This handsomely illustrated book offers a panoramic view of ancient Mexico, beginning more than thirty thousand years ago and ending with European occupation in the sixteenth century. Drawing on archaeological and ethnohistorical sources, the book is one of the first to offer a unified vision of Mexico's precolonial past.

Typical histories of Mexico focus on the prosperity and accomplishments of Mesoamerica, located in the southern half of Mexico, due to the wealth of records about the glorious past of this region. Mesoamerica was only one of three cultural superareas of ancient Mexico, however, all interlinked by complex economic and social relationships.

Tracing the large social transformations that took place from the earliest hunter-gatherer times to the Postclassic states, the authors describe the ties between the three superareas of ancient Mexico, which stretched from present-day Costa Rica to what is now the southwestern United States. According to the authors, these superareas-Mesoamerica, Aridamerica, and Oasisamerica-cannot be viewed as independent entities. Instead, they must be considered as a whole to understand the complex reality of Mexico's past and possible visions of Mexico's future.

Lopez Lujan, Leonardo

Leonardo López Luján, Senior Researcher and Professor of Archaeology at Museo del Templo Mayor, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, is the author of several books on the archaeology of Central Mexico, includingThe Offerings of the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan.

Ortiz De Montellano, Bernard R.

Bernard R. Ortiz de Montellano is the translator of Mexico's Indigenous Past and cotranslator of Myths of Ancient Mexico.

Lopez Austin, Alfredo

Alfredo López Austin, Emeritus Researcher and Professor of History at Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, is the author of numerous books on ancient Mexico, including Tamoanchan, Tlalocan: Places of Mist.