Civilisations of the Americas — Olmecs, Teotihuacan, Toltecs, Maya, Aztecs, Incas

The chapter opens with the rediscovery of the Maya: in 1839 the American diplomat and writer John Lloyd Stephens set out into the Yucatán jungle with the architect and artist Frederick Catherwood, soon found forty-four sites, and recorded his admiration for the perfection of Maya art in his books. Then comes information on the structure of Maya society — the absence of a central state; king, nobles, priests, warriors, artisans and peasants — and on the roughly 15,000 inscriptions. This part is plain and informative.

The division of Maya history into seven periods is the chapter's most useful part: 3114 BC as the starting point of the Maya calendar, small settlements on the Pacific coast, the rise of great cities such as Tikal and Caracol, the Classic peak of AD 250–800, the collapse of 800–950, Toltec rule at Chichén Itzá and finally the Spanish conquest. The conquest section is especially clear: Hernández de Córdoba mortally wounded by Maya warriors in 1517, Montejo's arrival in 1526–1528, European diseases wiping out 90 per cent of Central America's native population, and Maya resistance continuing in Chiapas to this day.

At the end of the chapter comes the research of University of Arizona archaeologist Takeshi Inomata, based on 154 radiocarbon dates from the Ceibal site: the Maya suffered a collapse not only in the 9th century but also in the 2nd, and both followed the same path — small waves of war and political crisis, large-scale abandonment, partial recovery and renewed collapse. This is the most up-to-date and best-sourced part of the book.

The problem is that between these scientific sections, pseudo-archaeology is presented in the same tone, without any critical note. The section titled «The Fall of Atlantis in the Dresden Codex» speaks of the energy bodies of «celestial beings» from the Pleiades, Sirius and Venus and of «Supreme Human Beings» arriving in Maya lands from Atlantis, and claims that the European phrase «blue blood» comes from the Maya's «blue-coloured sacred ancestors» — when in fact it derives from the Spanish «sangre azul», referring to the veins visible through the pale skin of Spanish nobles. The Toltec chapter likewise presents the idea that the Toltecs came from the sunken continent of Mu or Atlantis as a hypothesis «supported by many archaeologists».

Another example: to show how giant stones were carved, an unnamed «experiment» is described, from which the book concludes that the Maya had «highly advanced tools»; and the origins of Maya writing are pushed back «at least 10,000 years» before 400 BC without any evidence. The section on «Atatürk's Maya–Turkish Dictionary» — Atatürk writing Turkish equivalents next to some 150 words while reading a book on the Maya language — is valuable as a historical curiosity, but the book does not mention that modern linguistics recognises no kinship between the Mayan languages and Turkish.

In the end this is one of the weakest volumes in the series: the chronology and conquest sections are usable, but placing scientific information and mystical claims side by side on the same page, with the same seriousness, can mislead inexperienced readers. For a reliable introduction to Mesoamerica we recommend Michael D. Coe's «The Maya», reviewed on our site.

• Eight chapters with colour illustrations
• Brief marginal biographies
• Author's and translator's bibliographies at the end