The early Olmec and Mesoamerica : the material record / [edited by] Jeffrey P. Blomster, George Washington University, David Cheetham, Brigham Young University and Arizona State University
ANTH copy Purchased from the Jean Axelrod Acquisitions Endowment.
Contents:
Materializing the San Lorenzo Olmecs / David Cheetham and Jeffrey P. Blomster -- Defining early Olmec style pottery: techniques, forms, and motifs at San Lorenzo / Jeffrey P. Blomster, David Cheetham, Rosemary A. Joyce, and Christopher A. Pool -- An early horizon manifestation in the San Lorenzo countryside / Carl J. Wendt -- An early Olmec manifestation in western Olman: the arroyo phase at Tres Zapotes / Christopher A. Pool, Ponciano Ortiz Ceballos, Maria del Carmen Rodriguez, Erin L. Sears, Ronald L. Bishop, and M. James Blackman -- Early horizon materials in the greater basin of Mexico and Guerrero / Louise I. Paradis -- Materializing the early Olmec style in the Nochixtlan Valley, Oaxaca / Jeffrey P. Blomster -- Early Olmec style ceramics from the southern Isthmus of Tehuantepec / Marcus Winter, Victor Manuel Zapien Lopez, and Alma Zarai Montiel Angeles -- Ceramic vessel form similarities between San Lorenzo, Veracruz, and Canton Corralito, Chiapas / David Cheetham and Michael D. Coe -- "Olmec" pottery in Honduras / Rosemary A. Joyce and John S. Henderson -- Figuring out the early Olmec era / Barbara L. Stark
Summary:
"The Early Formative Olmec are central in a wide variety of debates regarding the development of Mesoamerican societies. A fundamental issue in Olmec archaeology is the nature of interregional interaction among contemporaneous societies and the possible Olmec role in it. Previous debates have often not been informed by recent research and data, often relying on materials lacking archaeological context. In order to approach these issues from new perspectives, this book introduces readers to the full spectrum of the material culture of the Olmec and their contemporaries, relying primarily on archaeological data, much of which has not been previously published. For the first time, using a standard lexicon to consider the nature of the interaction among Early Formative societies, the authors, experts in diverse regions of Mesoamerican art and archaeology, provide carefully considered contrasts and comparisons that advance the understanding of the Early Formative origins of social complexity in Mesoamerica."-- Publisher's website.
