Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

  • Apple
  • Android
  • Windows Phone
  • Android

To get the free app, enter your email address or mobile phone number.
Download to your computer
Kindle Cloud Reader
Facebook Twitter Pinterest <Embed>
Buy Used
$7.98
FREE Shipping on orders over $25.
Used: Very Good | Details
Sold by Pop's Shop
Fulfilled by Amazon
Condition: Used: Very Good
Comment: Very little sign of wear. Stored, packed, and shipped by Amazon.

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products. Something we hope you'll especially enjoy: FBA items qualify for FREE Shipping and .

If you're a seller, Fulfillment by Amazon can help you increase your sales. We invite you to learn more about Fulfillment by Amazon .

Sorry, there was a problem.

There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Please try again.

Sorry, there was a problem.

List unavailable.
Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon
Flip to back Flip to front
Listen Playing... Paused   You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more
See this image

The Order of Days: The Maya World and the Truth About 2012 Hardcover – May 17, 2011

by
David Stuart (Author)
› Visit Amazon's David Stuart Page
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
Are you an author? Learn about Author Central
David Stuart (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars 19 customer reviews
See all 3 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions
Price
New from Used from
Kindle
"Please retry"
$11.10
— —
Hardcover
"Please retry"
—
$6.79 $0.01
Paperback
"Please retry"
$11.21
$7.22 $2.19
A History of Violence: Living and Dying in Central America by Oscar Martinez
"A History of Violence" by Oscar Martinez
This is a book about one of the deadliest places in the world and provides an unforgettable portrait of a region of fear and a subtle analysis of the North American roots and reach of the crisis, helping to explain why this history of violence should matter to all of us. See more | See related books
NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 368 pages
  • Publisher: Crown Archetype (May 17, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0385527268
  • ISBN-13: 978-0385527262
  • Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.1 x 9.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,327,270 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsgrounded, fact-based book cleared up many of my Maya questions
By Joshua Berman on November 6, 2011
Format: Hardcover
Few Mayanist scholars command the experience and authority of David Stuart. Over the last few decades, Stuart has been responsible for some of the biggest breakthroughs in the decipherment of Maya iconography and hieroglyphics and he has authored numerous books on the subject. In his newest, The Order of Days: The Maya World and the Truth about 2012 (Harmony Books, New York, 2011), Stuart explains basic Maya ideas of time and calendrics while also addressing misconceptions about 2012. For, as one reviewer already put it, 2012 is "an embarrassing situation to serious scholars," many of whom have felt compelled to publish similar clarifications. Still, I'm glad the 2012 hub-bub spurred Stuart to write The Order of Days, one of the most grounded, fact-based, academic-yet-readable books I've read on the subject.

I'm a newbie Mayaphile with many questions and in this book, Stuart clarified many things I'd been wondering about. Like, for instance, the difference between the Aztec calendar round and Maya calendars (and why they are so often confused); or a big-picture explanation of the Maya's "deep time" inscriptions and what they mean for the bak'tun ending in 2012. I loved the mini-lectures about each of the most famous Maya stelae, vases, inscriptions, and murals -- objects I'd seen before, but never accompanied by such concise explanations.

When it comes to the general 2012 doomsday nonsense though, Stuart does not have much patience, especially when it invokes fabricated connections to the Maya. Stuart waits until the end of the book when he holds his nose to examine 2012 and the most important evidence regarding 12/21, Tortuguero Monument 6.Read more ›
Comment 13 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsRefreshing and Enjoyable Journey
By Joan C Wrenn on November 20, 2011
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
From an ancient Itzá prophecy, through the central Mexican Aztecs, to the ancient and contemporary Maya, epigrapher David Stuart takes the reader on a refreshing and enjoyable journey through Mesoamerica from the earliest known times to the present concerns about the "end" of the Maya calendar in 2012.

Drawing upon his own experiences growing up in the land of the Maya, and then his research into their languages, worldview and ancient writings, Stuart shares his insights into Maya views of space and time, the Mesoamerican calendar from its earliest days to the present, and how western scholarship has progressed in its understandings from early ideas to current theories, to possibilities awaiting new discoveries and learnings.

Stuart explains in clear and readable language the three aspects of the Maya time system: the tzolk'in 260-day sacred calendar (still used by Maya daykeepers today), the 365-day political calendar and "long count" date enumeration system (that faded with their great civilization), and their "grand long count" that extends far into the deep past before the current 5,126-year cycle soon to be completed, and far into the future. The Maya ability to reckon time is revealed to be much longer and deeper than science today estimates for the life of the universe!

Stuart's explanations are accompanied by photos and drawings of Maya inscriptions from a variety of their ruined cities. Altogether Stuart's prose is informative, and he does not hesitate to correct colleagues and new agers when their thoughts are not founded on clear evidence. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the ancient Maya.
Comment 7 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsBest "2012" Book
By Booky24 on June 10, 2011
Format: Hardcover
Do you get David Stuart's opinion? - Yes
Does this book make the most sense on the 2012 subject?- Yes
Is it written in an easy to read yet informative and intellectual manner? - Yes
Did I enjoy reading it? - Yes
Am I going to write a book about it as my review? - No
Comment 19 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsA compelling survey of the Mesoamerican view of time
By Evil Voodoo Celt on February 17, 2012
Format: Hardcover
The title of this book is misleading- the scope of Stuart's work is far larger. While giving a lucid and scholarly explication of Maya calendrics, he sets it in a larger context, showing that Maya beliefs on time and the calendar were not unique, but part of a continuum that spread across the entire Mesoamerican world.

There is much in here that fascinates- the sheer staggering scope of time that the Maya conceptualized (it's not often that the word "octillions" comes into play even in physics, much less in archaeology), the presentation of the Maya view of time as not so much cyclic as patterned and *folded*, deriving mythic meaning not by mere repetition but by a sort of harmonizing or iteration...

He spends very little time on the 2012 matter itself, although what he does say is guaranteed to make no friends amongst the doomsayers and believers in earth changes. But his treatment of the matter is not so much a dismissal as an explication of how utterly foreign to the ancient Maya worldview most of these preoccupations are.

I have some minor quibbles here- as others have pointed out, there are some annoying errors, especially in the labeling of illustrations (and some of the illustrations themselves seem to be reversed). He also strongly de-emphasizes astronomy as part of the Maya worldview; I need to read some of the opposing camp before I make up my mind on that matter. But still, a scholarly, temperate voice in the discussion. Well worth reading.
Comment 2 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse

Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

A thorough and informative look at the written language and history of the "lost Mayans".

Published 11 months ago by Kevin Thomas
4.0 out of 5 starsA crash course in Mesoamerican studies

From epigraphy to mind-numbing calendrics, from historical documents to stelae, ruins, and murals, from cosmological notions of kingship to astronomy and astrology, this book is a... Read more

Published 16 months ago by Igor Coelho Arantes Santana Marques
5.0 out of 5 starsAnother great discourse on epigraphy

An intense study of Maya epigraphy for serious scholars. Well worth the effort! Do your homework and find the fascination.

Published on February 26, 2014 by Library maven "Peg"
3.0 out of 5 starsBe prepared to delve into folklore and math...

If you're not, you will have a hard time with this book. It's not that the author doesn't understand the topic, it's the presentation. Read more

Published on February 22, 2013 by James D. Crabtree
5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent reading

David is very informative and factual about the Maya topic. His background and the original photographs and sketches illustrate the topics of the reading in a way that helps one... Read more

Published on January 30, 2013 by Juan M. Beltranena
5.0 out of 5 starsMaya Ideas about Time

David Stuart knows how the Maya thought in the past through long-term study of their written language. Dr. Read more

Published on January 23, 2013 by Donald M. Thieme
5.0 out of 5 starsAn Orderly Look at the Mayan World View

As a way of preparing for an extended tour of Mayan ruins in Central America, I ordered Stuart's book and read it on my Kindle during the tour. Read more

Published on December 19, 2012 by Jack Scherting
1.0 out of 5 starsWhat? Part 2

I bought The Order of Days because my wife and I enjoyed two visits to Cobá---once with a guide and a second time riding bikes rented on the site. Read more

Published on November 29, 2012 by Robert W. Hurt
3.0 out of 5 starsDisappointing-- Expected So Much More from This Author

This book had good points and bad points but mostly I was expecting so much more from this author, a noted Mayan expert and whose previous books I've enjoyed. Read more

Published on October 7, 2012 by LostWorlds
5.0 out of 5 starsyou need to be more than a beginner

Great little book but if your're interested in the Maya. I'd suggest you not start with this one. Still, this guy has grown up in this subject and He'll definitely peak your... Read more

Published on August 30, 2012 by DrJake

There's a problem loading this menu right now.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.