Maya Exploration Center: Education Through Exploration
Resources
SUGGESTED READING
This collection of books is designed to give visitors, tourists and students a better understanding of the ancient Maya. Dr. Barnhart suggests the following books based on a variety of topics.

When you buy your books on Amazon.com through these links (or by entering Amazon from here to buy anything they offer) a portion of your purchase is donated to Maya Exploration Center. Please bookmark this page and do all your Amazon shopping through MEC's portal!
Shop at Amazon.com Pick a Category

Archaeoastronomy Articles Chiapas Contact Period

Order | More...

More...

Order | More...

Order | More...
General Hieroglyphics Art Mathematics

Order | More...

Order | More...

Order | More...

Order | More...
Religion Ethnography Video Yucatan

Order | More...

Order | More...

Order | More...

Order | More...


Archaeoastronomy

The Sky in Mayan Literature
by Anthony F. Aveni

Skywatchers : A Revised and Updated Version of Skywatchers of Ancient Mexico
by Anthony F. Aveni

Maya Cosmos: Three Thousand Years on the Shaman's Path
by David Freidel, Linda Schele, Joy Parker

Star Gods of the Maya: Astronomy in Art, Folklore, and Calendars (The Linda Schele Series in Maya and Pre-Columbian Studies)
by Susan Milbrath Maya Political Science: Time, Astronomy, and the Cosmos
by Prudence Rice

Astronomy and the Maya Calendar Correlation
by Paul Campbell



Articles

Although these are not available through Amazon.com, you might be able to find them on Google or eBay.

1980 "The Sun, Moon and Venus at Uxmal", American Antiquity 45: 79-86
Lamb, Weldon
Summary: Astronomy evidence from Uxmal

1990 America's Ancient Skywatchers. National Geographic, Vol. 177, No. 3, March 1990, pp76-107
by Carlson, John
Summary: An article explaining the cosmologies of multiple Pre-Columbian cultures. John Carlson is one of the foremost authorities on ancient Maya astronomy.

1978 "Maya Numeration, Computation and Calendarical Astronomy," Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Volume 15, supplement 1, Charles Scribners Sons, New York.
Lounsbury, Floyd
Summary: An article describing the nature of Maya mathematics from one of the foremost authorities.



Chiapas

Living Maya
by Walter F. Morris, Jr. and Jeffrey J. Foxx

Four Creations: An Epic Story of the Chiapas Maya
by Gary Gossen

Life, Ritual, and Religion Among the Lacandon Maya
by R. Jon McGee

Yaxchilan: The design of a Maya ceremonial city
by Carolyn Elaine Tate

The Zinacantecos of Mexico: A Modern Mayan Way of Life
by Evon Zartman Vogt

The Mystery of the Maya: Uncovering the Lost City of Palenque
by Peter Lourie

The Last Lords of Palenque: The Lacandon Mayas of the Mexican Rain Forest
by Victor Perea, Robert D. Bruce

Mayan Tales from Zinacantan: Dreams and Stories from the People of the Bat
by Robert Laughlin and Carol Karasik





Contact Period

The Conquest of the Last Maya Kingdom
by Grant D. Jones

Maya Resistance to Spanish Rule: Time and History on a Colonial Frontier
by Grant D. Jones

Ambivalent Conquests : Maya and Spaniard in Yucatan, 1517-1570 (Cambridge Latin American Studies)
by Inga Clendinnen, Alan Knight

Yucatan Before and After the Conquest
by Diego De Landa



General Maya

The Maya, Seventh Edition (Ancient Peoples and Places)
by Michael D. Coe

Ancient Mexico and Central America: Archaeology and Culture History
by Susan Toby Evans

The Lords of Tikal: Rulers of an Ancient Maya City
by Peter Harrison

Excavations at Seibal, Department of Peten, Guatemala
edited by Gordon Willey

Prehistoric Mesoamerica
by Richard E. W. Adams

Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens: Deciphering the Dynasties of the Ancient Maya
by Simon Martin, Nikolai Grube

A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya
by Linda Schele, David Freidel

The CODE OF KINGS: The Language of Seven Sacred Maya Temples and Tombs
by Linda Schele, Peter Mathews, Macduff Everton, Justin Kerr

The Ancient Maya
by Robert J. Sharer

Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, Vol. 1
by John L. Stephens

The Major Gods of Ancient Yucatan (Studies in Pre-Columbian Art and Archaeology)
by Karl Andreas Taube

Turquoise Trail: Native American Jewelry and Culture of the Southwest
by Carol Karasik

Time and the Highland Maya
by Barbara Tedlock

Popol Vuh : The Definitive Edition Of The Mayan Book Of The Dawn Of Life And The Glories Of
by Dennis Tedlock

Popol Vuh: The Sacred Book of the Mayas
by Allen Christenson

The Fall of the Ancient Maya: Solving the Mystery of the Maya Collapse
by David Webster

Heart of Creation : The Mesoamerican World and the Legacy of Linda Schele
by Andrea Stone

The Maya and Teotihuacan: Reinterpreting Early Classic Interaction (The Linda Schele Series in Maya and Pre-Columbian Studies)
by Geoffrey E. Braswell

Scribes, Warriors, and Kings: The City of Copan and the Ancient Maya, Revised Edition
by William L. Fash

Maya: Divine Kings of the Rain Forest
by Nikolai Grube, Eva Eggebrecht

Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya
by Simon Martin, Kathleen Berrin, Mary Miller

Ancient Maya Political Economies
by Marilyn A. Masson

The Terminal Classic in the Maya Lowlands: Collapse, Transition, and Transformation
by Arthur A. Demarest, Prudence M. Rice, Don S. Rice

Ancient Maya Commoners
by Jon C. Lohse, Fred, Jr. Valdez, Fred Valdez

The Olmecs: America's First Civilization
by Richard Diehl

Olmec Art of Ancient Mexico
edited by Elizabeth Benson, Beatriz de la Fuente, and Maria Castro Leal

An Archaeological Guide to Central and Southern Mexico
by Joyce Kelly

Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs
by Michael Coe and Rex Knootz



Hieroglyphics

Breaking the Maya Code
by Michael D. Coe

Reading the Maya Glyphs
by Michael D. Coe, Mark Van Stone

Understanding Maya Inscriptions: A Hieroglyph Handbook
by John F. Harris, Stephen K. Stearns

The New Catalog of Maya Heiroglyphs: The Classic Period Inscriptions (Civilization of the American Indian Series)
by Martha J. Macri, Matthew George Looper, Martha Macri

The Dresden Codex: Drawings of the Pages (Mayan Studies : No 3)
by J. Antonio Villacorta

Dictionary of Maya Hieroglyphs
by John Montgomery



Maya Art

Painting the Maya Universe: Royal Ceramics of the Classic Period (Duke University Museum of Art)
by Dorie Reents-Budet

Maya Art and Architecture (World of Art)
by Mary Ellen Miller

Art of the Maya Scribe
by Michael Coe



Maya Calendar and Mathematics

Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea
by Charles Seife, Matt Zimet

Native American Mathematics
by Michael P. Closs



Maya Religion

The Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art
by Linda Schele and Mary Miller

An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya
by Mary Miller, Karl Taube



Modern Ethnography

Maya Saints and Souls in a Changing World
by John M. Watanabe

The True History of Chocolate
by Sophie D. Coe, Michael D. Coe

I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala
by Rigoberta Menchu

The Zinacantecos of Mexico;: A modern Maya way of life, (Case studies in cultural anthropology)
by Evon Zartman Vogt

The Daykeeper, the Life and Discourse of an Ixil Diviner
by Benjamin Colby



Video

National Geographic's Lost Kingdoms of the Maya (1993)
on DVD and VHS

Fall of the Aztec and Maya Empires (1999)
on DVD and VHS

Nova - The Lost King of the Maya (2001)
on VHS

The Rise and Fall of the Aztec and Maya Empires
DVD



Yucatan Peninsula

Cenote of Sacrifice: Maya Treasures from the Sacred Well at Chichen Itza
by Orrin Shane, Clemency Coggins, Orrin C. Shane

The Indian background of colonial Yucatan, (The Civilization of the American Indian series)
by Ralph Loveland Roys

The Caste War of Yucatan
by Nelson A. Reed, Nelson Reed

On the Edge of the Sea: Mural Painting at Tancah-Tulum
by Arthur G. Miller

Chichen Itza: History, Art and Monuments
by Susana Vogel

An Archaeological Guide to Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula
by Joyce Kelly

The House of the Governor: A Maya Palace of Uxmal, Yucatan, Mexico (Civilization of the American Indian Series)
by Jeff Kowalski





If you are a student currently enrolled, or considering enrolling, in one of our Study Abroad courses, you are under no obligation to buy or read these books in order to participate. This list is simply offered as a courtesy for those who wish to learn more about Mayan civilization.
Dr. Barnhart Pics















Suggested reading books can be bought at Amazon.com JungleCasts with Dr. Barnhart