This book deserves to continue to be read. Fine essays, great pictures and illustrations
This book is a collection of essays honoring the memory of Matthew W. Stirling, the grand man of Olmec archaeology who died in 1975. This book came out in 1981 and while there have been many wonderful advances in the study of the Olmecs and their predecessors these essays and pictures present very well the state of scholarship at the time. The information on Stirling and his career is also quite wonderful. Seeing him with those giant heads in situ is still breathtaking.
We read about iron ore mirrors, implications of sculpture and figurines, what the deliberate defacing of monuments might mean, issues in Olmec iconography, the diets of Mesoamerican peoples over time and in different geographies (sort of like the spread of American civilization might be detected by the spread of Big Mac boxes). I also enjoyed Michael Coe's thoughts about why the Olmec might have picked swampy San Lorenzo for their home.
This is an interesting book and while more recent books, such as John Clark's wonderful "Olmec Art and Archaeology in Mesoamerica", this book deserves its place and to continue to find new readers.
