Overview

Many centuries before the rise of the Aztec and Inca civilizations most familiar to modern students of the pre-Columbian New World, the Americas were home to a number of highly advanced peoples. The Olmec, Maya, and other groups in Central America, as well as the Chavín of the Andes, were civilized in the truest sense of the word—in other words, they built cities. The splendor of their achievements becomes all the more impressive when considered in light of their technological limitations.

Background

Whereas the Olmec of Mesoamerica (archaeologists' term for ancient Central America) dwelled in a land of steaming rain forests and lush, vegetation-covered mountains, the Andean home of the Chavín peoples far to the south was rocky and dry. Despite these differences in environment, however, the two groups had much in common, not least of which was...