Product Description

The mystique of the pre-Columbian Maya has prompted much speculation about the nature of this sophisticated people. With the breaking of their elaborate hieroglyphic code, Schele and Freidel, Mayan scholars of note, provide a new look at the Maya. Structured on sound scholarly principles, their presentation abounds in notes, references, indexes, and chronologies with profuse line-drawings of temple and other inscriptions. They devote a chapter to each of the major Mayan city-states. What makes this volume more accessible and of greater impact than the average scholarly study are the frequent vignettes of great events, kingly acts, etc., told dramatically, in a fictive but plausible style that allows the ancient Maya at last to speak for themselves. Recommended for informed laypersons, as well as specialist and young adult readers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #84162 in Books
• Published on: 1993-10-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

Customer Reviews

Mayan history was never so fun to read!
This book is phenomenal. Linda Schele is a gift to Mayan studies. She brings the Maya to life through her work reading and translating the ancient pictographs. This book has the glyphs themselves translated syllable for syllable in the context of the history as it is understood. Pictures of Mayan art and recreative semi-fictional vignettes literally bring ancient Cental America to life.

For those who want to know more about the Maya but cannot afford a trip to Mexico or Guatemala, this book offers a fascinating look at MesoAmerica that will change your perception of the world.

Fact-packed newly-understood "true" Maya history.
I have read this book twice, and recently (Jan-Feb'99) carried it with me on a trip to Palenque and Yucatan. Translated some of the epigraphics at Palenque into Spanish for tourists and employees of the site. Their urgent request: WHERE CAN WE GET THIS WORK IN SPANISH?! The rich, dense text, full of historical and epigraphical references, gives a dense, full picture of Maya culture -- at least the ruling ahau culture -- as it has rarely been seen or published before. The writers have made a good effort at aiming their work at your average lay-Mayanist, who does not possess the expertise or desire to rummage through hundreds of scholarly papers or books dense with pottery sequences. As a result, their work can open knowledge of the ancient American Maya to an audience which hungers to learn more of that history. Please, please, consider publishing a Spanish translation, or, if this has been done, PLEASE publicize and distribute that translation. An entire new world is waiting. The governments and anthropoligical/archeological institutes of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras must understand how many Spanish-speaking people want such a work!

Comprehensive, readable and authoritative!
When I was first introduced to "A Forest of Kings" by Linda Schele and David Freidel, I was, frankly, a bit suspicious. Another book on the Maya by a couple of well-meaning outsiders focusing on bloodletting and the mysterious ballcourts? I was surprised to find this book to be scholarly, highly readable and not goulishly focused on the bloodier aspects of this ancient culture. Their deft translation of Mayan pictographs and symbolism is very well done. The book is loaded with black and white line drawings of carvings and inscriptions with translations along side. There are detailed explanations of Mayan cosmology and an explanation of the calendar reputed to be the most accurate ever invented. It also includes extensive notes for each chapter. I don't know how else they could have been handled, but reading "A Forest of Kings" involved having several book marks at once, so I could read the notes, refer back to other illustrations and photos and keep my place in the text. Over all, it's fascinating reading for an amatuer who's fascinated with the Maya. I only wish I'd had this book when I visited the Yucatan!