San Antonio College Library

An extensive three-volume work, employing 300 international authors to compose 617 lengthy articles addressing biographies, general contextual essays, and specific topics. Entries offer information on the geography, history, arts, literature, religion, and architecture of Pre-Hispanic, Colonial, and modern Mesoamerican cultures that span from central Mexico to present-day Costa Rica.

"The Maya has long been established as the best and most readable introduction to the New World's greatest ancient civilization. In these pages Professor Coe distills a lifetime's scholarship for the general reader and student." "Now, for the sixth edition, Professor Coe incorporates the latest ideas and research in a fast-changing field. Spectacular tomb discoveries at the city of Copan reveal some of the early artistic and architectural splendors...

Using high-tech equipment, chemical analyses and sampling strategies, archaeologists are learning more about how and why cultures change. Using the study of the Maya as a test case, this book shows how the transformation of archaeology has brought new understanding of past civilizations.

"This volume retraces the development and magnificent flowering of Mayan architecture in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and Belize over the period 300 B.C.-A.D. 1500. Tikal, the earliest Mayan religious center, Palenque, famous for its ceremonial center, and Copan, with its hieroglyphic staircase featuring 2500 glyphs, are among the cites featured."--Alibris.

This lavishly illustrated volume enables readers to chronologically trace the cultural development of Mesoamerica. From the imposing monumental sculptures of the Olmecs in 1500 BC to the extraordinary development of the Mayan city states of the classical period to the militaristic fervor of the kingdom of Chichen Itza to the conquest of the Mayans by the Spanish armies in the 1500s, The Mayas examines the social and cultural influences of each major...