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 he 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 should be of interest to Mesoamericanists and other archaeologists, anthropologists and historians of ancient warfare.