Research Catalog

Title

The cities of ancient Mexico : reconstructing a lost world / Jeremy A. Sabloff ; special photography by Macduff Everton.

Author

Sabloff, Jeremy A.

Publication

New York : Thames and Hudson, 1997.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

224 p. : ill., maps; 23 cm.

Summary

Ancient Mexico was one of the great independent hearths of civilization. Out of a varied landscape grew some of the richest cultures of the early historic world - Olmec, Zapotec, Maya, Toltec, and Aztec. Standard histories tend to focus on the individual societies, but Jeremy Sabloff's popular study takes an original approach, emphasizing the unity of Mexican civilization. In a series of fascinating vignettes, Professor Sabloff describes what it would have been like to have lived during the heyday of Mexico's greatest cities. Through the eyes of astronomers and ballplayers, merchants and priests, we see the temples, palaces, and tombs of a civilization obsessed with ritual and death. But who built these cities and how do we know? Sabloff explains convincingly just why archaeologists believe in the indigenous origins of Mexican civilization. This updated edition includes the latest archaeological research on the ancient cities of Mexico: incorporates breakthroughs in the decipherment of the Maya script; and draws on fresh readings of Aztec ethnohistorical sources. Throughout the author reveals the new ideas and techniques revolutionizing archaeological fieldwork and shows how the latest evidence is being used to reconstruct a fuller picture of life in these ancient cities.

Alternative Title

Reconstructing a lost world

Subject

• Indians of Mexico > Guidebooks
• Mexico > Guidebooks

Genre/Form

Guidebooks

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 214-218) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Chronological chart -- Introduction -- Part 1: What Were The Cities Like?: -- Hunters, villagers, and city-dwellers -- San Lorenzo and the Olmecs: laying the foundations for Mexican civilization -- Monte Alban: sacred city of the Zapotecs -- Teotihuacan: metropolis in the valley of Mexico -- Southern Maya sites of Cerros and Palenque -- Uxmal and the northern Maya lowlands -- Tula: capital of Toltec Mexico -- Aztecs and Tenochtitlan -- Part 2: What Were Their Origins?: -- Roots of Mexican civilization -- Part 3: How Do We Know?: -- Reconstructing the past -- Reconstructing ancient Mexico -- Reconstructing life in the cities -- Gazetteer -- Map of Mesoamerica -- Further reading -- Notes to the text -- List of illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Index.

ISBN

0500279292

LCCN

^^^96061016^

OCLC

• 36591611
• SCSB-10594649

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library