Assemblies of rectangular stone pillars, or stelae, fill the
plazas and courts of ancient Maya cities throughout the lowlands of
southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and western Honduras. Mute
testimony to state rituals that linked the king's power to rule
with the rhythms and renewal of time, the stelae document the
ritual acts of rulers who sacrificed, danced, and experienced
visionary ecstasy in connection with celebrations marking the end
of major calendrical cycles. The kings' portraits are carved in
relief on the main surfaces of the stones, deifying them as
incarnations of the mythical trees of life.
Based on a thorough analysis of the imagery and inscriptions of
seven stelae erected in the Great Plaza at Copan, Honduras, by the
Classic Period ruler "18-Rabbit-God K," this ambitious study argues
that stelae were erected not only to support a ruler's temporal
claims to power but more importantly to express the fundamental
connection in Maya worldview between rulership and the cosmology
inherent in their vision of cyclical time. After an overview of the
archaeology and history of Copan and the reign and monuments of
"18-Rabbit-God K," Elizabeth Newsome interprets the iconography and
inscriptions on the stelae, illustrating the way they fulfilled a
coordinated vision of the king's ceremonial role in Copan's
period-ending rites. She also links their imagery to key Maya
concepts about the origin of the universe, expressed in the
cosmologies and mythic lore of ancient and living Maya peoples.
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