The First Maya Civilization: Ritual and Power Before the Classic Period / Edition 1

by Francisco Estrada-Belli

Overview

When the Maya kings of Tikal dedicated their first carved monuments in the third century A.D., inaugurating the Classic period of Maya history that lasted for six centuries and saw the rise of such famous cities as Palenque, Copan and Yaxchilan, Maya civilization was already nearly a millennium old. Its first cities, such as Nakbe and El Mirador, had some of the largest temples ever raised in Prehispanic America, while others such as Cival showed even earlier evidence of complex rituals. The reality of this Preclassic Maya civilization has been documented by scholars over the past three decades: what had been seen as an age of simple village farming, belatedly responding to the stimulus of more advanced peoples in highland Mesoamerica, is now know to have been the period when the Maya made themselves into one of the New World's most innovative societies. This book discusses the most recent advances in our knowledge of the Preclassic Maya and the emergence of their rainforest civilization, with new data on settlement, political organization, architecture, iconography and epigraphy supporting a contemporary theoretical perspective that challenges prior assumptions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415429948
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	11/04/2010
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Francisco Estrada-Belli

Table of Contents

1. Maya Civilization in perspective 2. Trajectories of Evolution: Maya Archaeology and the Preclassic Maya 3. Maya States before the Classic Period 4. Planting the seed of civilization: the making of sacred ground 5. Earth-Mountain-Caves and Sky-Serpent-Birds: Metanarratives of Preclassic Maya art 6. The Preclassic - to - Classic Maya transition: a new beginning? 7. Conclusion: A new beginning for Maya studies?

Editorial Reviews

"Francisco Estrada-Belli's new book on the early Maya stems from a decade of excavations and survey by the Holmul Project at Holmul, Cival, La, Sufricaya, and other sites in the northeast Peten of Guatemala...the writing is clear and lively...Estrada-Belli's book contains many valuable and instructive insights and convincing arguments and is well worth reading." – E. Wyllys Andrews, Tulane university, New Orleans, USA.

From the Publisher