Ancient Maya

The foundation of our knowledge abot the ancient Maya lies in archaeology, the science that reconstructs past societies from their material remains. In recent decades, a variety of new techniques, better research designs, and more sophisticated theoretical frameworks, not to mention an explosive growth in the sheer number of Maya scholars and studies, have all combined to make the results of archaeological investigation more accurate and complete than was previously possible. This unprecedented growth has fostered considerable advances in our understanding of the ancient Maya.

The present revision this attempts to retain much of the flavor and organization of Morley's original endeavor, while presenting a synthesis of as much of the newly available information as is possible and appropriate in a single volume. In order to accomplish this, the present work has been divided into four sections. Part I, on cultural history, offers a description of the Mayan area and a résumé of the chronological development of Maya civilization, completely rewritten and expanded in light of current evidence. Part II deals with society; the chapters in this section have been revised in varying degrees, but retain as much of the original text as possible. Part III, on material culture, open with a substantially expended description of Maya architecture and archaeological sites, followed by updated treatments of Maya ceramics, arts and crafts. Part IV, on intellectual culture, consists of chapters on ideology and arithmetic, calendrics, and astronomy, which have been revised but retain much of the original text. The section on language and writing is new, summarizing the significant recent advances in understanding ancient Maya script. The book closes with an Epilogue describing the destruction of Maya civilization at the hands of the Spanish conquistadores; this material has been reorganized to include an account of the conquest of Guatemala to balance the original treatment of the conquest of Yucatan.