Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs Book

	Preface	7
	Chronological Table	9
1	Introduction	11
	The geographic setting	12
	Languages and peoples	16
	Periods	18
2	Early Hunters	20
3	The Archaic Period	28
	The Desert Culture in North America	28
	The origins of Mexican cultivated plants	29
	The importance of maize	30
	Other cultigens	33
	Caves and rockshelters of northeastern Mexico	34
	Santa Marta rockshelter	35
	The Tehuacan Valley	36
	Other Archaic sites	39
	The Archaic period and the origins of settled life	39
4	The Preclassic Period: Early Villagers	41
	The Early Preclassic in Chiapas	43
	Early Preclassic villagers in Oaxaca	45
	The site of Tlatilco	46
	Established villages of the Middle Preclassic	51
	Late Preclassic cultures of the central highlands	52
	The Mezcala puzzle	55
	The shaft-tomb art of western Mexico	56
5	The Preclassic Period: Early Civilizations	59
	Background of civilized life	59
	The Olmec civilization	60
	The San Lorenzo Olmec	66
	El Manati	70
	The Olmec of La Venta	70
	Tres Zapotes and the Long Count calendar	74
	The Olmecs beyond the heartland	77
	Early Zapotec civilization	81
	Izapan civilization	86
	La Mojarra and the Isthmian script	87
6	The Classic Period	89
	Rise of the great civilizations	89
	The urban civilization of Teotihuacan	91
	The Great Pyramid of Cholula	106
	The Maya connection: Cacaxtla and Xochicalco	107
	Cerro de las Mesas	113
	The Classic Veracruz civilization	115
	Remojadas potters	119
	Classic Monte Alban	120
	The Classic downfall	126
7	The Post-Classic Period: the Toltec State	129
	A time of troubles	129
	The northern barbarians	130
	Tula and the Toltecs	131
	Archaeological Tula	134
	Tula and Chichen Itza	143
	The 'Turquoise Road'	144
8	The Post-Classic Period: Rival States	149
	Late Zapotec culture at Mitla	149
	The Mixtecs	150
	The Tarascan kingdom	154
	The rise of the Aztec state	157
	The consolidation of Aztec power	160
9	The Aztecs in 1519	163
	The island city	163
	Aztec society	167
	The long-distance merchants	168
	Becoming an Aztec	169
	Marriage	170
	The Triple Alliance and the Empire	171
	The emperor and the palace	172
	Food and agriculture	174
	War and human sacrifice	175
	Aztec religion	177
	Aztec art and architecture	185
	Aztec thought and literature	192
	Epilogue	197
	The Spanish Conquest	197
	New Spain and the Colonial world	200
	The 'ladinoization' of Mexico	202
	Aftermath	202
	Reigning Monarchs of the Aztec State	204
	Text References	204
	Further Reading	205
	List of Illustrations	209
	Index	212