Michael D. Coe > Quotes

“The Olmec civilization was truly the first in Mesoamerica.”
― Michael D. Coe, America's First Civilization

“Covarrubias began proclaiming, like Caso, that Olmec was the “mother culture” of Mesoamerica.”
― Michael D. Coe, America's First Civilization

“Briefly, the Long Count consists of a tabulation of days elapsed since the supposed inception of the calendar, the total being expressed as so many cycles of differing magnitudes. The largest of these cycles is the baktun, containing 144,000 days; next, the katun, 7,200 days; then the tun, with 360 days; the uinal, with 20; and the smallest of all, always at the bottom of the column, the kin of one day. Each of these in the days of Maya ascendancy was shown with its own hieroglyph, while to its left stood the coefficient by which it was to be multiplied.”
― Michael D. Coe, America's First Civilization

“Nahuatl has greatly enriched Mexican Spanish with loan words, and has contributed such words as ocelot, coyote, tomato, chocolate, tamale, and copal to the English language.”
― Michael D. Coe, Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs