Prehistoric Mesoamerica

Front Cover
University of Oklahoma Press, 2005 - History - 521 pages

This major revision of Richard E. W. Adams’s classic text on the ancient civilizations of Mesoamerica adds new information available from archaeological fieldwork in the region from the 1990s through 2004 and also evaluates recent theories regarding the remarkable prehistoric cultures of a region that today encompasses Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and parts of Honduras and El Salvador.

This up-to-date overview provides an introduction to Mesoamerican studies, a brief geographic sketch of the region, and a summary of the major features of its civilizations. Adams follows with a detailed examination of each period of Mesoamerican cultural history, from early prehistoric times through the rise and fall of various city-states to the ascendancy and ultimate fall of the Aztec Empire.

Prehistoric Mesoamerica will be of interest to both students and scholars in the field and to general readers interested in the rich diversity of Mesoamerican art, society, politics, and intellectual achievement.

 

Contents

First Immigrants and the Establishment of Settled Life
28
Villages Regional
50
Development of Regional Cultures
93
Classic Maya Lowland Civilization
145
Teotihuacan Monte Alban and Other Early
216
EpiClassic Cultures the Collapse
274
The Mixtec Totonac Maya Tarascans and Others
323
The Aztec
387
Explanatory and Analytical Tools
427
References
449
Index
483
Copyright

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About the author (2005)

Richard E. W. Adams is Ashbel Smith Professor at the University of Texas, San Antonio.

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