A Maya Universe in Stone focuses on Laxtunich Lintel 1, an ancient Maya relief sculpture. Such intensive examinations of singular works remain rare in publications related to the ancient Americas, yet objects as complex as this lintel, with layered iconographic and hieroglyphic content and a rich social life, warrant thorough exposition. The authors convincingly argue that this sculpture and three additional lintel reliefs were originally part of two buildings at a single site on the Guatemalan side of the Usumacinta River, that they were produced over a brief span, perhaps less than a decade, in the late-eighth century, and that they were carved by a single sculptor, Mayuy, who signed two of them. The rich, close analysis of Mayuy’s sculptures is organized into four chapters, each crafted by different but overlapping groups of scholars and each approaching the carvings from a different perspective.
Chapter 1, “Orphaned Carvings” by the book’s...
University of California Press