Focuses on the progress made in deciphering the complicated Maya hieroglyphic code, effectively penetrating the world and minds of the creators of Maya art.
David A. Freidel Knihy
Profesor archeologie se specializací na vznik a vládu autoritativních systémů mezi nížinnými Mayi v předklasickém a klasickém období. Jeho práce se ponořuje do složitých struktur moci a správy, které formovaly tuto starověkou civilizaci. Zkoumá, jak se tyto systémy vyvíjely a jaký měly dopad na každodenní život a společenské uspořádání. Jeho výzkum poskytuje cenný vhled do vzestupu a pádu civilizací a do trvalé povahy lidské organizace.
The recent interpretation of Maya hieroglyphs has given us the first written history of the New World as it existed before the European invasion. In this book, two of the first central figures in the massive effort to decode the glyphs, Linda Schele and David Freidel, make this history available in all its detail. A Forest of Kings is the story of Maya kingship, from the beginning of its institution and the first great pyramid builders two thousand years ago to the decline of Maya civilization and its destruction by the Spanish. Here the great historic 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 more than sixty years, expanding his kingdom and building some of the most impressive works of architecture in the ancient world. Long placed on a mist-shrouded pedestal as austere, peaceful stargazers, the 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, professor of anthropology at Harvard University.
