Mexican Highland Cultures

Presents the broad picture and analysis of excavations at three cultural centers in central Mexico.

This classic work published in 1942, ten years after archaeological excavations were begun in the Valley of Mexico by Linn 's team, presents additional data that had not been fully detailed in the previously published Archaeological Researches at Teotihuacan. It provides comparative information on the high-status ruins situated on the fringes of the Valley of Mexico and excavation results from a compound within the city of Teotihuacan. This information is of critical use to archaeologists still excavating at Teotihuacan in projecting compound extent, types of artifacts expected to be discovered, and patterns of artifacts to be found in particular types of rooms. The characteristics of burials is also explored.

This book, along with its predecessor, is an important primary resource for Americanists. Staffan Brunius's foreword offers a broad background of Linn 's life and work. The introduction by George Cowgill focuses more specifically on the conduct and impact of the archaeological exavations.

G. C. Vaillant has stated, "The greatest achievement of Dr. Linn from the viewpoint of the general student is the presentation of a technical field excavation in such terms that anyone can follow his text and see the relationship between the details of position of specimens and the larger problems of history and anthropology."

Sigvald Linn was Professor of Ethnography at the University of Stockholm and Director of the Swedish National Museum of Ethnography until 1969. He published several other books, including The Technique of South American Ceramics. Staffan Brunius is Curator of the Americas at the National Museum of Ethnography in Stockholm. George L. Cowgill is Professor of Anthropology at Arizona State University and coeditor of The Collapse of Ancient States and Civilizations.

Additional reviews:

This book . . . makes Linne's work widely available again to those interested and may prompt a new generation of specialists to examine the original material either in Stockholm's National Museum of Ethnography, Mexico's Museo Nacional de Antropologia or the Teotihuacan site itself. Testament to the lasting value of Linne's work is given in a succinct and helpful new introduction by anthropologist George L. Cowgill. A more recent curator of the Americas at Stockholm's ethnographical museum, Steffan Brunius, also chips in with a brief contextualization of Linne's work against the background of the early Swedish-American tradition.--The Historian