In 1990 Mayanists Linda Schele and David Freidel published AForest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya. Combining archaeological
evidence with history deciphered from Maya inscriptions and glyphs, this popular
book made the mysterious Maya more accessible to twentieth-century readers.
Linda Schele (1942-1998) had been deeply involved in the
decipherment of Maya hieroglyphic writing and, by the 1980s, had developed a
way of interpreting the essence of Maya society through the integration of
studies of its art, archaeology, and hieroglyphic writing. This approach was
exemplified in A Forest of Kings, which she cowrote with Freidel. Their story
was one of war, territorial expansion, and the very great impact of
ritual-particularly ritual associated with the passage of time. A Forest of
Kings was structured around detailed discussions of each of the Maya centers
that allowed Schele and Freidel to weave inscriptions, art, architecture, and
archaeology into a persuasive tapestry of life among the classic Maya.
Significantly, Schele and Freidel sought to maximize the impact of the
deciphered inscriptions in the sense that they could "go beyond" the
translated text and empirical evidence to produce plausible interpretations of
Maya life.
Further Reading
Coe, M. 2000. Breaking the Maya code: The last great decipherment of an ancient
script. Rev. ed. London: Penguin. Proskouriakoff, T. 1960. Historical
implications of a pattern of dates at Piedras Negras, Guatemala. American
Antiquity 25 (4): 454-475. Schele, L., and D. Freidel. 1990. A forest of kings:
The untold story of the ancient Maya. New York: Morrow. Solomon, C. 2003.
Tatiana Proskouriakoff, interpreting the Ancient Maya. Norman: University of
Oklahoma Press.
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