Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • 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
Water and Ritual: The Rise and Fall of Classic Maya Rulers

Water and Ritual: The Rise and Fall of Classic Maya Rulers

Lucero, Lisa J.

Paperback

Series: Linda Schele Series in Maya and Pre-Columbian Studies

Native American HistoryArchaeology

ISBN10: 0292726112
ISBN13: 9780292726116
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Published: Mar 1 2006
Pages: 269
Weight: 0.88
Height: 0.61 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English

In the southern Maya lowlands, rainfall provided the primary and, in some areas, the only source of water for people and crops. Classic Maya kings sponsored elaborate public rituals that affirmed their close ties to the supernatural world and their ability to intercede with deities and ancestors to ensure an adequate amount of rain, which was then stored to provide water during the four-to-five-month dry season. As long as the rains came, Maya kings supplied their subjects with water and exacted tribute in labor and goods in return. But when the rains failed at the end of the Classic period (AD 850-950), the Maya rulers lost both their claim to supernatural power and their temporal authority. Maya commoners continued to supplicate gods and ancestors for rain in household rituals, but they stopped paying tribute to rulers whom the gods had forsaken.

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