"This catalogue was published by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on the occasion of the exhibition Olmec: Colossal Masterworks of Ancient Mexico"--Colophon.

Olmec Archaeology and Early Mesoamerica offers the most thorough and up-to-date book-length treatment of Olmec society and culture available.

Archaeological settlement patterns—the ways in which ancient people distributed themselves across a natural and cultural landscape—provide the central theme for this long-overdue update to our understanding of the Mexican Gulf lowlands Olmec to Aztec offers the only recent treatment of the region that considers its entire prehistory from the second millennium B.C. to A.D. 1519. The editors have assembled a distinguished group of international scholars, several of whom here provide the first widely available English-language account of ongoing research. Several studies present up-to-date syntheses of the archaeological record in their respective areas. Other chapters provide exciting new data and innovative insights into future directions in Gulf lowland archaeology. Olmec to Aztec is a crucial resource for archaeologists working in Mexico and other areas of Latin America. Its contributions help dispel long-standing misunderstandings about the prehistory of this region and also correct the sometimes overzealous manner in which cultural change within the Gulf lowlands has been attributed to external forces. This important book clearly demonstrates that the Gulf lowlands played a critical role in ancient Mesoamerica throughout the entirety of pre-Columbian history.

Twenty-one papers on the Olmec were written for this volume in tribute to Matthew W. Stirling, "pioneer archaeologist, ethnologist, and the discoverer of the Olmec civilization."

Fourteen Olmec specialists discuss not only the works of art but also the many recent finds, that provide insights into Mexico's most ancient culture, as well as its cultural history, cosmology, and daily life. Colour photos. Quarto.

Examines Olmec art, society, and religious beliefs. Traces the efflorescence and decline of the Olmecs, but insists on the basic unity of all Mesoamerican civilization.

A survey of the Olmec culture and people which flourished in Mesoamerica's Formative, or Preclassical, period--from 2,000 B.C. to A.D. 100.