An Unconventional History
What a great book! Grove, an archaeologist who has spent his professional career doing fieldwork in Mesoamerica, has produced an eminently readable account of the Olmec, one of the most well-publicized yet least well-known cultures of pre-Hispanic Mexico. Highly recommended. * Choice *
David C. Grove is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has carried out archaeological research in Mexico for fifty years and is best known for his investigations at the Olmec-related site of Chalcatzingo, Morelos. Grove is a recipient of the American Anthropological Associations Alfred Vincent Kidder Award for Eminence in the Field of American Archaeology, a past president of the Archaeology Division of the American Anthropological Association, and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He lives in Gainesville, Florida, where he is Courtesy Professor of Anthropology at the University of Florida.
Preface Chapter 1. The Olmecs Come to Light Chapter 2. The Tulane Expedition and the Olmec World (19251926) Chapter 3. The First Excavations: Tres Zapotes (19381940) Chapter 4. Stone Heads in the Jungle (1940) Chapter 5. Fortuitous Decisions at La Venta (19421943) Chapter 6. Monuments on the Ro Chiquito (19451946) Chapter 7. The Return to La Venta (1955) Chapter 8. Of Monuments and Museums (1963, 1968) Chapter 9. Adding Antiquity to the Olmecs (19661968) Chapter 10. Research Headaches at La Venta (19671969) Chapter 11. Reclaiming La Venta (1984 to the Present) Chapter 12. San Lorenzo Yields New Secrets (19902012, Part 1) Chapter 13. El Manat: Like Digging in Warm Jell-O (19871993) Chapter 14. "They're Blowing Up the Site!" Tres Zapotes after Stirling (19502003) Chapter 15. An Olmec Stone Quarry and a Sugarcane Crisis (1991) Chapter 16. Discoveries Large and Small at San Lorenzo (19902012, Part 2) Chapter 17. The Night the Lights Went Out (2001) Chapter 18. Some Thoughts on the Archaeology of the Olmecs Bibliographic Essay Index