The Lords of Tikal: Rulers of an Ancient Maya City

by Peter D. Harrison, Colin Renfrew (Foreword), Jeremy A. Sabloff (Foreword)

The Maya metropolis of Tikal was once one of the greatest cities in the world, and today it has become one of the most visited Maya sites. Drawing upon more than thirty years of excavation and research, Peter D. Harrison gives a vivid account of the turbulent history of Tikal. Strategically located, the city served as a major center of trade and as an architectural style-setter for the central Peten region of the Maya Lowlands. The apogee of power and wealth was achieved between A.D. 692 and 800 under the reigns of three generations of the Jaguar Claw clan, whose ruling lords built the Great Temples that symbolize the character and individuality of the city. Some of these Great Temples served as mortuary structures, and the contents of the tombs--from mosaic masks and jade jewelry to beautiful ceramics and alabaster bowls--hint at the richness of life as a lord of Tikal. Making full use of the remarkable recent breakthroughs in translating the Maya's own hieroglyphic record, Professor Harrison summarizes what is known to date of this mysterious city and its rulers.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1999

Reviews

[Roxanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I sometimes wonder if I'm the only person in the world who does research before her honeymoon--not travel research, research on archaeology. This book was pretty good. Harrison is one of the original University of Penn researchers who excavated at Tikal, and this book draws on his own and his colleagues' findings there. Harrison describes the city itself in great detail, and goes step by step through the known chronology to date.

This book would have been great in full color. That said, it is beautifully illustrated and has lots of terrific images. I definitely feel like I have a good background in Tikal's history, which will be nice since we'll only have one day there and Harrison specifically recommends at least three. But at least we're going. I'm really excited. I photocopied some pages to reference when we get there. I have to get out my hieroglyph books.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad overall book on the Maya. I bit more into the archeological side of things than the history than I like but it does the job OK. Slow read as it is full of complex detail. Recommended

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peter D. Harrison's The Lords of Tikal: Rulers of an Ancient Maya City looked to me like a potentially boring read. Thankfully, it wasn't. When I last visited the Maya sites in Yucatán, archeologists were able to translate only those glyphs related to the Calendar. Some archeologists thought that the whole language was nothing but a gloss on the calendar, just as the Inca quipus or knotted cords were for providing counts of selected commodities.

Since then, however, it was discovered that the Mayan glyphs were actually a language; and much of that language resulted in the Maya actually having a history. Harrison's book looks at the Maya city of Tikal in the jungles of Guatemala and goes through the history as told in a series of commemorative glyphs commissioned by the divine calakmes, or kings, on the occasion of a conquest or the completion of a katun, or twenty-year period of rule.

After some point in the 9th century AD, Tikal was abandoned. Throughout the Maya area, for various reasons, the highly organized city/states consumed too many lives in wars with neighboring cities and in building pyramids, temples, stelae, and other structures at the behest of the king. Rule became distributed among members of a council of nobles who did not need the massive superstructure that a gigantic ceremonial center like Tikal required.

[Aubrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Prep material for our trip. This is a very detailed account of the ruins in Tikal, Guatemala and the lords that once occupied them. The book is fairly dry covering dates, locations, and glyphs. Not much is elaborated on Mayan rituals, way of life, or their demise. A very informative book, but missing discoveries from the last ten years.

[Clifford · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book about twenty years ago when it was newly published. About three years ago I visited Tikal and took a tour around the site. It was amazing. So I read the book again recently to get a better understanding about what I saw at Tikal. The author does a good job of explaining the history and significance of the site, and the place of Tikal in the world of the Maya. If I get a chance to visit Tikal again, I will read this book again to prepare for the visit.

[Robert Swanson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Detailed description of Tikal.

Enjoyable information after having visited the site several weeks ago.