- Hardcover: 208 pages
- Publisher: Thames and Hudson; illustrated edition edition (Nov 1 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0500021198
- ISBN-13: 978-0500021194
- Product Dimensions: 24.6 x 16.8 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 794 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,509,246 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"'The first truly complete and authoritative account of this 3,000-year-old culture' - Michael D. Coe, Yale University"
Product Description
The Olmecs of southern Mexico were America's oldest civilization and Mesoamerica's 'Mother Culture'. Long famous for their Colossal Heads carved from giant boulders, the Olmecs have fascinated the public and archaeologists alike since the 1940s when National Geographic magazine reported the initial explorations of their centres. Despite well-publicized discoveries of spectacular basalt sculptures, portable jade objects and richly decorated pottery vessels, until quite recently almost nothing was known about Olmec history, foreign contacts and daily life. Now archaeologists have recovered information that allows them to assemble a reasonably complete picture of Olmec culture, its accomplishments and its impact on later Mexican civilizations. The Olmecs presents the first modern overview of information from recent archaeological field projects and studies of Olmec art. In addition to detailed consideration of Olmec life, culture and art, it examines the Olmec presence in the surrounding areas of Mexico and central Mexico and their role in the formation of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican culture. Profusely illustrated, this engagingly written survey will become the standard work on this enigmatic culture.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.8 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)
24 of 28 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Highly recommended, Jan 6 2005
By Midwest Book Review - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Olmecs (Hardcover)
Surprisingly enough, academician and scholar Richard Diehl's The Olmecs: America's First Civilization is the first complete survey and overview analysis of the peoples who created the first complex culture in Mesoamerica, adding new information from recent archaeological findings to consider Olmec life, culture and art. Diehl's background as a professor of anthropology at the University of Alabama and his personal experience conducting archaeological investigations in Mexico lend appreciable substance and insight to his authoritative, "reader friendly" coverage, which is packed with illustrative black and white photos of Olmec relics. Highly recommended!
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
average, Aug 3 2005
By Sky - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Olmecs (Hardcover)
I had expected a little bit more. Richard Diehl's "The Olmec. America's First Civilization" is a typical Thames and Hudson "Ancient People and Places" Publication (like M. Coe's "The Maya" or R. Townsend's "The Aztec"): "reader friendly" as expressed by another review, clearly not too academic (that means dissapointing to the scholar), light style. Probably due to the lack of data there is quite a lot of speculation and repetition. Like the recent "Olmeca: Balance y Perspectivas"-Roundtable it is very much a proof that not much has happened since 1996 "The Olmec World-Ritual and Rulership". It is still nice reading and surely informative for travellers, beginning students and laymen alike.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
recommended, Mar 21 2007
By Max E. White - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Olmecs (Paperback)
This is an easy-to-read, though technical book. It presents the current state of knowledge of the earliest civilization in Mesoamerica, and the origin of much of what appears in Maya culture later on (calendar, writing, etc.). I am very thankful that the author gives the English measurement equivalents to the metric system, for many of us do not use the metric system and are totally lost when reading about hectares, meters, etc. I recommend this book to anyone interested in New World archaeology and the origins of complex societies.
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