This guide, the product of a collaboration between the Museu Barbier-Mueller in Geneva, the Institut de Cultura in Barcelona, and Skira publishers in Milan, not only analyses the origins and the decline of the great ancient American civilisations (Mayas, Aztecs, Incas, etc.), but also examines cultures which are less well-known to the general public. Detailed geographical maps, photographs of archaeological sites, and even some drawings, help to explain the stone and wooden sculptures, ceramics, gold and silver jewellery, fabrics, and other works of art (some of which are two or three thousand years old) which have been selected from the rich collections of the Museu Barbier-Mueller of pre-Columbian art at Barcelona.