Book - BookDetective

Name: A Forest of Kings

Full name: A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya

Author: Linda Schele
Year: 1990
Rank:

Rating:

Original Rating:

Pop Rating:

Genres/categories:
History, Non Fiction, Historical fiction

Purchase/reserch links:

Amazon

Goodreads

LibraryThing

ISBNs:
9780688112042
0688112048

Recent interpretation of Maya hieroglyphs has given the 1st written history of the New World as it existed before the European invasion. In this book, two of the 1st central figures in the effort to decode the glyphs, Linda Schele & David Freidel, detail this history. A Forest of Kings is the story of Maya kingship, from the beginning of its institution & the 1st great pyramid builders 2000 years ago to the decline of Maya civilization & its destruction by the Spanish. Here the great rulers of pre-Columbian civilization come to life again with the decipherment of their writing. At its height, Maya civilization flourished under great kings like Shield-Jaguar, who ruled for over 60 years, expanding his kingdom & building some of the most impressive works of architecture in the ancient world. Long placed on a mist-shrouded pedestal as austere, peaceful stargazers, Maya elites are now known to have been the rulers of populous, aggressive city-states.
Hailed as "a Rosetta stone of Maya civilization" (Brian M. Fagan, author of People of the Earth), A Forest of Kings is "a must for interested readers," says Evon Vogt, Harvard anthropology professor.