Ancient civilizations-2

Preclassic and Classic periods

For early prehistory and the beginnings of agriculture, see Christine Niederberger, Zohapilco: Cinco milenios de ocupación humana en un sitio lacustre de la Cuenca de México (1976); and Barbara L. Stark and Barbara Voorhies (eds.), Prehistoric Coastal Adaptations: The Economy and Ecology of Maritime Middle America (1978). General introductions include William T. Sanders and Barbara J. Price, Mesoamerica: The Evolution of a Civilization (1968); Richard E.W. Adams, Prehistoric Mesoamerica (1977); Eric R. Wolf, Sons of the Shaking Earth (1959, reprinted 1974); and Mary W. Helms, Middle America: A Culture History of Heartland and Frontiers (1975, reprinted 1982). For a coordination of regional chronologies within the area, see R.E. Taylor and Clement W. Meighan (eds.), Chronologies in New World Archaeology (1978). Books dealing with Olmec civilization include Michael D. Coe and Richard A. Diehl, In the Land of the Olmec, 2 vol. (1980); Michael D. Coe, David Grove, and Elizabeth P. Benson (eds.), The Olmec & Their Neighbors (1981); and Ignacio Bernal, The Olmec World (1969; originally published in Spanish, 1968). For other cultures of the period, see the general works cited above.