The Sun, Stones and the Cross: The epic and tragic story of the Maya

For a thousand years, a civilization as brilliant as ancient Rome and as mysterious as Egypt flourished in the jungles and highlands of Central America, only to vanish into ruin. They left behind towering pyramids, a complex calendar that mapped the cosmos, and an intricate form of writing that, for centuries, no one on Earth could read. For generations, the Maya were seen as a peaceful, enigmatic race of priest-astronomers. But in the late 20th century, a revolution in the decipherment of their hieroglyphs shattered this myth, unlocking a history far more dramatic and human than ever imagined. The Sun, Stones, and the Cross tells this amazing, sweeping, and ultimately tragic story.Historian Jerome Nash takes the reader on a journey through two millennia of Maya history, drawing on a powerful triangulation of evidence: the silent testimony of archaeology, the proud words of the Maya kings themselves, and the clashing, tragic chronicles of their Spanish conquerors. The narrative begins in the deep past of the Pre classic period, a world before the written word, exploring the foundations of Maya life—the sacred covenant with maize, the economic power of cacao—and the influence of the mysterious Olmec "mother culture." This era culminates in the spectacular rise and violent fall of the first Maya superpower, the colossal, pyramid-studded metropolis of the Mirador Basin, a kingdom that rose and died before the time of Christ.The book then plunges into the glorious and bloody heart of the Classic Period, the world of the "speaking stones." This is the story of the great "Two-Player Game," a century-long cold war between two jungle empires, the Jaguar kingdom of Tikal and the Serpent kingdom of Calakmul. It is a history populated by unforgettable characters: the brilliant philosopher-king Pakal of Palenque, entombed in his magnificent pyramid-mausoleum; the powerful Serpent Queen, Lady K'abel, who ruled a key vassal state as an imperial governor; the tragic artist-king "18 Rabbit" of Copán, betrayed and executed by his own subordinate; and the great avenger, Jasaw Chan K'awiil I, who brought Tikal back from a century of humiliation in a single, decisive battle. We explore their sophisticated worldview, a cosmos governed by a sacred calendar, where a ritual ballgame could decide the fate of kingdoms and human sacrifice was a terrible, cosmic necessity.Finally, the narrative confronts the two great cataclysms that ended their world. First, the mysterious Classic Collapse, a time when the great southern cities fell silent, a mystery now largely solved by climate science that points to a series of catastrophic, multi-generational droughts. The story then moves to the Post classic highlands and the final, violent collision of two worlds: the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors. Told through the starkly different accounts of ruthless captains like Pedro de Alvarado and the Maya scribes who chronicled their own people's slaughter, this is an unflinching look at the conquest and the heroic, 170-year-long resistance of the last Maya citadel, which held out until 1697.Written over years from his home in the Guatemalan highlands, Nash's history is infused with an unparalleled, on-the-ground intimacy with the landscapes and living cultures of the Maya world. Sweeping, authoritative, and deeply human, The Sun, Stones, and the Cross is the definitive, single-volume account of the ancient Maya for a new generation—an unforgettable journey into a lost world. Read more