Yaxchilan: The Design of a Maya Ceremonial City Tate, Carolyn E

As archaeologists peel away the jungle covering that has both obscured and preserved the ancient Maya cities of Mexico and Central America, other scholars have only a limited time to study and understand the sites before the jungle, weather, and human encroachment efface them again, perhaps forever This urgency underlies Yaxchilan: The Design of a Maya Ceremonial City, Carolyn Tates comprehensive catalog and analysis of all the citys extant buildings and sculpturesDuring a year of field work, Tate fully documented the appearance of the site as of 1987 For each sculpture and building, she records its discovery, present location, condition, measurements, and astronomical orientation and reconstructs its Long Counts and Julian dates from Calendar Rounds Line drawings and photographs provide a visual document of the art and architecture of YaxchilanMore than mere documentation, however, the book explores the phenomenon of art within Maya society Tate establishes a general framework of cult