eventually used for other types of writing, hieroglyphs never lost their initial connection with elite contexts in commemorative settings like temples and tombs. 

A shield is cut from a mangrove plank root, carved, painted and named after the selected ancestor. This shield, dating from the 1960s, was named after the carver Par's deceased father, Pokor, and features a flying-fox motif in the centre. Fuit-eating birds and animals were potent symbols of headhunting and are often included on shields, as people, were thought of as trees, with the head being the fruit. This shield is also bordered by motifs symbolizing shell nose-ornaments and topped by 'wisir kus', the head of a ray-fish.

Asmat shields are carved for headhunting rituals, which are organized to arrange the death of ancestors. A shield always represents an ancestor, and is named after him. It makes the owner powerful, fierce and invulnerable. When Asmat warriors are at home, the shields are placed near the entrance door to protect the house from evil spirits. Every region has their own style and motives. This particular one depicts stylized ‘flying foxes’, which are a spieces of very large bats.

[Bibliography]

Newell 2011 / Pacific Art in Detail (pp.116-117)

Liangzhu is considered to be a sacred place that showcases an important period in the 5,000 year history of Chinese civilization.

The essence of the ritual system embodied in the planning and construction of the Liangzhu capital and the culture’s hierarchical system of jade usage has been absorbed and utilized to varying degrees by later generations. In fact, it has become an important historical precedent for the way in which China has maintained "unity in diversity" over the course of its development.

Liangzhu jade includes a variety of expressive forms of art developed during a formative period of government in China. The class differentiation and spiritual beliefs of the prehistoric society are seen in the strict hierarchical use of jade. 

"The Nahuatl term 'coatl' can be translated as both serpent and twin. The Mexica considered serpents to be powerful, multifaceted creatures that could bridge the spheres (the underworld, water and sky) owing to their physical and mythical characterisitics.

Serpents were also associated with fertility and with water, owing to the undulating movement of their bodies. In Mexica iconography turquoise serpents (xiuhcoatl) are related to celestial events. On the Mexica Calendar Stone, two xiucoatl accompany the sun on its daily journey across the sky.

This double-headed serpent is carved from a single piece of Spanish cedarwood (Cedrela odorata). The front of the serpent and the two heads are covered with turquoise mosaic, and the hollowed-out reverse of the body was originally gilded.

The Mayan Calendar is an ancient dating system, which consists of three interlacing calendars. The calendar was used in Central America, by Mesoamerican civilizations such as the Mayan civilization.

The Haab is the civil calendar used by the Mayan civilization.  It is a solar calendar, and it has 365 days.

The Tzolkin (which translates to "count of days") is also known as the Divine Calendar. It represents the 260 days in the Maya Sacred Round, and is used to determine the dates of religious days, harvests, and ceremonial events.

The Mayans also have an astronomical calendar, The Long Count calendar used to track longer periods of time, counting all the days since the beginning of the Universe, which the Mayans believe was August 11, 3114 B.C.