The purpose of this book is to provide an overview of the great variety of styles, materials and techniques employed in the arts of the different American areas, from prehistory to the sixteenth century, by presenting some of the most significant works that were produced.
Although the selection dedicates more images to the most famous of the pre-Columbian cultures located in Mesoamerica and the Andes, it also takes in numerous other cultures among all of those that occupied the Americas.

For instance, in North America, the book covers the Hopewell, Ancestral Puebloan, Mogollon, Casas Grandes and Mississippian cultures