Death and the Classic Maya Kings
Like 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.
Focusing on the Classic Period (AD 250-900), 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 funerary behavior. Exploring ancient Maya attitudes toward death expressed at well-known sites such as Tikal, Guatemala, and Copan, Honduras, as well as less-explored archaeological locations, Fitzsimmons reconstructs royal mortuary rites and expands our understanding of key Maya concepts including the afterlife and ancestor veneration.
Fitzsimmons is the first to attempt to survey the entire corpus of Lowland Maya hieroglyphic texts, iconography, and archaeological site documentation relating to royal death, burial, and afterlife. It is an ambitious undertaking, but Fitzsimmons rises to the challenge and has produced a book that makes a lasting contribution to Maya archaeology.
James L. Fitzsimmons is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Middlebury College and is currently directing excavations at the site of Zapote Bobal, Guatemala.
- A Note on Orthography
- Acknowledgments
- Chapter 1: Celebrations for the Dead
- Anthropology and Death Rituals
- The Classic Maya Case
- Methodological Concerns
- Kingship and the Ancestors
- Chapter 2: Death and the Afterlife in the Lowlands
- Earth
- Maize
- Mortality
- Writing Death
- The Self and the Soul
- Breaths of Life and Death
- Way
- To the Afterlife
- Celestial Bodies and Maize Gods
- Chapter 3: Royal Funerals
- Waiting for Interment
- Gravemakers
- Tombs as Underworld Surfaces
- Tombs as Caves
- Tombs as Houses
- Timing and the Ritual Process
- Embalming and Processing
- Dressing and Bundling the Corpse
- Painting
- Arranging the Body, Arranging the Furniture
- Sealing the Tomb
- Chapter 4: Death and Landscape
- K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo'
- Lowland Founders and Local Variations
- Cults of Personality
- Bird Jaguar IV
- Gods and Orchards at Palenque
- Souls within Buildings
- Ancestor Shrines
- Chapter 5: Entering the Tombs of the Classic Maya Kings
- Patterns of Reentry at Piedras Negras
- Fire in the Motmot Burial
- Fire and History at Tonina
- Family Affairs
- False Reentry
- Painting, Drilling, and Bone Peeling
- The Portable Dead
- Chapter 6: The Dead King and the Body Politic
- Royal Funerals: Public or Private?
- Bodies and Monuments
- Corpses, Souls, and Mourners in Transition
- Guide to Appendixes
- Appendix 1: Burial Structures and Contexts
- Appendix 2: Body Preparations and Funerary Activities
- Appendix 3: Grave Goods
- Notes
- References
- Index
Social Identities in the Classic Maya Northern Lowlands
Gender, Age, Memory, and Place
By Traci Ardren
