The Maya

Coe, Michael D. (Author). Houston, Stephen D., (author.).

Summary: "Coe and Houston update this classic by distilling the latest scholarship for the general reader and student. This new edition incorporates the most recent archaeological and epigraphic research, which continues to proceed at a fast pace. Among the finest new discoveries are spectacular stucco sculptures at El Zotz and Holmul, which reveal surprising aspects of Maya royalty and the founding of dynasties. Dramatic refinements in our understanding the pace of changes in the Maya world have led scholars to perceive a pattern of rapid bursts of building and political formation. Other finds include the discovery of the earliest known occupant of the region, the Hoyo Negro girl, recovered from an underwater cavern in the Yucatan peninsula, along with new evidence for the first architecture at Ceibal."--Back cover.

Record details

ISBN: 9780500291887
ISBN: 0500291888
Physical Description: print
320 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.
Edition: Ninth edition.
Publisher: New York : Thames & Hudson, 2015.

Content descriptions

General Note:	"213 illustrations, 28 in color."
Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 308-313) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	Introduction : The setting ; Natural resources ; Areas ; Periods ; Peoples and languages ; Climate change and its cultural impact -- The earliest Maya : Early hunters ; Archaic collectors and cultivators ; Early Preclassic villages ; The Middle Preclassic expansion ; Preclassic Kaminaljuyu ; The Maya lowlands -- The rise of Maya civilization : The birth of the calendar ; Izapa and the Pacific Coast ; The hero twins and the creation of the world (box) ; Kaminaljuyu and the Maya highlands ; The Peten and the Maya lowlands ; The Mirador region ; San Bartolo ; From Preclassic to Classic in the Maya lowlands -- Classic splendor: the Early Period : Defining the early classic ; Teotihuacan: military giant ; The Esperanza culture ; Cerén: a New World Pompeii? ; Tzakol culture in the central area ; Copan in the Early Classic ; The northern area -- Classic splendor: the Late Period : Classic sites in the central area ; Copan and Quirigua ; Tikal ; Calakmul ; Yaxchilan, Piedras Negras, and Bonampak ; The Petexbatun ; Palenque ; Comalcalco and Tonina ; Classic sites in the northern area: Rio Bec, Chenes, and Coba ; Art of the late classic -- The terminal classic : The great collapse ; Ceibal and the Putun Maya ; Puuc sites in the northern area ; The terminal classic at Chichen Itza ; Ek' Balam ; The Cotzumalhuapa problem ; The end of an era -- The Postclassic : The Toltec invasion and Chichen Itza ; The Itza and the city of Mayapan ; The independent states of Yucatan ; The central area in the Postclassic ; Maya-Mexican dynasties in the southern area ; The Spanish Conquest -- Maya life on the eve of the conquest : The farm and the chase ; Industry and commerce ; The life cycle ; Society and politics -- Maya thought and culture : Being religious ; Ordering the universe ; Gods and spirits ; Numbers and the calendar ; The sun and the moon ; The celestial wanderers and the stars ; The nature of Maya writing ; History graven in stone ; The great game ; A possessed world -- The enduring Maya : The new Spanish order ; The highland Maya, yesterday and today ; The Tsotsil Maya of Zinacantan ; The Yukateko Maya ; The War of the Castes ; The Maya of Chan Kom ; The Lakandon ; Uprising in Chiapas ; The great terror ; The Maya future -- Visiting the Maya area -- Dynastic rulers of classic Maya cities.