The Materialization of Time in the Ancient Maya World

Newunderstandings of how Maya people expressed timekeeping in daily life

This book discussesthe range of ways the ancient Maya people made time tangible through their architecture,arts, writing, beliefs, and practices. These chapters show how the Maya incorporatedcyclicality and expanded dimensionality into the built environment, embeddingnotions of time in shared political and economic institutions, religious andphilosophical traditions, and mythology.

Beginningseveral millennia ago, the Maya observed and calculated the solar year cycle andscheduled collective activities that integrated cities, towns, and villagesover great distances. Theirtimekeeping approaches evolved from commemorative ceremonial architecturalcomplexes starting around 1000 BCE to the formal public inscription of calendarjubilees on stone monuments, the use of calendar almanacs, written propheticand historical accounts, and the customs of modern priest shamans. Contributorsto this volume discuss everyday examples of how the Maya kept time through thesepractices, including divining with snail shells, laying out center designs withcreation stories and star patterns, singing those stories while drinking fromvases depicting mythic history, and embedding symbolic temporal deposits withintheir buildings and living areas.

Thiscomprehensive volume includes analyses of groundbreaking recent discoveries,such as the early center of Aguada Fénix and the connections it shows betweenMaya and Olmec timekeeping. By sharing how the Maya crafted a cosmologicalsense of time into their daily lives, TheMaterialization of Time in the Ancient Maya World addresses and rethinksthe most famous intellectual feature of this civilization.

Avolume in the series Maya Studies, edited by Diane Z. Chase and Arlen F. Chase