Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. The setting; 2. The origins of Maya civilization; 3. The preclassic Maya; 4. The early classic and the rise of Tikal; 5. The late classic and the expansion of the lowland states; 6. The terminal classic; 7. The postclassic; 8. Subsistence systems; 9. Trade and external contact; 10. The organization of Maya society; 11. Ideology and cosmology; 12. Arithmetic, calendrics, and astronomy; 13. Language and writing; 14. Architecture, sculpture, and painting; 15. Artifacts; Epilogue: the Spanish conquest; Appendix: conversion between Maya and Gregorian chronologies; Reference material.

Reviews

"As readable as it is comprehensive, this volume is an admirable and up-to-date account of the ancient Maya." - Scientific American "The most comprehensive and most lavishly illustrated book on its subject." - Journal of Latin American Studies "This is the most comprehensive and best-illustrated book on one of pre-Columbian America's richest civilizations." - New Scientist "The Ancient Maya has become the standard text on the study of Mayan culture and prehistory. Given the veritable explosion of research on the Maya, greater understanding of this past - yet living - culture has been realized." - Colonial Latin American Historical Review "The Ancient Maya is appropriate to scholars, graduate students and upper-level undergraduates (and perhaps lower-level undergraduates in a semester-long course exclusively on Maya civilization." - The Americas