Death and the Classic Maya Kings

by Fitzsimmons, James L.

• ISBN13: 9780292718906
• ISBN10: 029271890X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-01-01
• Publisher: Univ of Texas Pr

Summary

Like their regal counterparts in societies around the globe, ancient Maya rulers departed this world with elaborate burial ceremonies and lavish grave goods, which often included ceramics, red pigments, earflares, stingray spines, jades, pearls, obsidian blades, and mosaics. Archaeological investigation of these burials, as well as the decipherment of inscriptions that record Maya rulers' funerary rites, have opened a fascinating window on how the ancient Maya envisaged the ruler's passage from the world of the living to the realm of the ancestors. Focusing on the Classic Period (AD 250-900), James Fitzsimmons examines and compares textual and archaeological evidence for rites of death and burial in the Maya lowlands, from which he creates models of royal Maya funerary behavior. Exploring ancient Maya attitudes toward death expressed at well-known sites such as Tikal, Guatemala, and Copan, Honduras, as well as less-explored archaeological locations, Fitzsimmons reconstructs royal mortuary rites and expands our understanding of key Maya concepts including the afterlife and ancestor veneration.

Table of Contents

A Note on Orthography

Acknowledgments

Celebrations for the Dead

Anthropology and Death Rituals

The Classic Maya Case

Methodological Concerns

Kingship and the Ancestors

Death and the Afterlife in the Lowlands

EarthMaize

MortalityWriting DeathT

he Self and the Soul

Breaths of Life and DeathWay

To the Afterlife

Celestial Bodies and Maize Gods

Royal Funerals

Waiting for Interment

GravemakersTombs as Underworld Surfaces

Tombs as CavesTombs as Houses

Timing and the Ritual Process

Embalming and Processing

Dressing and Bundling the Corpse

PaintingArranging the Body, Arranging the Furniture

Sealing the Tomb

Death and Landscape

K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo'

Lowland Founders and Local Variations

Cults of Personality

Bird Jaguar IV

Gods and Orchards at Palenque

Souls within Buildings

Ancestor Shrines

Entering the Tombs of the Classic Maya Kings

Patterns of Reentry at Piedras Negras

Fire in the Motmot Burial

Fire and History at Tonina

Family AffairsFalse Reentry

Painting, Drilling, and Bone Peeling

The Portable Dead

The Dead King and the Body Politic

Royal Funerals: Public or Private?

Bodies and Monuments

Corpses, Souls, and Mourners in Transition

Guide to Appendixes

Burial Structures and Contexts

Body Preparations and Funerary Activities

Grave Goods

Notes

References

Index

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