Maya and Mesoamerican Studies

Edited by Arlen F. Chase and Diane Z. Chase

Series Description:

Books in this series focus on the ancient and contemporary Maya and Mesoamerican peoples of Belize, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. The goal of the series is to provide an integrated outlet for scholarly works in anthropology, archaeology, epigraphy, ethnography, and history based in this region. The series will particularly seek cutting-edge theoretical works in the form of monographs or tightly-organized edited volumes.

For more Information:

There are 25 books in this series.


Please note that while you may order forthcoming books at any time, they will not be available for shipment until shortly before publication date

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Maya Salt Works

In Maya Salt Works, Heather McKillop details her archaeological team’s groundbreaking discovery of a unique and massive salt production complex submerged in a lagoon in southern Belize. Exploring the organization of production and trade at the Paynes Creek Salt Works, McKillop offers a fascinating new look at the role of salt in the ancient Maya economy.  

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Water, Cacao, and the Early Maya of Chocolá

This exciting book brings the often-overlooked southern Maya region of Guatemala into the spotlight by closely examining the “lost city” of Chocolá. Jonathan Kaplan and Federico Paredes Umaña prove that Chocolá was a major Maya polity and reveal exactly why it was so influential.  

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Pathways to Complexity: A View from the Maya Lowlands

Pathways to Complexity synthesizes a wealth of new archaeological data to illuminate the origins of Maya civilization and the rise of Classic Maya culture. In this volume, prominent Maya scholars argue that the development of social, religious, and economic complexity began during the Middle Preclassic period (1000–300 BC), hundreds of years earlier than previously thought. 

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War Owl Falling: Innovation, Creativity, and Culture Change in Ancient Maya Society

Drawing on archaeological findings from the Maya lowlands, this book shows how innovation and creativity led to social change in ancient societies

 

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Maya E Groups: Calendars, Astronomy, and Urbanism in the Early Lowlands

This volume presents new archaeological data to reveal that E Groups were constructed earlier than previously thought. In fact, they are the earliest identifiable architectural plan at many Maya settlements. 

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Perspectives on the Ancient Maya of Chetumal Bay

Focusing on sites ringing the bay such as Cerro Maya, Oxtankah, and Santa Rita Corozal, the contributors to this volume explore how the bay and its feeder rivers affected all aspects of Maya culture from settlement, food production, and the production and use of special goods to political relationships and social organization.

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Ritual, Violence, and the Fall of the Classic Maya Kings

The contributors offer new insights into the Maya "collapse," evaluating the trope of the scapegoat king and the demise of the traditional institution of kingship in the early ninth century AD--a time of intense environmental, economic, social, political, and even ideological change.

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Ancient Maya Political Dynamics

This book explores the ways in which the dynamics of political power shaped the lives and landscape of the Maya and how this information can be used to look at other complex societies.

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Ancient Maya Pottery: Classification, Analysis, and Interpretation

Serves both as a valuable resource for archaeologists involved in pottery classification, analysis, and interpretation and as an illuminating exploration of ancient Mayan culture.

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Motul de San José: Politics, History, and Economy in a Classic Maya Polity

By presenting a coherent interdisciplinary body of archaeological and environmental data, this volume offers an intensely deep, focused investigation of the various models of the ancient Maya political and economic systems.