Steve GlassmanRezensionen

This isn’t that type of book I would normally pick for this project, but it was a freebie from an early reviewer program. While the book contains a lot of useful information, I would hesitate before recommending it to anyone. It reads more like a textbook than anything else, and doesn’t have the rhetorical pizazz of some modern popular historians. Both the detailed histories and intricate mythologies of the various sites are pretty dense. This alone makes it a little tricky to wade through.

In addition, the illustrations in this book are a mixed bag. There are great pictures of actual artifacts and ruins (although only in black and white), but the maps are slightly crude. Granted, you wouldn’t use this book to actually traverse the Yucatan Peninsula, it still creates a jarring juxtaposition. On the plus side, the bibliography is fairly extensive and contains many other related works that might be worth reading.

http://lifelongdewey.wordpress.com/2012/10/12/972-cities-of-the-maya-in-seven-ep...

I have been an avid reader of books about archaeology since the tender age of five when my father introduced me to Budge's books on Ancient Egypt. Later, as a college history major, I took a course on Aztec history as an elective, to add a little spice to the otherwise boring curriculum of European and American history. Currently at age 62, I contribute to history as a demonstrator and re-enacter of 19th Century American History. So it was with anticipation that I received a copy of "Cities of the Maya" to review.

My first impression of the book was that it would be a good read. As it turns out, one of the authors is a professor of Humanities, and has written books of fiction as well as taught English and creative writing. The other is a real life archaeologist, a native of the country which is home to the Maya. This book was so engaging that I hated to put it down. In one chapter, Glassman has put flesh and blood to the stone carvings on a stela which was created to impress people with the power and glory of the current warrior king, Great Jaguar Paw. We get to know the thoughts in the mind of this great king as he faces the biggest challenge of his life, and the setting in which he places his trust -- the ceremony of the ball court. I will leave you to read the book to see what happens to him and his city.

For a more academic look at the book, it begins with a fine introduction outlining the lives of the many explorers and archaeologists who faced dangerous and harsh conditions to locate and uncover the past. Then the narrative continues through the many eras of Mayan history, starting with the preceeding civilization of the Olmecs which gave rise to the cultural milieu for the Maya to create their long lasting empire which still exists in the present as a background for the countries of Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize.

The text is accompanied by maps, illustrating the interrelationship between Mayan city-states, and by some black and white photos of significant buildings, stelae, and carvings which are examples of history and culture. These exhibits enhance the narrative by showing the faces of some of the rulers and the very imposing structures which were built to support the system of the divine king who ruled with the permission of the Mayan gods and acted as an intermediary between the people and the cosmos.

Mayan religion, which has been shown to be particulary blood-thirsty, worked for over two thousand years. Unlike the Aztecs who were late comers to the neighborhood, the Mayan ruling class made the personal sacrifice of their own blood in a ritual that was part of other ceremonies, such as the sacred ball game. These practices, and why they were so important, are discussed in the text.

Once a great mystery, the downfall of this elaborate religious state, has now been explained. Many different factors combined to cause the Mayan state to collapse in on itself. They include climate change, the failure of the divine king centered political system, and the conquest by the Spanish conquistadores. Two of the great gifts given to the world by this culture are it's elaborate art and architecture, and the most detailed and accurate calendar system that continue to fascinate us all today.

I hated for this book to come to a close, but like all epic novels, the story does come to an end. Unlike a novel, this book would make an excellent text book for a Mesoamerican History class. The annotated bibliography at the back of the book gives the reader a chance to continue his reading about the Maya and further immerse himself in the many gifts this civilization has brought to the world.

I hesitated before actually picking up this book and reading it. I feared that I might get bored reading about an area I know little about. But that was not the case. As I read through the "seven epochs" this book covers, I found that I really wanted to continue and find out more the Maya and their history and culture. The Maya people inhabited, and still inhabit the Yucatan peninsula, located in southern Mexico, but also comprising Belize, and much of Guatemala. This may have been the most advanced civilization in the Western Hemisphere, with vast step pyramids, and the use of a detailed calendar. We can trace much of their history through their writing.

The Mayan hit their peak around 700 CE, when parts of their peninsula began to suffer a long term drought, so many of the Mayan sites became overgrown. When the Spanish conquistadors came in the 1500's, it was not possible for them to see the greatness of the Mayas. And the big use of human sacrifice also made it hard for them to appreciate Mesoamerica peoples.

The seven epochs start with the Olmec period, significant, if not properly Mayan. The epoch of the Mirador basin (after 1000 BCE) deals with religion and architecture. The third epoch is the story of the city of Tikal(250-550 CE), whose ruins were not discovered until the 1840's. This was a grand city with temples surrounding an "Acropolis." The fourth epoch charts the rise of Calakmul, a competing "superpower". The fifth epoch takes the reader through their greatness, but brings in the rivals outside the Mayan direct territory of Copan to the southeast and Teotihuacan near Mexico City. The sixth epoch is the one of decay (800-1100). The final epoch brings in the conquering Europeans. The struggle by the Mayans to have some kind of independend lasted actually to 1903, when the Mexico secured its full dominance in th region.

The authors do pay attention to domestic life in the cities, food and housing, beyond that of the great architecture and shamanistic type religion, which are usually discussed.

I would have liked to see a map showing how the Mayan speaking territory compares with the current political boundaries of the three countries covered. This book sits half-way between being an academic treatise and a popularising book, so it might not satifsy everyone.

From about the time of the Trojan War, through the waxing and waning of Greek and Roman classic culture, up to just about the time that the Renaissance, printing, and empire builders spread Western learning across the world, a vast and complex civilization grew across Central America. It built some of the largest cities in the world, with monumental architecture and ingenious infrastructure, supporting widespread commerce. It developed written language. Astronomy and mathematics led to the most accurate calendar in the world. Despite the catastrophic destruction of knowledge perpetrated by the Conquistadors and their priests, the archeological record and a few surviving documents provide a wealth of data about the Olmec, the Maya, and their contemporaries. The data can be spotty and conflicting, but the shadowy history of this great civilization is emerging.

Unfortunately, Steve Glassman and Armando Anaya are not up to the task of telling that story in Cities of the Maya in Seven Epochs. First, the reader has to get past the frequent typos, and a few thinkos as well. There is no evidence of any copy-editing. There are passages that read like a BabelFish translation. More serious is the problem of the organization of the material. The ostensible scheme is to focus on seven successive time periods, looking at the dominant cities and culture in each. The main problem is that the authors haven't decided whether they are telling the story of the Maya or the story of the explorers, archeologists, and scientists who are uncovering and deciphering it. Since discovery doesn't happen in the order of the underlying history, there are competing timelines here, resulting in a lot of back-and-forth. While there are a lot of facts and a lot of detail, at times it seems an almost stream-of-consciousness narrative.

There is an extensive and useful list of references and an adequate index. However, despite all the facts and detail included, the book's usefulness as a reference itself is limited by the absence of any footnoting, although some sources are identified within the text. There are also rather more conjectural passages than would be common in an academic treatment and they are not always clearly delineated from the factual record.

Overall, perhaps, the book tries to do too many things to do any one thing very well.

A much-needed primer on the broad span of Maya cultural history.

Glassman & Anaya frame the book as a "what we know and when and how we learned it" account of archeological expeditions and analytical breakthroughs. They write in laymen's terms and the text is quite accessible, if rather uneven and sometimes clumsy in style.

Their approach, and the clear organization of the book into seven vignettes of Maya history, is very helpful. The book is a valuable guide to readers who can't commit to dredging through reams of highly-technical literature.

As an introduction and guidebook, however, this volume fails in its pcitorial illustrations. The photographs are scant and sometimes glaringly off-topic; the drawings are inelegant; and the maps are crude.

I received Cities of the Maya in Seven Epochs during the Stanley Cup playoffs (hockey). I've watched my team alternate between having stellar games and turning in real stinkers, but most of the games have been so-so. Perhaps those games have influenced my feelings on this title: there are some very good sections, but overall, it's hard to give a strong recommendation to it.

The preface describes how the book will be organized and what information will be found within. Somewhat surprisingly, the authors choose not to include details of the Maya calendar (or their numbering system) or a description of the bloodthirsty sports the Maya people played -- topics that are usually used to lure in readers or documentary viewers. Instead, the book splits up Maya history by "epochs," and focuses on a particular city that thrived during that time period. It mostly works, even though there are a few spots where information is given "out of order" (such as the history of Yaxuna, which had most of its grandeur in the Early Classic period explained in four pages, but only gets two paragraphs about the Terminal Classic period which is the chapter it is located in).

I had a very difficult time with the writing style in this book. There were chapters that mostly had academic style writing, but those were often interrupted by "as you remember" or "as you recall" (which rarely, if ever, appears in academic prose). One chapter had a "you are there" feel to it, as it took us on a fictionalized "day in the life of" a famous Maya ruler. There were some very odd phrases scattered throughout, like "the revolution ate its first baby" and "was not behindhand in meeting the challenge." And on each page there was usually at least one paragraph that had a sentence that just didn't quite fit with the rest of the topic. All together, these small issues added up to make it a challenge for me to read more than a few pages each night.

There were some good parts though. Although I thought it was discussed in too much depth, there was a very thorough discussion of corn/maize and how it sustained the huge populations of these cities. There were a number of larger-than-life characters that passed through the Yucatan, and many of their histories are given as background. The politics and constant warfare between Tikal and Calakmul were fascinating given that you could change the names of those cities to current nations and feel like you're reading today's newspaper.

Overall, this may make for a decent textbook for a survey course, or for a persistent self-learner wanting to get a fair overview of a complex history of the Maya. But there will be a lot of work attempting to bridge the gap between this book and other (more academic) titles on the topic for those who want further information.

[Early Reviewer book]

In the preface to Cities of the Maya in Seven Epochs, the authors Steve Glassman and Armando Anaya promise the general reader, who is largely unfamiliar with the intricacies of the Maya culture, a book that will explain the exploration and history of that culture in an easily understandable manner. Judging their work as a whole I can say that they achieved that goal. Considering that the subject of the Maya culture is so multifaceted that the study of it has kept armies of field archeologists, epigraphers, other specialists and historians busy for many decades, resulting in a multitude of publications, some of which have sparked great public interest, it is really a momentous undertaking to give such a comprehensive overview.
Steve Glassman, who describes himself as a professor of writing at Embry-Riddle University, is the author of fourteen books, among them On the Trail of the Maya Explorer: Tracing the Epic Journey of John LLoyd Stephens, one of the early explorers of the Maya area.
Armando Anaya , presently professor at University of Campeche, is an experienced archaeologist, co-author of many papers with noted Maya scholars, who has conducted research at places like La Venta, Bonampak, El Cayo and is now co-director of an archeological project on the Mexican side of the Usumacinta river. He has recently given a paper about his interesting new hypothesis about Jaina Island off the Campeche coast, which is famous for its hundreds of exquisite figurines recovered from burial sites.
Cities of the Maya in Seven Epochs begins with a chapter on the Olmec, the early finds and the first explorers of the area and proceeds to an overview of the culture with the facts scientist have uncovered so far. This recipe is followed throughout the other chapters.
In each particular area under discussion the history of the exploration includes many interesting facts about the explorers themselves,their experiences, foibles and personal histories, giving the reader a bounty of information, which otherwise to assemble, he/she would have had to read a mountain of Maya books before.
The authors' chatty tone enlivens the story, which flows easily and is full of human interest.
Schematic maps pointing out Maya sites or colonial cities are interspersed frequently in the text, making clear the area under discussion.
By making comparisons of Maya architecture and other matters with our present-day culture, by giving short timeline mentions analogous to Western history, the authors bring an otherwise often alien seeming culture closer to our understanding.
Although much subject matter needed to be discussed, considering how much archaeologists have uncovered and puzzled out in the last fifty years, the book manages to cover many areas in amazing detail without being dry.
All in all, to me, a lay Maya aficionado, the book is a well-worth read, which held my interest, even though much of it was already known to me. Yet it provided also a lot of historical information, which I had not yet come across. As an example I want to mention for instance that plaster in Maya architecture being an important fact, it was in this book that I finally learned about lime kilns and how it was actually made, including rituals and superstitions among today's Maya when burning lime, which hearken back to the mythology of their classic forebears. Another item is that Charles Lindbergh, who happened to overfly a particular area of Yucatan on his return flight from a publicity tour for Pan American Airways, discovered a Maya site and instigated the first aerial survey of Maya sites and thus started the beginnings of remote sensing, which has become one of the most useful tools in Maya archaeology. These are only two examples of many such fun historical facts hidden in this volume.
Finally I have just a few minor quibbles in what is largely a positive evaluation of this book. In an attempt perhaps to make an aspect of the Maya creation myth more fitting to the western palate, the decapitated hero father's skull drops a tear into the maiden's palm and thus impregnates her, rather than as the Maya holy book, the Popol Vuh describes that the skull spat into the maiden's palm. In another instance the ritual Maya ballgame is compared to soccer and basketball, when one of the few things known for certain about that game is that the ball was propelled with the hip or thigh and could neither be kicked nor touched with the hands other than perhaps at the very outset of the game. Many depictions of the characteristic ballplayer stance as he slides forward on his knee in order to deflect the ball with his hip, are known from Maya art especially on pottery.
Another thing that puzzled me was the interpretation of the Copan dynasty founders's name as First Quetzal Motmot, when I have only seen it translated as First Quetzal Macaw. A small portion of the text with its misspelled names seems to also have escaped the editor's red pen, but this I hope, can be remedied in future editions. Sorry, I am picky!
If the reader has been sufficiently intrigued by this book to learn more about the ancient Maya an extensive reference section at the end will serve as a source for further interesting reading.

As an amateur Mayanist I found this book highly disappointing and difficult to follow. The style of writing was very erratic, ranging from familiar and friendly to pedantic and boring. There was some structure but it needed a lot more to make it flow better. The idea was good--present Mayan civilization as an easily understandable series of chapters. Unfortunately it failed to give enough information to hold my interest.
The MLA stylesheet of citations was annoying and distracting.
The illustrations and their descriptions were crude and not at all helpful. Darts and arrows pointing to specific details rather than vague captions would have helped immeasurably. I am used to looking at and understanding Mayan art but there were some illustrations which made no sense to me or where I could not spot the details noted in the text. There were also numerous spots where illustrations would have made things in the text more clear.
I have to say I would not recommend this book to anyone who is really interested in Mayan civilization. It was as promised, an overall view but it was such a gloss it was almost useless. And the "cutesy" little stories were just that--and took away from the overall context of the book.

A note about these newly posted non-link reviews.

I was very excited to “win” this from the LibraryThing.com “Early Reviewer” program. “Archeological travel” had been a passion of mine in my 20's and 30's, and I was fortunate to be able to visit a good number of sites around the world. The Mayan sites in the Yucatan were especially attractive, largely due to their proximity (a fairly easy flight to either Merida or Cancun), and I tried to get down that way at least once a year for a while there. Needless to say, I have quite a number of books on Mayan subjects in my library (a major factor in how the “almighty algorithm” of the LTER program decides who gets what book), and I would have been rather put out had I not been selected to review this.

However, Cities of the Maya in Seven Epochs, 1250 B.C. to A.D. 1903, by Steve Glassman and Armando Anaya, is a bit of an odd bird, as it were. The authors are both college professors, one from the U.S. And one from Campeche, but they set out to produce a book that “would give an overview without getting lost in detail” for a non-specialist reader. Glassman elaborates:

Almost all good books on the Maya are written by archaeologists (or Maya art historians). They know what they are talking about. The bad news is that archaeologists, almost without exception, write for other archaeologists. So, unless you are already versed in the topic, such as a graduate student of Mesoamerican (Middle American) archaeology or art history, it is virtually impossible to understand what the authors are saying. The book in your hands meets the needs of those with an interest in the Maya, but who have not yet developed a professional interest in the topic.

I guess I should be flattered, as I'd never felt that it was “impossible to understand” what the authors of other books were saying, but I'd hardly say I have “developed a professional interest” in the Maya! Anyway, this goal on their part leaves the book out in something of a no-mans-land in terms of tone, more in-depth than what one might find in a popular magazine article or travel guide sidebar, but seemingly skittish when “in danger” of being too detailed.

The concept of the book is quite fascinating, however … taking one city to represent a particular phase of Mayan (or pre-Mayan) culture and looking at that city from various perspectives, cultural, political, economic, and, of course, archaeological. One thing that really stood out, “conspicuous in its absence” were the typical wealth of graphics … over 222 pages there were only sixty, of which 30% were maps, and while one graphic every four pages certainly qualifies as “illustrated”, it's nowhere near what one usually sees in a book on Mayan ruins (plus, a significant chunk of the images presented were from INAH, the Mexican Government's “Anthropology and History” oversight organization, or even snapped from museum signs). I don't know if they were trying to avoid too much “art history” or “archaeology”, but the dearth of author-originated images was hard to not notice.

Anyway, here's what's covered:

1. The Proto-Maya Olmec Cities of San Lorenzo and La Venta, 1250-400 B.C.: If Not the Mother Culture, and Undisputed Similar Cuture.


2. The Mirador Basin in Times Long Gone, 1000 B.C. - A.D. 150


3. Tikal, the Eternal City, Early Classic, A.D. 250-550


4. Calakmul and the Snakehead Dynasty, a Maya Superpower


5. The Tale of Two Cities, Concluded, A.D. 695-869


6. Terminal Classic in the Yucatan, A.D. 800-1000


7. Mayapan, Tayasal, and Chan Santa Cruz

Obviously, in each of these “epochs” the information that's available is different. In the earlier chapters, there's pretty much just the archaeological record, when in later chapters, other sources are available. One of the more “less technical” aspects of the book is the biographical sketches spun out for various of the “discoverers” of ruin sites (I did not know that Charles Lindbergh had been a pioneer in aerial scanning for ruins, for instance), as well as background on a few Conquistadors whose fortunes were tied to those of assorted Maya cities. This was probably the “most valuable” information here (for me at least), as much of the discussions of the sites was more conjectural as to how they “might have been” when they were in their prime as opposed to heavy-duty analysis of the ruins.

Another fascinating bit is the events covered in the last part of the book. As you can see from the list above, there's no dating for the final chapter, but the sub-title indicates the span covered goes to A.D. 1903. This last section covers the time from the “post-Classical” Mayan world, through the invasion of the Spanish, and up into the revolution and temporary independence of the Yucatan in the mid-1800s. I had read a little about this latter phase, but nowhere near in as much detail as is presented here. Obviously, the authors believe that this was the most recent (final?) phase of Maya culture.

I would be interested to hear how somebody not particularly well-read on the subject of the Maya reacts to this book. To me, in trying to be non-technical, it also loses focus and is not for any particular audience (as one would think that somebody just discovering the Maya would want lots more pictures than are in play here). Cities of the Maya in Seven Epochs, 1250 B.C. to A.D. 1903 is also very steeply priced at $38.00 for an average length, no color plates, trade paperback. This is so expensive that I had to question whether this is being produced in typical press runs, or if it's coming out from a print-on-demand source. The on-line sources have this at full retail, and I'm wondering what sort of in-store distribution it's managed given the combination of factors noted here.

I enjoyed reading this, but I have hard time recommending it, especially at 3x what similar books might be going for. It's an “interesting” approach, with some very useful material, but unless you're a “Maya aficionado” (the very audience they were trying to not write for), I can't imagine this is something that you'd be happy with. “Your mileage may vary” (and it's certainly not a bad book), but it's sort of a book without an audience from where I sit.


A link to my "real" review:
BTRIPP's review of Steve Glassman & Armando Anaya's "Cities of the Maya in Seven Epochs, 1250 B.C. to A.D. 1903" (1056 words)

Glassman and Anaya have produced a well-written, informative book. I love how accessible it is, where even if you have never formally had an training in anthropology or history you can read and even enjoy this book!!

The book is amazingly well-structured. It tells a story rather than lectures and flows through seven era, making each seem alive. This was one of the best non-fiction books I have ever read!!

Author Steve Glassman states that his goal was to write a book on the Maya that a non-expert could get their minds around. He didn't want to deliver something that a Cancun tourist would find blindingly boring with inordinate amounts of details on pottery shards and the like. The title of the book doesn't sound promising, but Glassman, with co-author and Maya expert Armando Anaya, mostly delivered on their promise.

Each chapter focuses on a different era of Maya existence and uses one or more specific cities as touch points to put flesh on the bone of this ancient Mesoamerican society. Glassman delves into a number of topics while providing his epochal overviews of exploration, anthropology, archaeology and history. The synthesis of those disciplines gives the reader insight into the issues revolving around the study of the Mayan people.

Apparently the world of Mayan academia is tensely split over what peoples spawned the race that would build enormous monuments that awe tourists 2,000+ years after they were built. Some evidence points to the Olmecs as the Mayan progenitor. The Olmec are most famously known for the enormous stone heads, but within academic circles, those heads are of very little importance as compared to some of the finer sculptures they produced out of jade and their religion which points squarely to the foundation upon which Mayan socities were based.

Corn, of course, was a key driver of the success and heartiness of the Mayan civilization. Glassman spends numerous pages (perhaps too many) investigating the whys and and particulars of maize.

The most interesting components of Glassman's book are his descriptions of the explorations that led to the discovery of the great Mayan civilizations. He discusses many of the colorful characters of the late 19th century and early 20th who schlepped ponderously around the jungles of Guatemala and heat of the Yucatan like Mathew Stirling, John Lloyd Stephens and his artist-companion Frederick Catherwood. Charles Lindbergh flew reconnaissance seeking undiscovered sites and Hernan Cortes, in the 16th century, performed his unique brand of violent and bloody Mayan discovery (and conquest) after conquering the Aztecs.

The writing is, at times, dry and kind of awkward, but Glassman delivers a pretty readable and concise history of a very deep, complex and long-lived society. If planning a visit to any of the great Mayan monuments in Mesoamerica, and you have a bent to learn more before you go, this book would be a solid choice.

I received this book as part of LibraryThing's Early reviewer program.

This book is an excellent and quite welcome overview of Maya history. As the title denotes, it is focused on individual city-states and spans seven epochs. It chronicles events and actors of these cities, such as the back-and-forth conquests between Tikal and Calakmul. This book is a culmination of modern research ad breakthroughs that I have been waiting for most of my life. It pieces together all the disparate details that have been hard-won over the decades by archaeologists, linguists, anthropologists, etc., and presents a broad portrait of Maya civilization. It still acknowledges the gaps in knowledge and mysteries so tantalizing about researching the Maya. But, a great historic summary with the most up-to-date findings. Many thanks to the authors. So good I could have read a thousand more pages.