Title:
The Maya
Author:
ISBN:
9780500285053
Edition:
7th ed., fully rev. and expanded.
Publication Information:
New York : Thames and Hudson, c2005.
Physical Description:
272 p. : ill. (some col.), maps ; 25 cm.
General Note:
"With 186 illustrations, 20 in color."
Contents:
Chronological table -- 1. Introduction -- The setting -- Natural resources -- Areas -- Periods -- Peoples and languages -- Climate change and its cultural impact -- 2. The earliest Maya -- Early hunters -- Archaic collectors and cultivators -- Early preclassic villages -- The middle preclassic expansion -- Preclassic Kaminaljuyu -- The May lowlands -- 3. The rise of Maya civilization -- The birth of the calendar -- The Hero Twins and the creation of the world -- Izapa and the Pacific coast -- Kaminaljuyu and the Maya highlands -- The Peten and the Maya lowlands -- The Mirador basin -- San Bartolo -- From preclassic to classic in the Maya lowlands -- 4. Classic splendor : the early period -- Teotihuacan : military giant -- The Esperanza culture -- Tzak'ol culture in the central area -- Copan in the early classic -- The Northern area -- 5. Classic splendor : the late period -- Classic sites in the central area -- Copan and Quirigua Tikal -- Calakmul -- Yaxchilan, Piedras Negras, and Bonampak -- The Petexbatun -- Palenque -- Comalcalco and Tonina -- Classic sites in the northern area : Río Bec, Chenes, and Coba -- Art of the late classic -- 6. The terminal classic -- The great collapse -- Seibal and the Putun Maya -- Puuk sites in the northern area -- The terminal classic at Chichen Itza -- Ek' Bahlam -- The Cotzumalhuapa problem -- The end of an era -- 7. The post-classic -- The Toltec invasion and Chichen Itza -- The Itza and the city of Mayapan -- The independent states of Yucatan -- The central area in the post-classic -- Maya-Mexican dynasties in the southern area -- The Spanish conquest -- 8. Maya life on the eve of the conquest -- The farm and the chase -- Industry and commerce -- The life cycle -- Society and politics -- 9. Maya thought and culture -- The universe and the gods -- The earth and the gods -- The classic Maya underworld -- Rites and ritual practitioners -- Numbers and the calendar -- The sun and the moon -- The celestial wanderers and the stars -- The nature of Maya writing -- History graven in stone -- Maya superstates -- History and the supernatural -- Name-tagging -- Spiritual alter-egos -- 10. The enduring Maya -- The new Spanish order -- The highland Maya, yesterday and today -- The Tzotzil Maya of Zinacantan -- The Yucatec Maya -- The war of the Castes -- The Maya of Chan K'om -- The Lakandon -- Uprising in Chiapas -- The great terror -- The Maya future -- Visiting the Maya area -- Dynastic rulers of classic Maya cities.
Summary:
The Maya has long been established as the best, most readable introduction to the New World's greatest ancient civilization. In its pages Professor Coe distills a lifetime's scholarship for the general reader and student, presenting the latest findings, most exciting scholarship and freshest perspectives on Maya culture. Since the publication of the previous edition, new sites have been uncovered and further excavations in old sites have proceeded at an unprecedented pace. New epigraphic, archaeological and osteological research has thrown light on the identity of the "founding fathers'' of such great sites as Tikal and Copan, and their close affiliation with Teotihuacan. The previously little-known centre of Ek' Bahlam in northeastern Yucatan has emerged as a regional kingdom of major importance, with extraordinary stucco reliefs and a plethora of painted inscriptions. This seventh edition also presents new evidence for the use of wetlands by the Classic Maya, and fresh perspectives on the catastrophic demise of Classic civilization by the close of the ninth century. A new edition of an accessible introduction to the ancient New World civilization incorporates the latest archaeological findings, including the discoveries of San Bartolo murals, new information about the founders of the Tikal and Copan communities, and the regional significance of the Ek' Balam kingdom.
