Mexico : from the Olmecs to the Aztecs

Book

Mexico : from the Olmecs to the Aztecs / Michael D. Coe.

Coe, Michael D. (Author). Rogers D. Spotswood Collection. (Added Author).

Summary:

"Michael D. Coe's Mexico has long been recognized as the most readable and authoritative introduction to the region's ancient civilizations. Now this companion volume to Professor Coe's bestselling The Maya has been completely revised and expanded for the fourth edition. Enlarged sections are included on early village life and the rise of Olmec civilization. Extraordinary recent discoveries - such as the stela from La Mojarra inscribed in the mysterious Isthmian script or the mass sacrifice of 200 victims at Teotihuacan - receive full coverage. A new chapter on Aztec life and society has also been added, based on fresh readings of the ethnohistorical sources." "Despite the cataclysm of the Spanish Conquest and ensuing epidemics, the native peoples of Mexico survived through the Colonial period. Describing their heroic struggle in a new Epilogue, the author makes clear just how much the character of modern Mexico derives from its Pre-Columbian past."--Jacket.

Record details

ISBN: 0500277222
ISBN: 9780500277225
Physical Description: 215 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.
Edition: 4th ed., fully rev. and expanded.
Publisher: New York : Thames and Hudson, 1994.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:: Includes bibliographical references (pages 205-208) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:: Early hunters -- The Archaic period: The desert culture in North America. The origins of Mexican cultivated plants. The importance of maize. Other cultigens. Caves and rockshelters of northeastern Mexico. Santa Marta rockshelter. The Tehuacan Valley. Other Archaic sites. The Archaic period and the origins of settled life -- The preclassic period: early villagers: The Early Preclassic in Chiapas. Early Preclassic villagers in Oaxaca. The site of Tlatilco. Established villages of the Middle Preclassic. Late Preclassic cultures of the central highlands. The Mezcala puzzle. The shaft-tomb art of western Mexico -- The preclassic period: eary civilizations: Background of civilized life. The Olmec civilization. The San Lorenzo Olmec. El Manati. The Olmec of La Venta. Tres Zapotes and the long count calendar. The Olmecs beyond the heartland. Early Zapotec civilization. Izapan civilization. La Mojarra and the Isthmian script.

The classic period: Rise of the great civilizations. The urban civilization of Teotihuacan. The Great Pyramid of Cholula. The Maya connection: Cacaxtla and Xochicalco. Cerro de las Mesas. The Classic Veracruz civilization. Remojadas potters. Classic Monte Albán. The Classic downfall -- The post-classic period: the Toltec state: A time of troubles. The northern barbarians. Tula and the toltecs. Archaeological Tula. Tula and Chichén Itzá. The 'turquoise road' -- The post-classic period: rival states: Late Zapotec culture at Mitla. The Mixtecs. The Tarascan kingdom. The rise of the Aztec state. The consolidation of Aztec power.

The Aztecs in 1519: The island city. Aztec society. The long-distance merchants. Becoming an Aztec. Marriage. The Triple Alliance and the empire. The emperor and the palace. Food and agriculture. War and human sacrifice. Aztec religion. Aztec art and architecture. Aztec thought and literature -- Epilogue: The Spanish conquest. New Spain and the colonial world. The 'ladinoization' of Mexico. Aftermath.