Images from the underworld : Naj Tunich and the tradition of Maya cave painting / Andrea J. Stone.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stone, Andrea J., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Maya art--Guatemala.

Maya art.

Maya painting--Guatemala.

Maya painting.

Naj Tunich Site (Guatemala).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (305 pages)

Place of Publication:

Austin, Texas : University of Texas Press, 1995.

Summary:

In 1979, a Kekchi Maya Indian accidentally discovered the entrance to Naj Tunich, a deep cave in the Maya Mountains of El Peten, Guatemala. One of the world's few deep caves that contain rock art, Naj Tunich features figural images and hieroglyphic inscriptions that have helped to revolutionize our understanding of ancient Maya art and ritual. In this book, Andrea Stone takes a comprehensive look at Maya cave painting from Preconquest times to the Colonial period. After surveying Mesoamerican cave and rock painting sites and discussing all twenty-five known painted caves in the Maya area, she focuses extensively on Naj Tunich. Her text analyzes the images and inscriptions, while photographs and line drawings provide a complete visual catalog of the cave art, some of which has been subsequently destroyed by vandals. This important new body of images and texts enlarges our understanding of the Maya view of sacred landscape and the role of caves in ritual. It will be important reading for all students of the Maya, as well as for others interested in cave art and in human relationships with the natural environment.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

1 Introduction

2 The Topographic Context of Maya Cave Painting

3 A Further Exploration of Topographic Context: The Mesoamerican Landscape and the Cave

4 Maya and Mesoamerican Cave Painting: A Survey of Sites and Images

5 Naj Tunich: An Introduction to the Site and Its Art

6 Images from Naj Tunich

7 The Hieroglyphic Inscriptions of Naj Tunich

8 A Catalog of Naj Tunich Paintings and Petroglyphs

9 Maya Cave Painting: Summary of a Tradition

APPENDIX A The Geologic Context of Maya Cave Paintings

APPENDIX B Standard Cave Map Symbols

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (EBC, viewed February 24, 2018).

ISBN:

0-292-75648-8

OCLC:

1286806058