Download or read book Cities of the Maya in Seven Epochs, 1250 B.C. to A.D. 1903 written by Steve Glassman and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-01-10 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Telling the story of the Maya peoples from their earliest beginnings to the start of the 20th century, this book divides the 3,000 year time span into seven distinct sections. Each provides a detailed vignette of the events, explorers, and people of a particular Maya era, starting with the tropical lowlands' Olmec civilization. Among the topics covered are the shamanistic rites by which Mesoamerican monarchs based their power to rule; the Preclassic megacity of El Mirador and its near neighbor Nakbe; the Maya creation myth of the Hero Twins and its role in organizing Maya society; and the power struggles between the cities Tikal and Calakmul.