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The Olmecs: America's First Civilization (Ancient Peoples and Places) (Hardcover)

by Richard A. Diehl (Author)
3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Review
"'The first truly complete and authoritative account of this 3,000-year-old culture' - Michael D. Coe, Yale University"

Product Description
"The first truly complete and authoritative account of this 3,000-year-old culture."—Michael D. Coe, Yale University

The Olmecs of southern Mexico are 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 centers. Despite well-publicized discoveries of spectacular basalt sculptures, portable jade objects, and richly decorated pottery vessels, until 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 and its impact on later Mexican civilizations.

The Olmecs established the first cities in the Americas on high ground overlooking the rivers that meander across southeastern Mexico's fertile coastal lowlands. Between the thirteenth and sixth centuries BC, rulers of San Lorenzo and La Venta oversaw the construction of palaces, pyramids, plazas, richly stocked tombs, and religious sanctuaries, and commissioned hundreds of sculptures carved from raw basalt. Thousands of Olmec farmers supported themselves and their leaders by growing maize and other domesticated plants. Rulers and priests interceded on behalf of the entire society with the gods and spirits, while merchants ventured into distant lands searching for rare stones, shells, animal pelts, feathers, and exotic foods such as cacao.

The Olmecs presents the first modern overview of information from recent archaeological field projects and studies of Olmec art. Profusely illustrated, it will become the standard work on this enigmatic culture. 155 illustrations, 20 in color.

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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 208 pages
  • Publisher: Thames & Hudson (November 30, 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0500021198
  • ISBN-13: 978-0500021194
  • Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.6 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,137,231 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
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19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended, January 6, 2005
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
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!
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars average, August 3, 2005
By Sky (Mexico) - See all my reviews
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.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars recommended, March 21, 2007
This review is from: The Olmecs: America's First Civilization (Ancient Peoples and Places) (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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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars The Olmecs and the Problem of the Chinese
Richard Diehl's book is an adequate survey of Olmec art and culture. That is, there is nothing special about it, but it's not particularly bad, either. Read more
Published 1 month ago by John David Ebert

1.0 out of 5 stars not recommended
The book is
1st: absolutely poor in the photographs and hand made drawings
2nd: all themes about controverse objects and artifacts are omitted with high accuracy... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Christoph Franke

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Length:: 8:57 Mins
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2.0 out of 5 stars Poorest Graphics!
The photography and graphics in this book are the poorest I have seen in a very long time in books of similar interest. Read more
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5.0 out of 5 stars America's First Civilization
In The Olmecs (2004), Richard Diehl presents a comprehensive summary of the current state of knowledge of America's first civilization. Read more
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