Description
These monuments, considered sacred, were one of the community's important forms of cultural and religious expression. Stelae may have held the essence of rulers they commemorated, and the objects remained loci for reverence of those rulers after they died. Using a variety of evidence, O'Neil examines how the forms, compositions, and contexts of the sculptures invited people to engage with them and the figures they embodied looks at these monuments not as inert bearers of images but as palpable presences that existed in real space at specific historical moments. Her analysis brings to the fore the material and affective force of these powerful objects that were seen, touched, and manipulated in the past.
O'Neil investigates the monuments not only at the moment of their creation but also in later years and shows how they changed over time. She argues that the relationships among sculptures of different generations were performed in processions, through which ancient Maya people integrated historical dialogues and ancestral commemoration into the landscape.
With the help of more than 160 illustrations, O'Neil reveals these sculptures' continuing life histories, which in the past century have included their fragmentation and transformation into commodities sold on the international art market. Shedding light on modern-day transposition and display of these ancient monuments, O'Neil's study contributes to ongoing discussions of cultural patrimony.
About the Author
Megan E. O'Neil is Visiting Assistant Professor at the College of William and Mary. She received her B.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University and her M.A. from the University of Texas at Austin. She participated in archaeological projects in Belize, Mexico, and Guatemala.
Reviews
In this fascinating book, Megan O'Neil brings to light the political and ceremonial world of a great Maya kingdom by showing how its inscribed stone monuments were carved, placed, viewed, and read in space and through time. Far from being beautiful but 'dead' objects in museums, these sculptures, as O'Neil demonstrates, were as full of life and divine force as the rulers they represented. A true tour de force of enlightened scholarship!""- Michael D. Coe, author of The Maya and Breaking the Maya Code
Book Information
ISBN 9780806142579
Author Megan E. O'Neil
Format Hardback
Page Count 272
Imprint University of Oklahoma Press
Publisher University of Oklahoma Press
Weight(grams) 884g
Dimensions(mm) 254mm * 203mm * 23mm