Assemblies of rectangular stone pillars, or stelae, fill the plazas and courts of ancient Maya cities throughout the lowlands of southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and western Honduras. Mute testimony to state rituals that linked the king's power to rule with the rhythms and renewal of time, the stelae document the ritual acts of rulers who sacrificed, danced, and experienced visionary ecstasy in connection with celebrations marking the end of major calendrical cycles. The kings' portraits are carved in relief on the main surfaces of the stones, deifying them as incarnations of the mythical trees of life. Based on a thorough analysis of the imagery and inscriptions of seven stelae erected in the Great Plaza at Copan, Honduras, by the Classic Period ruler 18-Rabbit-God K, this ambitious study argues that stelae were erected not only to support a ruler's temporal claims to power but more importantly to express the fundamental connection in Maya worldview between rulership and the cosmology inherent in their vision of cyclical time. After an overview of the archaeology and history of Copan and the reign and monuments of 18-Rabbit-God K, Elizabeth Newsome interprets the iconography and inscriptions on the stelae, illustrating the way they fulfilled a co-ordinated vision of the king's ceremonial role in Copan's period-ending rites. She also links their imagery to key Maya concepts about the origin of the universe, expressed in the cosmologies and mythic lore of ancient and living Maya peoples. Elizabeth A. Newsome is Assistant Professor of Precolumbian and Native American Art History at the University of California, San Diego.
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Elizabeth A. Newsome is Assistant Professor of Precolumbian and Native American Art History at the University of California, San Diego.
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Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Inside This Book
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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs):
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great plaza, ball court, hieroglyphic stairway, reviewing stand, jaguar god, central panel, sarcophagus lid, southern lowlands, sustaining grace, stela complex, stela cycle, haab position, imix che, south side text, north side text, waterlily monster, maximum elongation point, perforator god, stela dedication, nominal glyphs, stelae cycle, glyph block, west side inscription, skeletal maw, cauac sign Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Linda Schele, Cauac Sky, Evening Star, Main Group, Classic Maya, Morning Star, Long Count, Yax Pasah, Barbara Fash, The Ritual of the Angels, Popol Vuh, Copan Valley, Calendar Round, Classic Period, David Stuart, Initial Series, Main Plaza, Early Classic, The Creation of the World, Holmul Dancer, Leaf Ahau, God the Father, Maya Lowlands, Anne Dowd, Kan Balam Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
great plaza, ball court, hieroglyphic stairway, reviewing stand, jaguar god, central panel, sarcophagus lid, southern lowlands, sustaining grace, stela complex, stela cycle, haab position, imix che, south side text, north side text, waterlily monster, maximum elongation point, perforator god, stela dedication, nominal glyphs, stelae cycle, glyph block, west side inscription, skeletal maw, cauac sign Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Linda Schele, Cauac Sky, Evening Star, Main Group, Classic Maya, Morning Star, Long Count, Yax Pasah, Barbara Fash, The Ritual of the Angels, Popol Vuh, Copan Valley, Calendar Round, Classic Period, David Stuart, Initial Series, Main Plaza, Early Classic, The Creation of the World, Holmul Dancer, Leaf Ahau, God the Father, Maya Lowlands, Anne Dowd, Kan Balam Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
2
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cite this book:
- Maya Cosmos: Three Thousand Years on the Shaman's Path by David Freidel in Back Matter
- The Code of Kings: The Language of Seven Sacred Maya Temples and Tombs by Linda Schele in Back Matter
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