The understanding of warfare in ancient Mesoamerica has blossomed in recent years. In this volume, the authors use recent empirical studies to help us understand the patterns and nature of Mesoamerican warfare. Using evidence from ceramics, settlement pattern, epigraphy, ethnohistory, and ethnography, these projects define the martial nature of Mesoamerican societies and link it to ritual, political economy, and other cultural systems. The studies range from preclassic to post-contact and from Belize to Central Mexico. A comparison between this corpus and warfare studies in the American Southwest is also included. This volume will be of interest to Mesoamericanists and other archaeologists, anthropologists, and historians of ancient warfare.

Contributions by: James M. Ambrosino, Traci Ardren, George Bey, M Kathryn Brown, Arlen Chase, Diane Z. Chase, David Freidel, James F. Garber, Charles Golden, Annabeth Headrick, Arthur Joyce, Steven LeBlanc, Barbara MacLeod, Geoffrey McCafferty, Shirley Mock, Jonathon Pagliaro, F Kent Reilly, Payson Sheets, Charles Suhler