Maya 8E Pa

by Coe,Michael D.

• ISBN13: 9780500289020
• ISBN10: 0500289026
• Edition: 8th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-01-31
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson

Summary

The Maya has long been established as the best, most readable introduction to the New World’s greatest ancient civilization. In these pages Michael D. Coe distills a lifetime’s scholarship for the general reader and student.

The eighth edition incorporates the latest archaeological and epigraphic research. Among the finest new discoveries are the spectacular polychrome murals of Calakmul, which provide archaeological evidence for the importance of marketplaces in the Classic Maya cities as well as giving a unique glimpse into Maya daily life. Other recent finds relate to the initial peopling of the Maya area by Early Hunters and Archaic peoples.

It is clear that the birth of Maya civilization lies not in the Classic but in the Preclassic period, above all in the Mirador Basin of northern Guatemala, where the builders of gigantic ancient cities erected the world’s largest pyramid as early as 200 BC. In addition, the persistent influence of the precocious Olmec civilization of southeast Mexico on the development of complex society in the Maya area has become more apparent. These and other discoveries continue to suggest that we must rethink what we mean by the term “Classic.”

This edition concludes with new historical evidence for the crucial role played by collaborationist native leaders, both Maya and non- Maya, in the Spanish conquest of the region. 20 color and 170 black-and-white photographs and illustrations

"The gold standard of introductory books on the ancient Maya." -Expedition

Author Biography

Michael D. Coe is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Yale University. His many other books include Mexico (with Rex Koontz), The True History of Chocolate (with Sophie D. Coe), Breaking the Maya Code, Reading the Maya Glyphs (with Mark Van Stone) and Angkor and the Khmer Civilization, all published by Thames Hudson.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. 7
Chronological Table	p. 10
Introduction	p. 11
The setting	p. 14
Natural resources	p. 22
Areas	p. 23
Periods	p. 24
Peoples and languages	p. 26
Climate change and its cultural impact	p. 31
The Earliest Maya	p. 41
Early hunters	p. 41
Archaic collectors and cultivators	p. 44
Early Preclassic villages	p. 48
The Middle Preclassic expansion	p. 51
Preclassic Kaminaljuyu	p. 54
The Maya lowlands	p. 56
The Rise of Maya Civilization	p. 60
The birth of the calendar	p. 62
The Hero Twins and the Creation of the World (box)	p. 67
Izapa and the Pacific Coast	p. 69
Kaminaljuyu and the Maya highlands	p. 72
The Peten and the Maya lowlands	p. 79
The Mirador Basin	p. 83
San Bartolo	p. 85
From Preclassic to Classic in the Maya lowlands	p. 88
Classic Splendor: the Early Period	p. 90
Teotihuacan: military giant	p. 92
The Esperanza culture	p. 94
Cerén: a New World Pompeii?	p. 99
Tzakol culture in the Central Area	p. 99
Copan in the Early Classic	p. 109
The Northern Area	p. 113
Classic Splendor: the Late Period	p. 117
Classic sites in the Central Area	p. 118
Copan and Quirigua	p. 121
Tikal	p. 128
Calakmul	p. 131
Yaxchilan, Piedras Negras, and Bonampak	p. 132
The Petexbatun	p. 136
Palenque	p. 137
Comalcalco and Tonina	p. 146
Classic sites in the Northern Area: Río Bec, Chenes, and Coba	p. 147
Art of the Late Classic	p. 149
The Terminal Classic	p. 169
The Great Collapse	p. 169
Ceibal and the Putun Maya	p. 172
Puuk sites in the Northern Area	p. 173
The Terminal Classic at Chichen Itza	p. 178
Ek' Bahlam	p. 180
The Cotzumalhuapa problem	p. 182
The end of an era	p. 184
The Post-Classic	p. 185
The Toltec invasion and Chichen Itza	p. 187
The Itza and the city of Mayapan	p. 201
The independent states of Yucatan	p. 204
The Central Area in the Post-Classic	p. 207
Maya-Mexican dynasties in the Southern Area	p. 207
The Spanish Conquest	p. 210
Maya Life on the Eve of the Conquest	p. 212
The farm and the chase	p. 212
Industry and commerce	p. 214
The life cycle	p. 215
Society and politics	p. 216
Maya Thought and Culture	p. 218
The universe and the gods	p. 221
The earth and the gods	p. 223
The Classic Maya Underworld	p. 226
Rites and ritual practitioners	p. 229
Numbers and the calendar	p. 231
The sun and the moon	p. 233
The celestial wanderers and the stars	p. 235
The nature of Maya writing	p. 237
History graven in stone	p. 242
Maya superstates	p. 246
History and the supernatural	p. 247
Name-tagging	p. 248
Spiritual alter-egos	p. 249
The Enduring Maya	p. 250
The new Spanish order	p. 251
The highland Maya, yesterday and today	p. 253
The Tzotzil Maya of Zinacantan	p. 254
The Yucatec Maya	p. 257
The War of the Castes	p. 257
The Maya of Chan K'om	p. 258
The Lakandon	p. 260
Uprising in Chiapas	p. 260
The great terror	p. 261
The Maya future	p. 262
Visiting the Maya Area	p. 263
Dynastic Rulers of Classic Maya Cities	p. 267
Further Reading	p. 269
Sources of Illustrations	p. 274
Index	p. 275
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.