The mother culture of Pre Columbian Mesoamerica. A definitive work. While 3500 years ago the few inhabitants of Mexico lived in villages made of huts, the Olmecs started building impressive ceremonial centers with pyramids and colossal stone heads in memory of their rulers. The large carved stone altars served as a place of communication with the underworld. Mesoamerica (i.e. mostly Mexico, but also Guatemala, Belize…) and the Andes are the cradle of the pre-Columbian civilizations. The ancient Olmec civilization has always been considered to be the ‘mother culture’ of the Mesoamerican civilizations. It developed over 2000 years during the period called Formative or Preclassic (1900 BC-100 AD). The Olmecs’ influence was vast and went beyond the main settlements of the Gulf area. Without the Olmecs it would be difficult to understand the Maya and the great Altiplano civilizations, from the Teotihuacan to the Aztecs. Research on the Olmecs has made important steps over the past ten years, and ten years ago María Teresa Uriarte, a leading figure of the UNAM (Autonomous University of Mexico) and former director of the Istituto de Investigaciones Estetica, organized an important evolutionary round table, which changed our knowledge of the Olmec world.

• Contributes from the most acknowledged scholars of Mesoamerican culture
• A work destined to become a reference on the pre-Columbian civilizations and on their art
• Numerous extraordinary color pictures.

An authoritative work targeted at scholars. The extraordinary color iconography makes it also appealing to a larger audience.