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FEBRUARY 2017
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$45.00 CLOTH 978-0-8061-5569-2
SANDY SEE, PUBLICIST
360 PAGES, 8 X 10
UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS
104 B&W ILLUS., 87 TABLES
TEL: 405 325 3200
LATIN AMERICA/LANGUAGE
FAX: 405 325 4000
[email protected]
TH T H E M A Y A C A L E N D A R A Book of Months, 400–2000 CE
By Weldon Lamb By �,��� years ago, speakers of proto-Ch’olan, the ancestor of three present-day Maya languages, had developed a calendar of eighteen twenty-day months plus a set of five days for a total of ��� days. This original Maya calendar, used extensively during the Classic period (���–��� CE), recorded in hieroglyphic inscriptions the dates of dynastic and cosmological importance. Over time, and especially after the Mayas’ contact with Europeans, the month names that had originated with these inscriptions developed into fourteen distinct traditions, each connected to a different ethnic group. Today oday,, the glyphs encompass ��� standard forms, variants, and alternates, with about ��� meanings among all the cognates, synonyms, and homonyms. In The Maya Calendar, Calendar, Weldon Lamb collects, defines, and correlates the month names in every recorded Maya calendrical tradition from the first hieroglyphic inscriptions to the present—an undertaking critical to unlocking and understanding the iconography and cosmology of the ancient Maya world. Mining data from astronomy, ethnography, ethnography, linguistics, and epigraphy,, and working from early and modern dictionaries of the Maya languages, Lamb pieces together accurate definitions epigraphy of the month names in order to compare them across acr oss time and tradition. His exhaustive process r eveals unsuspected parallels. Three-fourths of the month names, he shows, still derive from those of the original hieroglyphic inscriptions. Lamb also traces the relationship between month names as cognates, synonyms, or homonyms, and then reconstructs each name’s history of development, connecting the Maya month names in several calendars to ancient texts and archaeological finds. In this landmark study study,, Lamb’s Lamb’s investigations afford aff ord new insight into the agricultural, astronomical, ritual, and even political motivations behind names and dates in the Maya calendar. calendar. A history of descent and diffusion, of unexpected connectedness and longevity, The Maya Calendar offers Calendar offers readers a deep understanding of a foundational aspect of Maya culture. Weldon Lamb is
Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at New Mexico St ate University and an expert on Maya astronomy, calendrics, and hieroglyphic writing.
Available from online booksellers, in bookstores, and directly from the University of Oklahoma Press: 1 800 627 7377 or www.oupress.com. For author interview please contact: Sandy See, Publicist at the University of Oklahoma Press, at 405 325 3200 or
[email protected].
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