Secrets of the Maya

Rating:
Summary: Paints a vivid and amazing picture
Review: Compiled by the editorial staff of Archaeology Magazine, Secrets Of The Maya is an enthralling look into all that modern archaeology can tell us about the Mayan civilization, how they lived, who they were, their wars, their cruelties, and their incredible scientific achievements. Collecting twenty-nine informed and informative essays drawn from a variety of learned and scholarly authors, Secrets Of The Maya paints a vivid and amazing picture of a grand Native American civilization of antiquity. Enhanced with a section of color photography, Secrets Of The Maya is a very highly recommended contribution to any personal, professional, academic, or community library Native American Studies or Central American Archaeology reference collection or supplemental reading list.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating but flawed
Review: I couldn't resist picking up _Secrets of the Maya_, with its intriguing title and the mysterious frieze decorating its cover. It turned out to be far from perfect, but well worth reading.

The book is a collection of articles about the Maya published in Archaeology magazine during the past fifteen years. The virtue of this format is that the articles provide a kind of play-by-play review of many of the major advances and changes that have taken place in our understanding of the Mayan world during this time. The major disadvantage is that a collection of articles reporting on a wide range of topics and spanning 15 years makes it very hard to piece together a coherent overview. A brief introduction by T. Patrick Culbert, emeritus professor of archaeology at the University of Arizona, helps a bit, but more was needed. Separate introductions to each of the four sections: Politics, War and Survival, Arts, Religion & Culture, Reading the Maya Past, and An Endangered History would have made a big difference, as would some kind of summation to tie it all together.

Probably the greatest advance described in the book is the breaking of the code of the intricate glyphs that cover columns and facades throughout the Mayan world. It's obvious that the task is far from complete, with scholars still arguing over interpretations. But it's equally clear that Mayan scholars have made a great deal of progress in assembling a meaningful history of the Maya based on their written records. Other major advances include the realization that the Maya were not, as was thought earlier, a peaceful society run by otherworldly theocrats. Instead (not all that surprisingly) they emerge as a dynamic, ever-changing grab-bag of city-states. They forged and broke alliances, warred with each other, exploited, changed and eventually degraded their environment, and, like the Aztecs, had their own set of strange and bloody customs. More recently, we learn, archaeologists and governments have had to try to deal with the ravages of widespread looting, and archaeologists have been attacked by armed bands intent on keeping the ruins to themselves. To their credit, at least a few Mayan scholars have begun to collaborate with Mayans living today, not just to help find or excavate sites, but to help the researchers understand and interpret what they find, as guides into the Mayan worldview, and to tap into their traditional knowledge of the medicinal properties of more than 200 species of plants.

Secrets of the Maya does have one glaring flaw--its almost total lack of illustrations. The book contains some small maps, one or two photos of archaeologists, and just nine other fairly unimpressive plates. When I have toured Maya sites, I've been overwhelmed by the impact of the massive structures, the power of the carvings, and the sheer beauty of the settings. I can't understand why the editors of this book decided not to include more pictures and better pictures. They could have brought what the authors were often laboring to describe to life.

The articles seemed to me to get better with time. I thought the best was near the end, a chapter by Tom Gidwitz featuring joint work by Culbert and two NASA scientists who used a variety of high- and low-tech approaches to surveying the swampy Mayan lowlands. They've been able to demonstrate that the ancient Maya performed enormous engineering feats to turn vast swamps into the productive farmland that was needed to support a huge population. The chapter also presents an intriguing and largely convincing history of over-exploitation of these wetlands by the Maya which may have contributed to the devastating 200-year drought that struck the entire region around 800 AD, and which clearly left the Mayan civilization extremely vulnerable to that drought.

The book has its strengths and weaknesses, but it certainly whetted my appetite for some of the books in its "further reading" list. I'm eager to find out what secrets of the Maya remain to be revealed.

Robert Adler, author of Science Firsts: From the Creation of Science to the Science of Creation (John Wiley & Sons, Sept. 2002).

Rating:
Summary: A good solid introduction to Mayan history
Review: I'm an armchair archaeologist and this book provided a very good, solid introduction to Mayan culture and history. Some of the information was new to me, particularly the chapter on Mayan medicine. It's a beautiful book and would make a great gift for anyone with an interest in the Mayans.

Rating:
Summary: What we have learned about ancient Mayan culture to date
Review: In Secrets Of The Maya, the editorial staff of Archaeology Magazine collaborate to provide an informed and informative survey of what we have learned about ancient Mayan culture to date. The Maya (located in the rain forests of Central America) were long thought to be devout, peace-loving peasants guided by gentle priest-kings, but recent finds have exposed the Mayans as a complex, sophisticated urban society ruled by egomanical kings who waged incessant warfare and turned powerful kingdoms into vast empires. Human sacrifice was common, as were elaborate trading relationships, agricultural techniques, astronomical observations, and the creation of the only system of writing native to the Americas. Secrets Of The Maya should be a very high-priority addition to academic and community library Central American Archaeological Studies collections and supplemental reading lists.