By combining two frameworks (the Dynamic Model and that of political cycling), I use both
textual and archaeological evidence to document the origins of the Maya state. The�…

Studies of the ancient Maya have moved forward at an exceedingly rapid rate. New sites
have been discovered and long-term excavations in a series of sites and regions have�…

From approximately 400 BC, the beginning of the Late Preclassic period, to AD 378, the date
that Yax Nuun Ayiin I acceded to the throne of Tikal, the political geography of the southern�…

The Classic Maya have long presented scholars with vexing problems. One of the longest
running and most contested of these, and the source of deeply polarized interpretations, has�…

In recent decades, advances in deciphering Maya hieroglyphic writing have given scholars
new tools for understanding key aspects of ancient Maya society. This book—the first�…

Foias argues that there is no single Maya political history, but multiple histories, no single
Maya state, but multiple polities that need to be understood at the level of the lived�…

Here I discuss two sites, Cop�n and Calakmul, long associated with regional state models; I
also offer a brief overview of Palenque, Caracol, and the Petexbat�n region in the context of�…

I Piedras Negras, Guatemala (see PC. B. 539, Plate 2). The sculpted figure-holding a spear
in his right hand and wearing a magnificent quetzal-feather headdress-lived through an age�…

Thanks to many epigraphic references compiled in the last 35 years, there is a growing
consensus among Mayanists that a hegemonic state existed in the Maya Lowlands during�…