A Maya Universe in Stone
A Maya Universe in Stone

Author: Stephen Houston

Publisher: Getty Publications

Published: 2021-12-28

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 1606067451

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The first study devoted to a single sculptor in ancient America, as understood through four unprovenanced masterworks traced to a small sector of Guatemala. In 1950, Dana Lamb, an explorer of some notoriety, stumbled on a Maya ruin in the tropical forests of northern Guatemala. Lamb failed to record the location of the site he called Laxtunich, turning his find into the mystery at the center of this book. The lintels he discovered there, long since looted, are probably of a set with two others that are among the masterworks of Maya sculpture from the Classic period. Using fieldwork, physical evidence, and Lamb’s expedition notes, the authors identify a small area with archaeological sites where the carvings were likely produced. Remarkably, the vividly colored lintels, replete with dynastic and cosmic information, can be assigned to a carver, Mayuy, who sculpted his name on two of them. To an extent nearly unique in ancient America, Mayuy can be studied over time as his style developed and his artistic ambition grew. An in-depth analysis of Laxtunich Lintel 1 examines how Mayuy grafted celestial, seasonal, and divine identities onto a local magnate and his overlord from the kingdom of Yaxchilan, Mexico. This volume contextualizes the lintels and points the way to their reprovenancing and, as an ultimate aim, repatriation to Guatemala.

A Maya Universe in Stone
A Maya Universe in Stone

Author: Stephen Houston

Publisher: Getty Publications

Published: 2021-11-16

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 1606067443

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The first study devoted to a single sculptor in ancient America, as understood through four unprovenanced masterworks traced to a small sector of Guatemala. In 1950, Dana Lamb, an explorer of some notoriety, stumbled on a Maya ruin in the tropical forests of northern Guatemala. Lamb failed to record the location of the site he called Laxtunich, turning his find into the mystery at the center of this book. The lintels he discovered there, long since looted, are probably of a set with two others that are among the masterworks of Maya sculpture from the Classic period. Using fieldwork, physical evidence, and Lamb’s expedition notes, the authors identify a small area with archaeological sites where the carvings were likely produced. Remarkably, the vividly colored lintels, replete with dynastic and cosmic information, can be assigned to a carver, Mayuy, who sculpted his name on two of them. To an extent nearly unique in ancient America, Mayuy can be studied over time as his style developed and his artistic ambition grew. An in-depth analysis of Laxtunich Lintel 1 examines how Mayuy grafted celestial, seasonal, and divine identities onto a local magnate and his overlord from the kingdom of Yaxchilan, Mexico. This volume contextualizes the lintels and points the way to their reprovenancing and, as an ultimate aim, repatriation to Guatemala.

Art and Myth of the Ancient Maya
Art and Myth of the Ancient Maya

Author: Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2017-04-25

Total Pages: 303

ISBN-13: 0300224672

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This nuanced account explores Maya mythology through the lens of art, text, and culture. It offers an important reexamination of the mid-16th-century Popol Vuh, long considered an authoritative text, which is better understood as one among many crucial sources for the interpretation of ancient Maya art and myth. Using materials gathered across Mesoamerica, Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos bridges the gap between written texts and artistic representations, identifying key mythical subjects and uncovering their variations in narratives and visual depictions. Central characters—including a secluded young goddess, a malevolent grandmother, a dead father, and the young gods who became the sun and the moon—are identified in pottery, sculpture, mural painting, and hieroglyphic inscriptions. Highlighting such previously overlooked topics as sexuality and generational struggles, this beautifully illustrated book paves the way for a new understanding of Maya myths and their lavish expression in ancient art.

A Forest of Kings
A Forest of Kings

Author: Linda Schele

Publisher: William Morrow

Published: 1990

Total Pages: 564

ISBN-13:

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The recent interpretation of Maya hieroglyphs has given us the first written history of the New World as it existed before the European invasion. Now, two central figures in the massive effort to decode the glyphs, Linda Schele and David Freidel, make this history available for the first time in all its detail. A Forest of Kings is the story of Maya kingship, from the beginning of its institution and the first great pyramid builders two thousand years ago to the decline of Maya civilization and its destruction by the Spanish. Here the great historic rulers of Precolumbian civilization come to life again with the decipherment of the writing. At its height, Maya civilization flourished under great kings like Shield-Jaguar, who ruled for over sixty years, expanding his kingdom and building some of the most impressive works of architecture in the ancient world. Long placed on a mist-shrouded pedestal as austere, peaceful stargazers, the Maya elites are now known to have been the rulers or populous, aggressive city-states. Hailed as "a Rosetta Stone of Maya civilization" (Brian M. Fagan, author of People of the Earth), A Forest of Kings is "a must for interested readers," says Evon Vogt, professor of anthropology at Harvard University.

The Mayan and Other Ancient Calendars
The Mayan and Other Ancient Calendars

Author: Geoff Stray

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2007-11-06

Total Pages: 68

ISBN-13: 0802716342

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The only small, popular book on the important subject of ancient calendars. The study of heavenly cycles is common to most ancient cultures. The ancient Egyptians, Chinese, and Babylonians all tried to make sense of the year. But it fell to the later Mesoamerican Maya to create a series of calendars that could be cross referenced. In doing so, the Maya discovered many strange numerical harmonics. Their lunar calendar was extremely accurate-far more so than the Greek Metonic cycle; they tracked Venus to an accuracy of less than a day in five hundred years and their tables could have been used to predict eclipses seven hundred years in the future. This book will provide a much needed compact guide to the Mayan calendar systems as well as covering the essentials of calendar development throughout the world.

Stone Houses and Earth Lords
Stone Houses and Earth Lords

Author: Keith M. Prufer

Publisher:

Published: 2005-11-25

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13:

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Stone Houses and Earth Lords is the first volume dedicated exclusively to the use of caves in the Maya Lowlands, covering primarily Classic Period archaeology from A.D. 100 through the Spaniards' arrival. Although the caves that riddled the lowlands show no signs of habitation, most contain evidence of human use - evidence that suggests that they functioned as ritual spaces.

The Fallen Stones
The Fallen Stones

Author: Diana Marcum

Publisher: Little a

Published: 2022-03

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 9781542022859

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On a butterfly farm in the Maya Mountains, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of the national bestseller The Tenth Island finds enduring hope during cataclysmic times. Atop a hill in the rainforest of Belize, next to the ruins of a fallen civilization, a butterfly farm raises the brilliant blue morpho. What starts out as the worst vacation ever turns into a quest to learn more about the first-of-its-kind farm when journalist Diana Marcum inadvertently discovers this wildlife sanctuary, which is supported by an international live-butterfly trade. She quickly becomes acquainted with Clive, the whimsical British millionaire whose childhood passion created an industry, and Sebastian, the Maya farm manager whose stern expression belies a soft heart. Before long Diana and her partner, Jack Moody--new to being a couple--have moved into a long-empty jungle house, cohabitating with bats, scorpions, toucans, iguanas, and the vulnerable but resilient butterflies. Just ahead, although they don't know it, are a hurricane and a global pandemic. This warm, funny tale of finding a way forward when the world seems to be falling apart is filled with the beauty of the natural world and a heartfelt cry to protect it--beginning with butterflies.

Mouths of Stone
Mouths of Stone

Author: Jeffrey Chouinard

Publisher:

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13:

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Mouths of Stone presents a broad overview of ancient Maya civilization -- art, architecture, literature, social structure, religion, culture, history -- as developed from a wide variety of disciplines and sources, including archaeology, iconography, and colonial literature, with special emphasis on recent translations of inscription texts. The book begins by establishing a framework for understanding Maya civilization. It then examines three major Classic period sites and the most salient features of each: the stelae and altars of Copán; the architecture, ornaments, and inscriptions of Palenque; and the sociology, politics, and warfare of Tikal. Each of these sites has contributed enormously to modern understanding of the fascinating culture of Pre-Columbians. Translations of texts at each site bring Maya histories into focus. "With insight, directness, and charm, Jeff Chouinard pulls us into a remarkable world. After laying a groundwork of history, anthropology, and mythology, he concentrates on three important but disparate sites -- Copán, Palenque, and Tikal -- to elaborate what the Maya accomplished, how they did it, why such a successful civilization collapsed, and what we might learn from the Maya today. With the latest discoveries in archaeology, epigraphy, and iconography, the author brings to life a world very different from ours. Mouths of Stone is an interesting and innovative presentation of the ancient Maya, offered in a gracious and eloquent way." -- Gillett G. Griffin, Princeton University Museum of Art