Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Maya: A Very Short Introduction

The Maya: A Very Short Introduction

Restall, Matthew
Solari, Amara

Paperback

Series: Very Short Introductions

Central American HistoryGeneral World History

Publisher Price: $13.99

ISBN10: 0190645024
ISBN13: 9780190645021
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: Oct 21 2020
Pages: 152
Weight: 0.25
Height: 0.40 Width: 4.30 Depth: 6.80
Language: English
The Maya forged one of the greatest societies in the history of the ancient Americas -- and in all of human history. Long before contact with Europeans, Maya communities built spectacular cities with large, well-fed large populations. They mastered the visual arts, and developed a sophisticated writing system that recorded extraordinary knowledge in calendrics, mathematics, and astronomy. The Maya achieved all this without area-wide centralized control. There was never a single, unified Maya state or empire, but always numerous, evolving ethnic groups speaking dozens of distinct Mayan languages. The people we call Maya never thought of themselves as such; yet something definable, unique, and endlessly fascinating - what we call Maya culture - has clearly existed for millennia. So what was their self-identity and how did Maya civilization come to be invented?

With the Maya historically subdivided and misunderstood in so many ways, the pursuit of what made them the Maya is all the more important. In this Very Short Introduction, Restall and Solari explore the themes of Maya identity, city-state political culture, art and architecture, the Maya concept of the cosmos, and the Maya experience of contact with -- including invasion by -- outsiders. Despite its brevity, this book is unique for its treatment of all periods of Maya civilization, from its origins to the present.

Also in

Central American History

View All