Ancient Maya

Ancient Maya PDF

Author: Arthur Demarest

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2004-12-09

Total Pages: 396

ISBN-13: 9780521533904

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Ancient Maya comes to life in this new holistic and theoretical study.

The Rise and Fall of Maya Civilization

The Rise and Fall of Maya Civilization PDF

Author: John Eric Sidney Thompson

Publisher:

Published: 1966

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13:

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Surveys the emergence of the Maya city states, examines the intellectual achievements and religious practices of the Maya, and presents sketches of daily life.

The First Maya Civilization

The First Maya Civilization PDF

Author: Francisco Estrada-Belli

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2010-11-08

Total Pages: 407

ISBN-13: 1136882499

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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.

Ancient Maya

Ancient Maya PDF

Author: Arthur Demarest

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2004-12-09

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 9780521592246

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In this new archaeological study, Arthur Demarest brings the lost pre-Columbian civilization of the Maya to life. In applying a holistic perspective to the most recent evidence from archaeology, paleoecology, and epigraphy, this theoretical interpretation emphasises both the brilliant rain forest adaptations of the ancient Maya and the Native American spirituality that permeated all aspects of their daily life. Demarest draws on his own discoveries and the findings of colleagues to reconstruct the complex lifeways and volatile political history of the Classic Maya states of the first to eighth centuries. He provides a new explanation of the long-standing mystery of the ninth-century abandonment of most of the great rain forest cities. Finally, he draws lessons from the history of the Classic Maya cities for contemporary society and for the ongoing struggles and resurgence of the modern Maya peoples, who are now re-emerging from six centuries of oppression.

Socioeconomic Networks and the Rise of Maya Civilization

Socioeconomic Networks and the Rise of Maya Civilization PDF

Author: Sherman W. Horn (III)

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 9781407357553

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This study examines the origins of complex society in the Maya Lowlands during the Middle Preclassic period. Excavations at Cahal Pech - a mid-sized Maya settlement in the Belize River Valley - revealed complex architectural sequences over a 600-year developmental period, which spans the time of the earliest permanent villages in the area and the emergence of institutionalized hierarchy characteristic of later Maya civilization. The author uses spatial analysis to investigate artifact distribution patterns related to architectural change and marshals a diverse dataset to support a network framework for understanding developing complexity. This expands on studies of long-distance exchange to examine how households and communities could gain advantage by participating in interaction networks, and how the positioning of some entities in networks could have produced socioeconomic inequalities.

Royal Cities of the Ancient Maya

Royal Cities of the Ancient Maya PDF

Author:

Publisher: Vendome Press

Published: 2012-11-01

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780865652842

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Traces the rise and fall of Maya civilization through its great royal cities, from El Mirador, the largest and oldest, to the rival city-states of the Classical period such as Tikal, Calakmul, Yaxchilán, Palenque, Toniná, and Copán. He then moves on to the great cities of the Terminal Classic period; at a time when the mighty centers of the southern lowlands were in a steep decline, cities to the north such as Uxmal and Kabah achieved a pinnacle of architectural beauty. After that he turns to the Postclassic period and Chichén Itzá in central Yucatán, a huge, cosmopolitan city that flourished during a military and cultural takeover by the Toltecs of central Mexico.