America's First Civilization
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3.9 • 28 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Here is the story of America's oldest - and oddest - civilization, the Olmecs of the southern Mexican jungles. Virtually unknown to archaeologists until the early twentieth century, their true importance is only now being realized and shedding new light on how the Indian peoples of the Americas came to be here.
Customer Reviews
An introduction that would benefit from illustrations
The author is a well-known expert in Mesoamerican archaeology, and provides a good, as unbiased as possible overview of the still mysterious first civilization of Mesoamerica, the Olmecs; the probable progenitors of the Maya.
A good deal of the text however, is descriptions of places and artifacts. While one can construct a mental image from this text, it would be so much more useful to have at least some illustrations. The work-around is to keep a browser open while reading, to search for online images of things described in the text.
Fascinating subject!
Not such great writing, and full of ingenious but unsupported conclusions about the Olmecs. Mexico is a magical if troubled kingdom... and certainly maligned.