Customer Reviews

Scribes, Warriors and Kings: The City of Copan and the Ancient Maya (New Aspects of Antiquity)

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the first 60 pages talks mainly about archaeological expeditions to Copan and who sponsored them etc. so there was little about the scribes,warriors or kings,but later it picked up.Copan appeared to be the "capital" city of loosely affiliated outlying villages with questionable allegiances. Since the allegiances were changing, Copan (rather the rulers of Copan and their families and associates)developed a rich ceremonial life with grandiose buildings,costumes,calendars etc.in order to impress the commoners into accepting the ruling class' authority.At least that is one interpretation offered in the book.Also the book seems to stress the deforestation theory for the demise of Copan,saying that "sucess"in agriculture and population growth brought about heavy erosion due to overuse of timber.Copan was never able to form alliances to any substantial degree with any other major city and in fact there is evidence of bitter rivalry between some of the smaller cities as well as the major ones.I was unaware before reading this book that alot of the Mayan temples were built by the rulers of Copan as a form of sacred ancestor worship.There are great photos of alot of the more profound discoveries of Copan particularly the Eccentric flints from the Hieroglyphic stairway.the author claims that presently there is no flint napper alive today who could duplicate this feat.I also enjoyed the descriptions of the "Bat" houses and their possible sinister uses to shelve "sacrificial victims".There is also a good picture of the way alot of these Mayan temples would have been painted because today all we see too often if the bare limestone facings.The deep reds and greens must have made for a real sacred appearance that would no doubt astonish.Was the message--"Your link to the nether-world,get it here"reinforcing the status and authority of Copan's rulers.whose to say,maybe they actually did have a fast tract to the nether-world,at least till they ran out of trees?

I will be visiting Copan at the end of the month so i picked up this book to get some information about the place.Overall the book is really good with lots of pictures which deifinetly is a plus with me.The explanations are very good altough i found myself re-reading some of them often because the author uses a lot of technical terms.The book is to big so i will not carry it with me when i visit Copan.It would have been a plus if the book would have been smaller.One thing that i didnt like was the fact that the author spends too many pages explaining Copan's relationship with other cities in the area.I would have loved to read more about the people of Copan, their daily lives and their beliefs.But again, good introduction.

"Scribes" is a very good and highly illustrated book about the Mayan presence at Copán, perhaps the greatest Mayan city in terms of art and architecture. Fash's prose is well-written and lucid, though at times a little dry and academic, perhaps making some folks wish for the bouncy style offered by some magazines. Nevertheless, the book is well put together, has an adequate index and no obvious factual mistakes or typos. One could take a book such as this to Copán itself and use it to help illuminate the ancient city's magnificent ruins and museum replicas. Moreover, I'm sure the hardbound edition would make a very good coffee table book!

I saw, and quickly skimmed a bit, of this book at a museum shop in Philadelphia, and then searched for it on Amazon, where I found it at a much better price. Since I have a particular interest in Copan, which I have visited several times, I found it very interesting, and written in a very clear and accessible manner for the non-specialist. The illustrations are also very good, and important to understanding Maya writing, history and culture. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in this subject.

An excellent, comprehensive, and very readable text, written by a true expert on the subject. I highly reccomend it.

nothing to say just read i