Death and the Classic Maya Kings - 9780292718906

Death and the Classic Maya KingsAuthor(s): James L. Fitzsimmons\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: University of Texas Press, United States\nImprint: University of Texas Press\nISBN-13: 9780292718906, 978-0292718906\nSynopsis\nLike their regal counterparts in societies around the globe, ancient Maya rulers departed this world with elaborate burial ceremonies and lavish grave goods, which often included ceramics, red pigments, earflares, stingray spines, jades, pearls, obsidian blades, and mosaics. Archaeological investigation of these burials, as well as the decipherment of inscriptions that record Maya rulers' funerary rites, have opened a fascinating window on how the ancient Maya envisaged the ruler's passage from the world of the living to the realm of the ancestors.\n\nFocusing on the Classic Period (AD [tel], James Fitzsimmons examines and compares textual and archaeological evidence for rites of death and burial in the Maya lowlands, from which he creates models of royal Maya funer.