Background
Coe, Michael Douglas was born on May 14, 1929 in New York City. Son of William Rogers and Clover (Simonton) Coe.
(During the mid-eighteenth century, colonists constructed ...)
During the mid-eighteenth century, colonists constructed a line of forts along the northwest boundary of Massachusetts as a defense against the French and their Indian allies. Many of these "forts" were simply reinforced houses. Of the three major forts in the line, one, Fort Massachusetts, is now buried beneath a parking lot in North Adams. Of the two remaining forts, Fort Shirley in the town of Heath was excavated by Michael D. Coe of Yale University; the other, Fort Pelham in Rowe, was excavated by Daniel Ingersoll of the University of Massachusetts. To the casual observer, the sites might not seem significant--but as Coe argues, two circumstances make these forts more important to the study of eighteenth-century life in the American colonies than their modest size would indicate. First, their period of occupation was extremely short: they were built in 1744, abandoned in 1754, and never used again. Thus, they give a unique snapshot of the material culture of the time. Second, the Line of Forts is abundantly documented. The Williams family of western Massachusetts (chief among the "River Gods," the group of elite families who people Coe's story) controlled most of the colony from the Connecticut River valley west to the New York line. The Williamses were the forts' leading officers and ran their commissaries. This powerful family left voluminous documents that provide a unique window into daily life on the Massachusetts frontier and help interpret what was found in the remains of the forts. From Williams family archives and artifacts from Fort Shirley and Fort Pelham, Coe weaves a rich drama. His tale comprises the final standoff between New England's English settlers and Native Americans, the ideological conflict between Calvinistic Protestantism and Roman Catholicism, the occasional frictions between colonial militia and the British regular army, and the larger struggle between England and France for North America.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1584655429/?tag=2022091-20
( "The gold standard of introductory books on the ancient...)
"The gold standard of introductory books on the ancient Maya." ―Expedition The Maya has long been established as the best, most readable introduction to the New World’s greatest ancient civilization. Coe and Houston update this classic by distilling the latest scholarship for the general reader and student. This new edition incorporates the most recent archaeological and epigraphic research, which continues to proceed at a fast pace. Among the finest new discoveries are spectacular stucco sculptures at El Zotz and Holmul, which reveal surprising aspects of Maya royalty and the founding of dynasties. Dramatic refinements in our understanding of the pace of developments of the Maya civilization have led scholars to perceive a pattern of rapid bursts of building and political formation. Other finds include the discovery of the earliest known occupant of the region, the Hoyo Negro girl, recovered from an underwater cavern in the Yucatan peninsula, along with new evidence for the first architecture at Ceibal. 213 illustrations, 28 in color
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0500291888/?tag=2022091-20
(Edition of 1000 copies published. Text on Ancient Maya Wr...)
Edition of 1000 copies published. Text on Ancient Maya Writing and Calligraphy; Funerary Ceramics of the Classic Maya; Symbolism and Ceremonial Paraphernalia; Maya Pottery Texts, etc.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813905680/?tag=2022091-20
(Breaking the Maya Code tells the story of the last great ...)
Breaking the Maya Code tells the story of the last great decipherment of an ancient script. Twenty years ago the ruined monuments of Maya civilization were mute, the hieroglyphic inscriptions on magnificent stelae, temples and palaces largely unread. Today, thanks to an extraordinary scientific breakthrough, these inscribed remains are revealing a history lost to humanity for a millennium. Michael Coe is uniquely placed to give the inside story of this revolution in understanding. Himself a world-renowned Maya scholar, he has known or worked with all the main protagonists over the last thirty years: Yuri Knorosov, the brilliant Russian philologist who opened the way to reading the records; Eric Thompson, the dominant Mayanist of his generation, who vehemently opposed Knorosov; and the succeeding scholars who have vindicated the Russian's pioneer work. Coe interweaves a riveting tale of intellectual attack and counterattack with a full overview of what we now know about the ancient Maya themselves. With 112 illustrations 304 pages.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002DW67PK/?tag=2022091-20
( The breaking of the Maya code has completely changed ou...)
The breaking of the Maya code has completely changed our knowledge of this ancient civilization, and has revealed the Maya people's long and vivid history. Decipherment of Maya hieroglyphic writing has progressed to the point where most Maya written texts―whether inscribed on monuments, written in the codices, or painted or incised on ceramics―can now be read with confidence. In this practical guide, first published in 2001, Michael D. Coe, the noted Mayanist, and Mark Van Stone, an accomplished calligrapher, have made the difficult, often mysterious script accessible to the nonspecialist. They decipher real Maya texts, and the transcriptions include a picture of the glyph, the pronunciation, the Maya words in Roman type, and the translation into English. For the second edition, the authors have taken the latest research and breakthroughs into account, adding glyphs, updating captions, and reinterpreting or expanding upon earlier decipherments. After an introductory discussion of Maya culture and history and the nature of the Maya script, the authors introduce the glyphs in a series of chapters that elaborate on topics such as the intricate calendar, warfare, royal lives and rituals, politics, dynastic names, ceramics, relationships, and the supernatural world. The book includes illustrations of historic texts, a syllabary, a lexicon, and translation exercises. Illustrated in two colors throughout
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0500285535/?tag=2022091-20
( The inside story of one of the great intellectual break...)
The inside story of one of the great intellectual breakthroughs of our time―the first great decipherment of an ancient script―now revised and updated. In the past dozen years, Maya decipherment has made great strides, in part due to the Internet, which has made possible the truly international scope of hieroglyphic scholarship: glyphic experts can be found not only in North America, Mexico, Guatemala, and western Europe but also in Russia and the countries of eastern Europe. The third edition of this classic book takes up the thorny question of when and where the Maya script first appeared in the archaeological record, and describes efforts to decipher its meaning on the extremely early murals of San Bartolo. It includes iconographic and epigraphic investigations into how the Classic Maya perceived and recorded the human senses, a previously unknown realm of ancient Maya thought and perception. There is now compelling documentary and historical evidence bearing on the question of why and how the “breaking of the Maya code” was the achievement of Yuri V. Knorosov―a Soviet citizen totally isolated behind the Iron Curtain―and not of the leading Maya scholar of his day, Sir Eric Thompson. What does it take to make such a breakthrough, with a script of such complexity as the Maya? We now have some answers, as Michael Coe demonstrates here. 112 black-and-white illustrations
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0500289557/?tag=2022091-20
( “A beautifully written . . . and illustrated history of...)
“A beautifully written . . . and illustrated history of the Food of the Gods, from the Olmecs to present-day developments.”―Chocolatier This delightful tale of one of the world’s favorite foods draws on botany, archaeology, and culinary history to present a complete and accurate history of chocolate. It begins some 4,000 years ago in the jungles of Mexico and Central America with the chocolate tree, Theobroma Cacao, and the complex processes necessary to transform its bitter seeds into what is now known as chocolate. This was centuries before chocolate was consumed in generally unsweetened liquid form and used as currency by the Maya and the Aztecs after them. The Spanish conquest of Central America introduced chocolate to Europe, where it first became the drink of kings and aristocrats and then was popularized in coffeehouses. Industrialization in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries made chocolate available to all, and now, in our own time, it has become once again a luxury item. The third edition includes new photographs and revisions throughout that reflect the latest scholarship. A new final chapter on a Guatemalan chocolate producer, located within the Pacific coastal area where chocolate was first invented, brings the volume up-to-date. 97 illustrations, 13 in color
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0500290687/?tag=2022091-20
("A moving autobiography, an exciting account of the redis...)
"A moving autobiography, an exciting account of the rediscovery of vanished civilizations, and unforgettable portraits of the argumentative archaeologists who made those rediscoveries. Enjoy!"—Jared Diamond For more than four decades, Michael Coe has been at the forefront of American archaeology. His research on the Olmecs and the Maya has had a decisive effect on the way we think about Mesoamerican culture, and his acclaimed books have introduced archaeology to a popular audience. Now, in an act of personal excavation, Michael Coe looks back on a remarkably diverse life. For one whose life's work meant overturning many previously held assumptions about the past, Coe's early years were quite traditionally American. The Coes were a well-to-do Long Island family, and Michael was born to a privileged lifestyle. He was an indifferent student in college, and it took some time before he settled on archaeology—time that was occupied by a stint in the CIA, stationed on the China coast and in Taiwan, and travels to Thailand and Sri Lanka. Beginning in 1955, when Coe entered the Graduate School of Harvard University, he committed himself to the civilizations of ancient America. He worked on the front line of a generation of archaeological discovery, research, and interpretation that has profoundly altered and enhanced our vision of ancient Mesoamerica. His quest to penetrate archaeological puzzles and mysteries has led him on some extraordinary adventures: digging in remote Guatemala in grueling conditions; investigating, dating, and defining the little-known Olmec culture. Coe has always had plenty of enthusiasm to spare—for his wife, Sophie, and five children, and the dilapidated Massachusetts farmhouse that they restored; for art collecting; for fly fishing (an obsession that has taken him from the tropics to Siberia); and for travel—to Russia under Brezhnev, to Angkor Wat after the Khmer Rouge. Now, with the publication of his memoirs, the general public will recognize what his colleagues have always known: here is a man of brilliance, humor, and charm, who has lived his life as an ebullient adventure. 41 illustrations.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0500051437/?tag=2022091-20
(Text vol.: 30 pp. with 17 illus., 4to, stiff wrps., laid-...)
Text vol.: 30 pp. with 17 illus., 4to, stiff wrps., laid-in pocket of folio plate vol., Plate vol.: 16 loose color plates in cloth-backed portfolio as issued. 8vo.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0884020630/?tag=2022091-20
( The ancient city of Angkor has fascinated Westerners si...)
The ancient city of Angkor has fascinated Westerners since its rediscovery in the mid-nineteenth century. A great deal is now known about the brilliant Khmer civilization that flourished among the monsoon forests and rice paddies of mainland Southeast Asia, thanks to the pioneering work of French scholars and the application of modern archaeological techniques such as remote sensing from the space shuttle. The classic-period Khmer kings ruled over their part-Hindu and part-Buddhist empire from AD 802 for more than five centuries. This period saw the construction of many architectural masterpieces, including the huge capital city of Angkor, with the awe-inspiring Angkor Wat, the world's largest religious structure. Numerous other provincial centers, bound together by an impressive imperial road system, were scattered across the Cambodian Plain, northeast Thailand, southern Laos, and the Delta of southern Vietnam. Khmer civilization by no means disappeared with the gradual abandonment of Angkor that began in the fourteenth century, and the book's final chapter describes the conversion of the Khmer to a different kind of Buddhism, the move of the capital downriver to the Phnom Penh area, and the reorientation of the Khmer state to maritime trade. Angkor and the Khmer Civilization presents a concise but complete picture of Khmer cultural history from the Stone Age until the establishment of the French Protectorate in 1863, and is lavishly illustrated with maps, plans, drawings, and photographs. Drawing on the latest archaeological research, Michael D. Coe brings to life Angkor's extraordinary society and culture. 130 illustrations, 22 in color
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0500284423/?tag=2022091-20
Coe, Michael Douglas was born on May 14, 1929 in New York City. Son of William Rogers and Clover (Simonton) Coe.
AB, Harvard, 1950; Doctor of Philosophy, Harvard, 1959.
Assistant professor, U. Tennessee, 1958-1960; member of faculty, Yale University, since 1960; professor anthropology, Yale University, 1968-1990; Charles J. MacCurdy professor anthropology, Yale University, 1990-1994; professor emeritus, Yale University, since 1994. Adviser Robert Woods Bliss Collection Pre-Columbian Art, Dumbarton Oaks, Harvard, 1963-1980.
("A moving autobiography, an exciting account of the redis...)
(During the mid-eighteenth century, colonists constructed ...)
( The breaking of the Maya code has completely changed ou...)
( The inside story of one of the great intellectual break...)
(Text, illustrations, and maps survey the history, art, an...)
( The Description for this book, Lords of the Underworld:...)
( The ancient city of Angkor has fascinated Westerners si...)
(Breaking the Maya Code tells the story of the last great ...)
(Hardcover edition of "Ancient America" title in Cultural ...)
( "The gold standard of introductory books on the ancient...)
(Edition of 1000 copies published. Text on Ancient Maya Wr...)
( “A beautifully written . . . and illustrated history of...)
(First Am edition)
(this is new)
( “Masterly. . . . The complexities of Mexico’s ancient c...)
(Text vol.: 30 pp. with 17 illus., 4to, stiff wrps., laid-...)
(240 pp. & 280 illus. (117 in color), 1 map, folio.)
Chairman board directors Planting Fields Foundation, since 1985. President Heath History Society, Massachusetts, 1984—1990. Member advisory board Friends of Khmer Culture, since 2009.
Member of National Academy of Sciences, Society of America Archaeology, Connecticut Academy of Sciences and Engineering, Connecticut Academy Arts and Sciences, Anglers Club New York, Sigma Xi.
Married Sophie Dobzhansky, June 5, 1955. Children: Nicholas, Andrew, Sarah, Peter, Natalie.