Download or read book The Origins of Maya States written by Loa P. Traxler and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 704 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Rather than unified into a single state, the Pre-Columbian Maya were organized into a series of independent kingdoms or polities. The vast majority of studies of Maya states focus on the apogee of their development in the Classic period, ca. 250-850 CE. In fact, Maya states are defined by the specific political structures that characterized Classic period lowland Maya society. The Origins of Maya States is the first study in over 30 years to specifically examine the origins and development of these states during the preceding Preclassic period, ca. 1000 BCE to 250 CE. Coverage includes material signatures for the development of Maya states, evaluations of extant models for the emergence of Maya states, and advancement of new models based on recent archaeological data. Attempts to understand the origins of Maya states cannot escape the limitations of archaeological data, and this is complicated by both the variability of Maya states in time and space, and the interplay between internal development and external impacts. To mitigate these factors, The Origins of Maya States combines an examination of topical issues with regional perspectives from both the Maya area and neighboring Mesoamerican regions to highlight the role of interregional interaction in the evolution of Maya states. At the core of the study the development of complexity during the Preclassic era is discussed within the Maya regions of the Pacific coast, highlands, and lowlands. This is followed by studies of Preclassic economic, social, political, and ideological systems to provide a developmental context for the origins of Maya states"--Provided by publisher.

Download or read book The Popol Vuh written by Lewis Spence and published by New York : AMS Press. This book was released on 1908 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Ancient Maya written by Arthur Demarest and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2004-12-09 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ancient Maya comes to life in this new holistic and theoretical study.

Download or read book Mayan Civilization written by Henry Freeman and published by . This book was released on 2019-04-23 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Making sense of our universe...It's an age-old practice that transcends cultures and generations. From our vantage point, the larger than life Maya civilization grappled with the urge in a grand scale. Join us as we take a voyage to understand the ways of the Maya. Inside you will read about... ✓ Who Made Contact? Early Explorers and their Impact ✓ How the Maya Wanted to Be Represented - History Written by the Victors ✓ Different Periods of Maya History ✓ Larger Than Life ✓ New Findings We'll learn what they held as sacred, how the sacred manifested itself in their lives, and about efforts to accurately portray them, despite romanticized versions. This eBook provides a deeper look at their pre-Columbian battling dynasties and their highly-structured approach to religion, science and society, as we explore their glories and misfortunes.

Download or read book The Conquest of the Last Maya Kingdom written by Grant D. Jones and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 602 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On March 13, 1697, Spanish troops from Yucatán attacked and occupied Nojpeten, the capital of the Maya people known as Itzas, the inhabitants of the last unconquered native New World kingdom. This political and ritual center--located on a small island in a lake in the tropical forests of northern Guatemala--was densely covered with temples, royal palaces, and thatched houses, and its capture represented a decisive moment in the final chapter of the Spanish conquest of the Mayas. The capture of Nojpeten climaxed more than two years of preparation by the Spaniards, after efforts by the military forces and Franciscan missionaries to negotiate a peaceful surrender with the Itzas had been rejected by the Itza ruling council and its ruler Ajaw Kan Ek’. The conquest, far from being final, initiated years of continued struggle between Yucatecan and Guatemalan Spaniards and native Maya groups for control over the surrounding forests. Despite protracted resistance from the native inhabitants, thousands of them were forced to move into mission towns, though in 1704 the Mayas staged an abortive and bloody rebellion that threatened to recapture Nojpeten from the Spaniards. The first complete account of the conquest of the Itzas to appear since 1701, this book details the layers of political intrigue and action that characterized every aspect of the conquest and its aftermath. The author critically reexamines the extensive documentation left by the Spaniards, presenting much new information on Maya political and social organization and Spanish military and diplomatic strategy. This is not only one of the most detailed studies of any Spanish conquest in the Americas but also one of the most comprehensive reconstructions of an independent Maya kingdom in the history of Maya studies. In presenting the story of the Itzas, the author also reveals much about neighboring lowland Maya groups with whom the Itzas interacted, often violently.

Download or read book Architecture and the Origins of Preclassic Maya Politics written by James Doyle and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-24 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the emergence of political institutions in Maya civilization through studies of landscape, architecture and material culture.

Download or read book The Ancient Maya written by Robert J. Sharer and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 992 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of Archaic and Early Preclassic developments -- Patterns in the evolution of Mesoamerican civilization -- 5. The emergence of Maya civilization in the Middle Preclassic -- The emergence of complex societies -- Markers of complex societies -- The Pacific plain in the Middle Preclassic -- Middle Preclassic commodities and monuments -- The highlands in the Middle Preclassic -- The lowlands in the Middle Preclassic -- Middle Preclassic communities -- The rise of complex society in the lowlands -- Further Middle Preclassic developments in the lowlands -- Summary : the Middle Preclassic precursors of Maya civilization -- 6. The origins of Maya states in the Late Preclassic -- Late Preclassic Maya civilization and writing traditions-- The Late Preclassic Isthmian tradition -- The Late Preclassic Southern Maya -- Highland-lowland interaction in the Preclassic -- The Maya lowlands in the Late Preclassic -- Patterns of Late Preclassic rulership -- Preclassic developments in the Northern lowlands -- Late Preclassic lowland Maya civilization -- Decline in the terminal Preclassic -- Summary : reconstructing the Maya Preclassic -- 7. The expansion of Maya states in the Early Classic -- The Early Classic and the origins of Maya civilization -- The Southern Maya area in the Classic Period -- The Classic transition in the lowlands -- The expansion of states in the Maya lowlands -- Competition and warfare in the Classic lowlands -- The Early Classic in the Maya lowlands -- The rise of Tikal in the Early Classic (ca. 100-378) -- Neighboring centers in the central lowlands (ca. 328-416).

Download or read book The First Maya Civilization written by Francisco Estrada-Belli and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-11-08 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book The Maya A Very Short Introduction written by Matthew Restall and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-21 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Maya forged one of the greatest societies in the history of the ancient Americas and in all of human history. Long before contact with Europeans, Maya communities built spectacular cities with large, well-fed large populations. They mastered the visual arts, and developed a sophisticated writing system that recorded extraordinary knowledge in calendrics, mathematics, and astronomy. The Maya achieved all this without area-wide centralized control. There was never a single, unified Maya state or empire, but always numerous, evolving ethnic groups speaking dozens of distinct Mayan languages. The people we call "Maya" never thought of themselves as such; yet something definable, unique, and endlessly fascinating - what we call Maya culture - has clearly existed for millennia. So what was their self-identity and how did Maya civilization come to be "invented?" With the Maya historically subdivided and misunderstood in so many ways, the pursuit of what made them "the Maya" is all the more important. In this Very Short Introduction, Restall and Solari explore the themes of Maya identity, city-state political culture, art and architecture, the Maya concept of the cosmos, and the Maya experience of contact with including invasion by outsiders. Despite its brevity, this book is unique for its treatment of all periods of Maya civilization, from its origins to the present.

Download or read book Encyclopedia of the Ancient Maya written by Walter R. T. Witschey and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2015-12-24 with total page 575 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Encyclopedia of the Ancient Maya offers an A-to-Z overview of the ancient Maya culture from its inception around 3000 BC to the Spanish Conquest after AD 1600. Over two hundred entries written by more than sixty researchers explore subjects ranging from food, clothing, and shelter to the sophisticated calendar and now-deciphered Maya writing system. They bring special attention to environmental concerns and climate variation; fresh understandings of shifting power dynamics and dynasties; and the revelations from emerging field techniques (such as LiDAR remote sensing) and newly explored sites (such as La Corona, Tamchen, and Yaxnohkah). This one-volume reference is an essential companion for students studying ancient civilizations, as well as a perfect resource for those planning to visit the Maya area. Cross-referencing, topical and alphabetical lists of entries, and a comprehensive index help readers find relevant details. Suggestions for further reading conclude each entry, while sidebars profile historical figures who have shaped Maya research. Maps highlight terrain, archaeological sites, language distribution, and more; over fifty photographs complement the volume.

Download or read book Lords of Creation written by Virginia M. Fields and published by Scala Books. This book was released on 2005 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers a unique perspective on Mayan culture, documenting the

Download or read book Living with the Ancestors written by Patricia A. McAnany and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first edition of this book proved to be extremely useful to students of archaeology because it provided a highly readable explanation for why people might bury valued family members under house and plaza floors in Preclassic and Classic Maya societies of the first millennium BCE and CE. By casting this ancestralizing practice within the larger framework of land, inheritance, identity, and genealogies of place, the author demonstrates the cultural logic of a practice that initially appears alien to Western eyes. This new edition contains an entirely new introduction that synthesizes new scholarship, as well as an updated bibliography.

Download or read book Maya Calendar Origins written by Prudence M. Rice and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2009-02-17 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Maya Political Science: Time, Astronomy, and the Cosmos, Prudence M. Rice proposed a new model of Maya political organization in which geopolitical seats of power rotated according to a 256-year calendar cycle known as the May. This fundamental connection between timekeeping and Maya political organization sparked Rice's interest in the origins of the two major calendars used by the ancient lowland Maya, one 260 days long, and the other having 365 days. In Maya Calendar Origins, she presents a provocative new thesis about the origins and development of the calendrical system. Integrating data from anthropology, archaeology, art history, astronomy, ethnohistory, myth, and linguistics, Rice argues that the Maya calendars developed about a millennium earlier than commonly thought, around 1200 BC, as an outgrowth of observations of the natural phenomena that scheduled the movements of late Archaic hunter-gatherer-collectors throughout what became Mesoamerica. She asserts that an understanding of the cycles of weather and celestial movements became the basis of power for early rulers, who could thereby claim "control" over supernatural cosmic forces. Rice shows how time became materialized—transformed into status objects such as monuments that encoded calendrical or temporal concerns—as well as politicized, becoming the foundation for societal order, political legitimization, and wealth. Rice's research also sheds new light on the origins of the Popol Vuh, which, Rice believes, encodes the history of the development of the Mesoamerican calendars. She also explores the connections between the Maya and early Olmec and Izapan cultures in the Isthmian region, who shared with the Maya the cosmovision and ideology incorporated into the calendrical systems.

Download or read book Ancient Maya Government written by Jill Keppeler and published by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. This book was released on 2016-07-16 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Who were the leaders of the ancient Maya? How did their political system work? Readers will learn the answers to these questions and more as they explore the evidence left behind by the ancient Maya. Primary sources, such as artifacts, ruins, and ancient artwork, will give readers a strong grasp on the political system that governed the ancient Maya. Readers will enjoy reading about ancient kings who were treated like gods. Color photographs of what the Maya left behind are paired with accessible text to introduce readers to the Maya’s unique and fascinating beliefs and politics.

Download or read book Maya Postclassic State Formation written by John W. Fox and published by CUP Archive. This book was released on 1987 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Fox here offers a fresh and persuasive view of the crucial Classic-Postclassic transition that determined the shape of the later Maya state. Drawing this data from ethnographic analogy and native chronicles as well as archaeology, he identifies segmentary lineage organisation as the key to understanding both the political organisation and the long-distance migrations observed among the Quiche Maya of Guatemala and Mexico. The first part of the book traces the origins of the Quiche, Itza and Xiu to the homeland on the Mexican Gulf coast where they acquired their potent Toltec mythology and identifies early segmentary lineages that developed as a result of social forces in the frontier zone. Dr Fox then matches the known anthropological characteristics of segmentary lineages against the Mayan kinship relationships described in documents and deduced from the spatial patterning within Quiche towns and cities. His conclusion, that the inherently fissile nature of segmentary lineages caused the leapfrogging migrations of up to 500km observed amongst the Maya, offers a convincing solution to a problem that has long puzzled scholars.

Download or read book Collapse written by Jared Diamond and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2013-03-21 with total page 608 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive is a visionary study of the mysterious downfall of past civilizations. Now in a revised edition with a new afterword, Jared Diamond's Collapse uncovers the secret behind why some societies flourish, while others founder - and what this means for our future. What happened to the people who made the forlorn long-abandoned statues of Easter Island? What happened to the architects of the crumbling Maya pyramids? Will we go the same way, our skyscrapers one day standing derelict and overgrown like the temples at Angkor Wat? Bringing together new evidence from a startling range of sources and piecing together the myriad influences, from climate to culture, that make societies self-destruct, Jared Diamond's Collapse also shows how - unlike our ancestors - we can benefit from our knowledge of the past and learn to be survivors. 'A grand sweep from a master storyteller of the human race' - Daily Mail 'Riveting, superb, terrifying' - Observer 'Gripping ... the book fulfils its huge ambition, and Diamond is the only man who could have written it' - Economis 'This book shines like all Diamond's work' - Sunday Times

Download or read book Popol Vuh written by and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1996 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most extraordinary works of the human imagination and the most important text in the native languages of the Americas, Popul Vuh: The Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life was first made accessible to the public 10 years ago. This new edition retains the quality of the original translation, has been enriched, and includes 20 new illustrations, maps, drawings, and photos.