gems, jade, jadeite, fei cui, Mesoamerica, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Mayans, Olmecs, Aztecs, archaeology, history, archaeogemology

Fifteen hundred years ago, Teotihuacan was one of the world’s great cities. Some 200,000 people lived in this ancient metropolis, with its massive pyramids, public buildings, wide avenues, and magnificent murals and sculptures. Then, in the eighth century, there was a mysterious collapse. Even knowledge of the original name was lost: Teotihuacan, “Place” or “City of the Gods,” was a title bestowed by the Aztecs six hundred years later. Originally published in conjunction with a major exhibition organized by The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, this seminal volume brings together for the first time the results of unprecedented research over the last two decades. A splendid array of rarely seen masterpieces, selected from Mexico’s national collections and from museums in America and Europe, includes austere greenstone masks and elegant polished blackware as well as elaborate murals depicting gods and serpents and the intricate glyphs found on luxury ceramics and censers.