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The recent interpretation of Maya hieroglyphs has given us the first written history of the New World as it existed before the European invasion. Now, two central figures in the massive effort to decode the glyphs, Linda Schele and David Freidel, make this history available for the first time in all its detail. A Forest of Kings is the story of Maya kingship, from the beginning of its institution and the first great pyramid builders two thousand years ago to the decline of Maya civilization and its destruction by the Spanish. Here the great historic rulers of Precolumbian civilization come to life again with the decipherment of the writing. At its height, Maya civilization flourished under great kings like Shield-Jaguar, who ruled for over sixty years, expanding his kingdom and building some of the most impressive works of architecture in the ancient world. Long placed on a mist-shrouded pedestal as austere, peaceful stargazers, the Maya elites are now known to have been the rulers or populous, aggressive city-states. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

Good book
This book is now a little old, but I think still very useful.It helps give an idea of the daily life of the elites and ordinary citizens during the preclassic and classic periods of the Mayan temple building era.It helps explain the purpose, meaning and role of the baroque imagery the Mayans used in their bas relief sculptures in their temples, tieing it in with the religious imagery expressed in the key book available to us the Popul Vuh.It is a great tool for someone who wishes to begin to understand the otherwise overwhelmingly complex Mayan spiritual life and style of artistic expression.The two are inextricably linked.They examine specific sites where the authors have worked, and help understand the concepts the builders had in constructing these sites.This is immensely helpful.Sometimes I feel a little nervous as they authors fill in gaps in the historical narrative on what appears to be shaky evidentiary ground.This is shortcoming that Nassim Taleb refers to as the narrative fallacy. It is an important problem and a mistake that we all commit.It will lead us astray.However, if you mentally mark those segments and discard their validity as unsubstantiated by the authors, the rest more than compensates.

I found my old textbook....
This is a dull book.It is probably very important for use by anthropology and archaeology students and is really filled with all of the technical details of the discoveries of these Mayan sites but this is not a book for the layman nor is it a book for the traveler.... it is also not a book for the coffee table or something you can curl up with to learn more about Mayan life.

Can't see the Forest for the trees.
Reads too much like a history book for me.
I thought it would be more like a story.

Good overview of the historical Maya world
I was looking for a book that would give me more insight into the history of the Maya, and boy did this book deliver.I've been to several of the sites covered in the book and value the broader perspective I got after reading about them in its pages.The book did a great job of sketching out the Maya world (physical and spiritual), and illustrating the important relationships within it.There was plenty of detail and bibliography to satisfy my curiosity.One thing I really liked was the glossary of gods and icons, which defined a few common Maya concepts and symbology.The chronological time lines were also a nice feature.Granted, these were not comprehensive--there are other books for that--, but they were much appreciated.Interspersed throughout were bits of well executed creative writing / historical fiction that related how the authors imagined the events of the past unfolding.These sections also give one a break between dense patches of detailed history.
In short, this book delivered a lot of Maya information in a very pleasant way.

A Fascinating Book Full of Translations of Maya Glyphs
Note: It looks like I have offended some Mormons who don't want you to read this book. Nevertheless, science won't go away. Your "helpful" votes are appreciated

Schele and Freidel's book takes you into the mind of the ancient Maya, where bloodletting induced visions that opened doors into the world of pagan spirits and everyone had an animal "familiar."

The description of the "War of Conquest" of Tikal (tee-kal) against Uaactun (wa-shak-toon) is riviting. It is fascinating that we know the name of the general of Tikal, "Smoking-Frog." At other places, we now also know the names of the Maya leaders. "Ah Zacol...governed Lacanja for Knot-eye-Jaguar, the king of Bonampak." Other names are equally strange. I won't list the name of one king because Amazon's filter's would reject my review. Anyway, his name was "p-n-s of the jaguar."

I came to my interest in the Maya from my early encounters with Mormon authors who used specious scholarship to connect the Maya to the religious novel called the "Book of Mormon." Now that Maya writing has been deciphyered, all those false claims have been exposed. In many cases, the truth was known, but Mormon writers were engaging in the practice of lying for the Lord to promote their faith.

When the Spanish first saw Maya art, they misinterpreted it. They named one temple, for example, the "temple of the cross." The cross-like tree was seen as evidence that the Maya were Christians. Now we know that in the case of the temple of the "Foliated Cross" that the cross-bar of the cross is actually a maize plant with a "human head as an ear of maize." The maize plant is growing out of the "waterlily monster."

It was interesting to learn that the upright stone monuments, or stela, were known as "tree-stones" and the doorways into the temples were represented as the mouths of mountain monsters. The doorways are seen as caves into the mountain.

"Bloodletting, the focus ritual of Maya life, was the instrument" of the materialization of other-worldly beings.

The claims of Mormons and others that Stela B at Copan depicts elephant trunks was refuted even before the translation of the Maya glyphs. The trunks are actually the long beaks of macaws (you can see the colorful birds there today). The false claim is now doubly refuted because the writing on the stela refers to "macaw mountain," a nearby hill--not "elephant mountain."

Mormons are still claiming that there is a horse carved on the Temple of the Wall Panels at Chichen Itza. It is actually a damaged feathered-serpent (one feather hangs down to make the so-called horse's head). In reality, the Maya were so ignorant of horses that when Cortes left his lame horse among the Itza, they fed it meat.

The strange diet cause the horse to die and the Maya made a statue, calling it "Tzimin Chac," from the "Tzmin," meaning tapir (the animal most similar his general shape to a horse), and "Chac," the god of rain and thunder. When Father Urbita came to convert the Itza, he destroyed the idol at great risk to his life.

The Book of Mormon connection to ancient mesoamerica is without foundation. As you go back in time, the paganism only increases. There was no Hebrew civilization in mesoamerica.

This 500-page book belongs on the shelf on anyone interested in the mind of the ancient Maya.
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A classic in the literature on the decipherment of Mayan writing, Phoneticism grew out of the famous Albany conference--a gathering of the leading Mayanists who were working within the modern, linguistically-informed paradigm for the analysis of Mayan hieroglyphic text. The volume contains nine seminal articles and appendixes. Many of the phonetic readings on which current epigraphic work depends are worked out and presented here. Several papers focus on or carefully exemplify rigorous decipherment methodology; others provide primary data on the ancient language forms that lie behind the glyphic representations. ... Read more

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This volume is the first to present in detail the results of recent decipherment of Maya hieroglyphic writing and to consider the implications of a Classic Maya written history.Contributors examine the way in which the Maya elite created the kinship, alliance, warfare and ceremonial networks on which the civilization was founded. ... Read more

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ATLANTIUM Episode XIMAYAN SPACE PROGRAM Did the Ancient Mayan have an expansive Space Program?A great deal of evidence sits waiting for an explanation.

Was the ancient World covered by a Hyper-Technological civilization 15,000-25,000 years ago? ATLANTIUM the serialized Book from ROC HATFIELD looks into new discoveries that are pointing to questions that mainstream science does not want to hear.Are you ready to know?

ENIGMAS WRAPPED IN MYSTERIES PACKAGED IN QUESTIONS.
Explore the ancient world of Atlantium. Science is discovering artifacts and connections to ancient advanced empires that existed 15,000 to 50,000 years ago. Who were these people? Are we descended from them? How advanced were they? Were they beings from a distant star system? All of these questions are powerful and the answers may be to intense for some people to handle. Make up your own mind…ATLANTIUM ... Read more

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Having recently come into possession of Leon de Rosny's late work entitled "_Les Documents ecrits de l'Antiquite Americaine_,"[1] I find in it a photo-lithographic copy of two plates (or rather one plate, for the two are but parts of one) of the Maya Manuscript known as the _Codex Cortesianus_. This plate (I shall speak of the two as one) is of so much importance in the study of the Central American symbols and calendar systems that I deem it worthy of special notice; more particularly so as it furnishes a connecting link between the Maya and Mexican symbols and calendars.

This plate (Nos. 8 and 9 in Rosny's work), is entitled by Rosny "_Tableau des Bacab_" or "Plate of the Bacabs," he supposing it to be a representation of the gods of the four cardinal points, an opinion I believe to be well founded.

As will be seen by reference to our Plate No. 1, which is an exact copy from Rosny's work, this page consists of three divisions: _First_, an inner quadrilateral space, in which there are a kind of cross or sacred tree; two sitting figures, one of which is a female, and six characters. _Second_, a narrow space or belt forming a border to the inner area, from which it is separated by a single line; it is separated from the outer space by a double line. This space contains the characters for the twenty days of the Maya month, but not arranged in consecutive order. _Third_, an outer and larger space containing several figures and numerous characters, the latter chiefly those representing the Maya days. This area consists of two distinct parts, one part containing day characters, grouped together at the four corners, and connected by rows of dots running from one group to the other along the outer border; the other part consisting of four groups of figures, one group opposite each of the four sides. In each of the four compartments containing these last-mentioned groups, there is one of the four characters shown in Fig. 1 (_a_ _b_ _c_ _d_), which, in my "Study of the Manuscript Troano," I have concluded represent the four cardinal points, a conclusion also reached independently by Rosny and Schultz Sellack.[TN-1]

Before entering upon the discussion of this plate I will insert here Rosny's comment, that the reader may have an opportunity of comparing his view of its signification with the opinion I shall advance.



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The freestanding relief sculptures, or stelae, carved by the ancient Maya between A.D. 278 and 514 are the subject of this book. Inhabiting the dense, lush jungles of present-day Yucatn, Guatemala, and Honduras, the Mayas carved richly dressed figures and glyphs and placed these sculptures in grand civic plazas open to all social ranks. Most scholars who have studied Classic Maya stelae are archaeologists, epigraphers, and historians who have tried to tease facts about the Maya past from these public sculptures. Here Flora Clancy, an art historian, explores the artistry revealed in the stelae, their aesthetic values, carving techniques, imagery, and text. Re-creating the social and cultural context of the Maya artist, Clancy explores the composition and images, knowledge and skills of the sculptor, and the relationship between the artist and patron. Her examination of the stelae and their pedestals reconstructs how the sculpture fit into the Maya artistic world and suggests how and why Maya art speaks to our own. ... Read more

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Here is one of the most important surviving works of pre-Columbian civilization, Rabinal Achi, a Mayan drama set a century before the arrival of the Spanish, produced by the translator of the best selling Popol Vuh. The first direct translation into English from Quiche Maya, based on the original text, Rabinal Achi is the story of city-states, war, and nobility, of diplomacy, mysticism, and psychic journeys. Dennis Tedlock's translation is clear and vivid; more than that, it is rooted in an understanding of how the play is actually performed. Despite being banned for centuries by Spanish authorities, it survived in actual practice, and is still performed in the town of Rabinal today. Tedlock provides an introduction and commentary that explain the historical events compressed into the play, the Spanish influence on the Mayan dramatic tradition, and the cultural and religious world preserved in this remarkable play. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Cultural Treasure
This book is the follow up to the Popol Vuh (the Mayan Bible) by bestselling translator and author Dennis Tedlock. This is a beautiful and careful translation of a wonderful Mayan text which like his Popol Vuh will surely win translation prizes.

Tedlock spent many years studying the language, culture, and shamanic traditions of the highland Maya in Guatemala. Together with his wife he underwent a shamanic apprenticeship and later videotaped several performances of this dance drama. This is the only remaining pre-Columbian Mayan play in existence and as such it is a cultural treasure which this transaltor has treated with great respect. The dozens of photographs and line art bring the book alive! ... Read more

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The three manuscripts which we possess of the ancient Maya peoples of Central America, the Dresden (Dr.), the Madrid (Tro.-Cort.) and the Paris (Per.) manuscripts, all contain a series of pictorial representations of human figures, which, beyond question, should be regarded as figures of gods. Together with these are a number of animal figures, some with human bodies, dress and armor, which likewise have a mythologic significance.

The contents of the three manuscripts, which undoubtedly pertain to the calendar system and to the computation of time in their relation to the Maya pantheon and to certain religious and domestic functions, admit of the conclusion, that these figures of gods embody the essential part of the religious conceptions of the Maya peoples in a tolerably complete form. For here we have the entire ritual year, the whole chronology with its mythological relations and all accessories. In addition to this, essentially the same figures recur in all three manuscripts. Their number is not especially large. There are about fifteen figures of gods in human form and about half as many in animal form. At first we were inclined to believe that further researches would considerably increase the number of deities, but this assumption was incorrect. After years of study of the subject and repeated examination of the results of research, it may be regarded as positively proved, that the number of deities represented in the Maya manuscripts does not exceed substantially the limits mentioned above. The principal deities are determined beyond question.

The way in which this was accomplished is strikingly simple. It amounts essentially to that which in ordinary life we call "memory of persons" and follows almost naturally from a careful study of the manuscripts. For, by frequently looking attentively at the representations, one learns by degrees to recognize promptly similar and familiar figures of gods, by the characteristic impression they make as a whole, or by certain details, even when the pictures are partly obliterated or exhibit variations, and the same is true of the accompanying hieroglyphs. A purely inductive, natural science-method has thus been followed, and hence this pamphlet is devoted simply to descriptions and to the amassing of material. These figures have been taken separately out of the manuscripts alone, identified and described with the studious avoidance of all unreliable, misleading accounts and of all presumptive analogies with supposedly allied mythologies.



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Features records of six early Mayan languages: Ixil, Morpan, Q'eqchi', Tojolab'al, Tzotzil and Yukatek. ... Read more

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Reveals the Mayan calendar to be a spiritual device that describes the evolution of human consciousness from ancient times into the future.

• Shows the connection between cosmic evolution and actual human history.

• Provides a new science of time that explains why time not only seems to be speeding up in the modern world but actually is getting faster.

• Explains how the end of the Mayan calendar is not the end of the world, but a path toward enlightenment.

The prophetic Mayan calendar is not keyed to the movement of planetary bodies. Instead, it functions as a metaphysical map of the evolution of consciousness and records how spiritual time flows--providing a new science of time.

The calendar is associated with nine creation cycles, which represent nine levels of consciousness or Underworlds on the Mayan cosmic pyramid. Through empirical research Calleman shows how this pyramidal structure of the development of consciousness can explain things as disparate as the common origin of world religions and the modern complaint that time seems to be moving faster. Time, in fact, is speeding up as we transition from the materialist Planetary Underworld of time that governs us today to a new and higher frequency of consciousness--the Galactic Underworld--in preparation for the final Universal level of conscious enlightenment. Calleman reveals how the Mayan calendar is a spiritual device that enables a greater understanding of the nature of conscious evolution throughout human history and the concrete steps we can take to align ourselves with this growth toward enlightenment. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (29)

Mayan Calendar
Very detailed.Deep!Have no fear - 2012 is going to be a[nother] Global Change... hopefully, for the better.We all have the awareness.

The Mayan Calendar & the Transformation ofConsciousness by Carl Johan Calleman
This book is a must read! & read it before 2011-2012 arrives, you'll be glad you did!!

I read this book first, not realizing that Dr Calleman have written another book on the subject before this book. However, I read his first book later & I liked this one better. I think it was easier to understand.

When I read the book the first time, I had to get used to the Mayan terms that he uses.However, the more I read & looked at his graphs, charts, diagrams the more impressed I became. The more I realized that 'wow! this guy has done it!'.This book rang true, felt true, it rang a bell!When I finished it the first time, I went right back to the beginning and re-read it again, this time underlining parts that were important. Researching history & comparing it to his own research on his 'Matrix', comparing dates & the more I read & researched the more I was convinced that he hit the bulls eye when it comes to interpreting the Mayan Calendar & its true message. So to my surprise when I finished it the second time I started re-reading it again!!!!! Is like I wanted to make sure that I did not miss anything, understood everything he explained; I did some more comparing w/ history, etc etc, & of course, I highlighted some more!! I have never done that w/ any books I have ever read before!!And I am a reader!!

About 6 months later I re-read it again.This was around the year 2007-2008.Now w/ 2011-2012 approaching, I took it out & I'm going to read it again!!:) Call me nuts. In between I have kept up reading all his articles, & there are gobs of them!!! And I also read his first book, & his last book, also very good.My favorite so far has been this one.

Realize this, we are co-creators, the end of time approaching we'll have a decision to make; to co-create or be a slug & fall behind!!

I had to laugh to see some people here putting this book down, Ha! they must be thick minded!! or shallow! Either that or people that do not like Calleman put them up to it!!They're a joke! Read this book for yourself, have an open mind, make your own decision!!. I am not saying that he's the only one that is 'right' about the Mayan Calendar, I think that is very likely that 'most' authors that have sincerely researched the MC have a 'piece' of the truth to its true meaning.Maybe there is going to be 'also' an alignment!! etc etc.Whether its 2011 or 2012 does not matter, in fact, I think is 'BOTH'!! Because it might be that it all gets 'started' in 2011 to end in 2012, when you look at Calleman's matrix you see how each Underworld lasts a certain amount of time, so perhaps there is an overlap. He even mentions that there are overlaps between these Underworlds!.

READ THIS BOOK!! YOU OWE IT TO YOURSELF!!
The Mayan Calendar and the Transformation of Consciousness

Challenging but significant reading
This is an in-depth review of the Mayan calendar and its implications for our current time - for those interested in our Spiritual life on this earth, this is an important and well explained perspective from the Mayan calendar.It is relevant to today.

Very happy with the book.
The book was received in a short period of time in new condition.
I am thrilled with the book.

The right book for the coming years
This book eliminates the guess and gives our journey meaning- towards higher consciousness. Thank you Calle,
Hans ... Read more

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The significance of food and feasting to Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures has been extensively studied by archaeologists, anthropologists and art historians. Foodways studies have been critical to our understanding of early agriculture, political economies, and the domestication and management of plants and animals. Scholars from diverse fields have explored the symbolic complexity of food and its preparation, as well as the social importance of feasting in contemporary and historical societies. This book unites these disciplinary perspectives — from the social and biological sciences to art history and epigraphy — creating a work comprehensive in scope, which reveals our increasing understanding of the various roles of foods and cuisines in Mesoamerican cultures.

The volume is organized thematically into three sections. Part 1 gives an overview of food and feasting practices as well as ancient economies in Mesoamerica. Part 2 details ethnographic, epigraphic and isotopic evidence of these practices. Finally, Part 3 presents the metaphoric value of food in Mesoamerican symbolism, ritual, and mythology. The resulting volume provides a thorough, interdisciplinary resource for understanding, food, feasting, and cultural practices in Mesoamerica.

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In the delightful Mayan folktale The Dog Who Spoke, we learn what happens when a dog's master magically transforms into a dog-man who reasons like a man but acts like a dog. This and the other Mayan folktales in this bilingual collection brim with the enchanting creativity of rural Guatemala's oral culture. In addition to stories about ghosts and humans turning into animals, the volume also offers humorous yarns. Hailing from the Lake Atitlan region in the Guatemalan highlands, these tales reflect the dynamics of, and conflicts between, Guatemala's Indian, Ladino, and white cultures. The animals, humans, and supernatural forces that figure in these stories represent Mayan cultural values, social mores, and history.

James D. Sexton and Fredy Rodri­guez-Mejia allow the thirty-three stories to speak for themselves first in the original Spanish and then in English translations that maintain the meaning and rural inflection of the originals. Available in print for the first time, with a glossary of Indian and Spanish terms, these Guatemalan folktales represent generations of transmitted oral culture that is fast disappearing and deserves a wider audience. ... Read more

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Since the first edition of this pamphlet appeared in the year 1897, investigation in this department of science has made such marked progress, notwithstanding the slight amount of material, that a revision has now become desirable. It can be readily understood, that a new science, an investigation on virgin soil, such as the Maya study is, makes more rapid progress and develops more quickly than one pertaining to some old, much explored territory.

In addition to numerous separate treatises, special mention should be made of Ernst Foerstemann's commentaries on the three Maya manuscripts (Kommentar zur Mayahandschrift der Koeniglichen oeffentlichen Bibliothek zu Dresden, Dresden 1901, Kommentar zur Madrider Mayahandschrift, Danzig 1902, and Kommentar zur Pariser Mayahandschrift, Danzig 1903) which constitute a summary of the entire results of investigation in this field up to the present time.

The proposal made in the first edition of this pamphlet, that the Maya deities be designated by letters of the alphabet, has been very generally adopted by Americanists, especially by those in the United States of America. This circumstance, in particular, has seemed to make it desirable to prepare for publication a new edition, improved to accord with the present state of the science.

Warmest thanks are above all due to Mr. Bowditch, of Boston, who in the most disinterested manner, for the good of science, has made possible the publication of this new edition.



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Mesoamerican Worlds Series

The Apotheosis of Janaab' Pakal takes up anew the riddles within a number of Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions first recognized by Floyd Lounsbury. Gerardo Aldana unpacks these mathematical riddles using an approach grounded in a reading of the texts made possible by recent advances in decipherment. Using a history of science methodology, he expands upon (and sometimes questions) the foundational work of archaeoastronomers.

Aldana follows three lines of investigation: a reading of the hieroglyphic inscriptions of the Classic period (a.d. 250-900), mathematical analysis to recover Classic Maya astronomical practice, and a historiography of Maya astronomy. Quoted hieroglyphs appear throughout the text for cross-examination. Aldana reveals the social and political context of Maya astronomy by explicating the science and calendrical calculations found in the tablets of the Temple of Inscriptions and the Cross Group from the city of Palenque. He offers a compelling interpretation of an 819-day count, demonstrating its utility as an astronumerological tool that Maya scribes used to simplify complex calculations.

During troubled times in Palenque, Aldana contends, Kan Balam II devised a means to preserve the legitimacy of his ruling dynasty. He celebrated a re-creation of the city as a contemporary analogue of a mythical Creation on three levels: monumental construction for a public audience, artistic patronage for an elite audience, and a secret mathematical astronomical language only for rulers-elect. Discussing all of these efforts, Aldana focuses on the recovery of the secret language and its historical context. ... Read more

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Includes Maps & Illustrations. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Science and Its Times, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 1418 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.The histories of science, technology, and mathematics merge with the study of humanities and social science in this interdisciplinary reference work. Essays on people, theories, discoveries, and concepts are combined with overviews, bibliographies of primary documents, and chronological elements to offer students a fascinating way to understand the impact of science on the course of human history and how science affects everyday life. Entries represent people and developments throughout the world, from about 2000 B.C. through the end of the twentieth century. ... Read more

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This corpus, published in a catalogue form and in fascicles of unequal length, encompasses all accessible portable, minor objects with inscriptions of predominantly Maya character, with the strict exception of objects made of bark paper, the codices, and ceramic objects, such as plates, cases, and figurines, which do not fall within the purview of this project. In some special cases the denomination of a Maya object as belonging to "portable" works of art should be considered as tentative and obviously arbitrary; its inclusion as a piece belonging to the "miscellaneous text" corpus may be purely subjective, but usually the size and/or the weight of the specimen implies that originally it was indeed conceived as a portable artifact. The author's expansive Introduction provides some basic information concerning the scope of this corpus and its "present and planned publications," and also on the nomenclature of inscribed artifacts he devised and employed. This work should serve as a convenient research tool and lasting resource for present and future students and scholars of the ancient Maya script and culture. [From Foreword and Introduction] Produced in cooperation with the Internationale Gesellschaft für Mesoamerika-Forschung (IGM), Berlin ... Read more