The Maya Cosmos
Astronomy, Myth, and Power in Ancient Guatemala

About this book:

**The Maya Cosmos** invites readers on a dazzling journey into one of the ancient world's most sophisticated intellectual civilizations — where the movements of stars and planets shaped the fate of empires, where kings justified their divine rule by predicting eclipses, and where common farmers read the sky to know when to plant their maize. Drawing on groundbreaking LiDAR discoveries, newly deciphered hieroglyphic texts, and rich ethnohistoric evidence, this book unveils a world in which astronomy, myth, and political power were inseparable forces driving an entire culture.

From the monumental observatories of El Mirador and the celestial alignments at Tikal to the sacred calendars that still guide Maya communities today, *The Maya Cosmos* takes you deep into a layered universe of tripartite worlds, Venus-wars, cosmic serpents, and the luminous Road of Ancestors traced across the Milky Way. It reveals how priest-astronomers wielded sacred mathematics to legitimize kingship, how the ballgame reenacted the battles of the Hero Twins against the lords of death, and how water, sacrifice, and the soul itself were woven into the rhythms of the sky.

Scholarly yet vividly accessible, this book is both a compelling synthesis for specialists and a breathtaking revelation for anyone who has ever looked up at the night sky and wondered what it meant to the civilizations that came before. *The Maya Cosmos* will forever change how you see the ancient world — and the heavens above.