The Order of Days

Unlocking the Secrets of the Ancient Maya

David Stuart

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Paperback

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English

Three Rivers Press
15 July 2012

History of the Americas; Early history: c 500 to c 1450&1500; Indigenous peoples

In this fascinating and meticulously researched book, now in paperback, the world's foremost expert on Mayan culture looks at 2012 hysteria and explains the truth about what the Maya meant--and what we want to believe they did.

The world's foremost expert on Maya culture looks at 2012 hysteria and explains the truth about what the Maya meant and what we want to believe.

Apocalypse 2012- An Investigation into Civilizations End. The World Cataclysm in 2012. 2012- The return of Quetzalcoatl. According to many of these alarmingly titled books, the ancient Maya not only had a keen insight into the mystical workings of our planet and the cosmos, but they were also able to predict that the world will end in the year 2012.

David Stuart, the foremost scholar of the Maya and recipient of numerous awards for his work, takes a hard look at the frenzy over 2012 and offers a fascination (and accurate) trip through Mayan culture and belief. Stuart shows how the idea that the ""end of the Mayan calendar,"" which supposedly heralds the end of our own existence, says far more about our culture than about the ancient Maya. The Order of Days explores how the real intellectual achievement of ancient Maya timekeeping and worldview is far more impressive and remarkable than any of the popular, and often outrageous, claims about this advanced civilization.

As someone who has studied the Maya for nearly all of his life and who specializes in reading their ancient texts, Stuart sees the 2012 hubbub as the most recent in a long chain of related ideas about Mesoamericans, the Maya in particular, that depicts them as somehow oddball, not ""of this world,"" or as having some strong mystical link to other realms.

Because the year 2012 has no prominent role in anything the ancient Maya ever actually wrote, Stuart takes a wider look at the Maya concepts of time and their underlying philosophy as we can best understand them. The ancient Maya, Stuart contends, were worthy of study and admiration not because they were strange but because they were altogether human, and they developed a compelling vision of time unlike any other civilization before or since.

By: David Stuart
Imprint: Three Rivers Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 203mm, Width: 132mm, Spine: 20mm
Weight: 323g
ISBN: 9780385527279
ISBN 10: 0385527276
Pages: 368
Publication Date: 15 July 2012
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

David Stuart is a Mayanist scholar and professor of Mesoamerican art and writing at the University of Texas at Austin. He began deciphering Mayan hieroglyphs at the age of eight, under the tutelage of Linda Schele. He has made major contributions in the field of epigraphy, particularly related to the decipherment of the Mayan script used by the pre-Columbian Mayan civilization of Mesoamerica.

Reviews for The Order of Days: Unlocking the Secrets of the Ancient Maya

More than a rebuttal of the apocalypse-pushers, The Order of Days is a broader (and more interesting) consideration of the role that time played in Maya culture . An authoritative study of an fascinating and timely topic. And not to worry if your reading takes you beyond next Dec. 21. -The Wall Street Journal From the Hardcover edition.