The Maya, Aztecs and Inca
The Olmec background, Maya city-states, writing and its decipherment, the calendar and astronomy, the Classic Maya collapse, Teotihuacan, the Mexica and Tenochtitlan, tribute and religion, the Inca rise under Pachacuti, roads, quipu record-keeping and Machu Picchu, Spanish conquest, epidemics, and Indigenous survival.
Empires without iron or wheels
Mesoamerican and Andean civilisations developed independently of Afro-Eurasia, without iron tools or wheeled transport, yet built cities as large as any in the world. Maya writing was largely deciphered in the late 20th century, after Yuri Knorozov's 1952 work showed it was partly phonetic. The Inca kept records on quipu, knotted cords, whose numerical codes are understood but whose possible narrative content is debated.
Michael Coe, Breaking the Maya Code (1992) and The Maya (9th ed., 2015); Michael Smith, The Aztecs (3rd ed., 2012); Terence D'Altroy, The Incas (2nd ed., 2014); Charles Mann, 1491 (2005).