Author: Susan Milbrath
Publisher: Dumbarton Oaks
ISBN: 9780884020936
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 84

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Author: C. William Clewlow
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Indian sculpture
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Author: Carl William Clewlow (Jr)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Author: Carl William Clewlow
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Author: David C. Grove
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 0292768303
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
An “eminently readable account” of this ancient Mesoamerican civilization—and the experiences of the archaeologists who have unearthed its history (Choice). The Olmecs are renowned for their massive carved stone heads and other sculptures, the first stone monuments produced in Mesoamerica. Seven decades of archaeological research have given us many insights into the lifeways of the Olmecs, who inhabited parts of the modern Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco from around 1150 to 400 BC, and there are several good books that summarize the current interpretations of Olmec prehistory. But these formal studies don’t describe the field experiences of the archaeologists who made the discoveries. What was it like to endure the Olmec region’s heat, humidity, mosquitoes, and ticks to bring that ancient society to light? How did unforeseen events and luck alter carefully planned research programs and the conclusions drawn from them? And, importantly, how did local communities and individuals react to the research projects and discoveries in their territories? In this engaging book, a leading expert on the Olmecs tells those stories from his own experiences and those of his predecessors, colleagues, and students. Beginning with the first modern explorations in the 1920s, David Grove recounts how generations of archaeologists and local residents have uncovered the Olmec past and pieced together a portrait of this ancient civilization that left no written records. The stories are full of fortuitous discoveries and frustrating disappointments, helpful collaborations and deceitful shenanigans. What emerges is an unconventional history of Olmec archaeology, a lively introduction to archaeological fieldwork, and an exceptional overview of all that we currently know about the Olmecs.

Author: Karl A. Taube
Publisher: Dumbarton Oaks
ISBN: 9780884022756
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Olmec Art at Dumbarton Oaks presents the Olmec portion of the Robert Woods Bliss Collection of Pre-Columbian Art. It illustrates all thirty-nine Olmec art objects in color plates and includes many complementary and comparative black-and-white illustrations and drawings. The body of Pre-Columbian art that Robert Bliss carefully assembled over a half-century between 1912 and 1963, amplified only slightly since his death, is a remarkably significant collection. In addition to their aesthetic quality and artistic significance, the objects hold much information regarding the social worlds and religious and symbolic views of the people who made and used them before the arrival of Europeans in the New World. This volume is the second in a series of catalogues that will treat objects in the Bliss Pre-Columbian Collection. The majority of the Olmec objects in the collection are made of jade, the most precious material for the peoples of ancient Mesoamerica from early times through the sixteenth century. Various items such as masks, statuettes, jewelry, and replicas of weapons and tools were used for ceremonial purposes and served as offerings. Karl Taube brings his expertise on the lifeways and beliefs of ancient Mesoamerican peoples to his study of the Olmec objects in teh Bliss collection. His understanding of jade covers a broad range of knowledge from chemical compositions to geological sources to craft technology to the symbolic power of the green stone. Throughout the book the author emphasizes the role of jade as a powerful symbol of water, fertility, and particularly, of the maize plant which was the fundamental source of life and sustenance for the Olmec. The shiny green of the stone was analogous to the green growth of maize. This fundamental concept was elaborated in specific religious beliefs, many of which were continued and elaborated by later Mesoamerican peoples, such as the Maya. Karl Taube employs his substantial knowledge of Pre-Columbian cultures to explore and explicate Olmec symbolism in this catalogue.

Author: Ignacio Bernal
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520028913
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
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.

Author: Robert J. Sharer
Publisher: CUP Archive
ISBN: 9780521363327
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Author: Julia Guernsey
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107012465
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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This book examines the functions of sculpture during the Preclassic period in Mesoamerica and its significance in statements of social identity. Julia Guernsey situates the origins and evolution of monumental stone sculpture within a broader social and political context and demonstrates the role that such sculpture played in creating and institutionalizing social hierarchies. This book focuses specifically on an enigmatic type of public, monumental sculpture known as the "potbelly" that traces its antecedents to earlier, small domestic ritual objects and ceramic figurines. The cessation of domestic rituals involving ceramic figurines along the Pacific slope coincided not only with the creation of the first monumental potbelly sculptures, but with the rise of the first state-level societies in Mesoamerica by the advent of the Late Preclassic period. The potbellies became central to the physical representation of new forms of social identity and expressions of political authority during this time of dramatic change.