Chronicles of Mayas Kings and Queens - Revised Edition

__The second edition of the now indispensable « Chronicles of Maya Kings and Queens » is finally available. This book written by two important figures of mayan epigraphy, Simon Martin (University of Pennsylvania Museum) and Nikolai Grube (University of Bonn) has received, since its publication in the year 2000, a lot justified attention. This book is indeed the first and only one of its type. It presents a compilation of the major historical informations about 11 of the main ancient mayas cities (Tikal, Dos Pilas, Naranjo, Caracol, Calakmul, Yaxchilan, Piedras Negras, Palenque, Tonina, Copan, Quirigua). The second and revised edition had been announced for April 2008.... and here we are!

__While visiting the British Museum and its bookshop, I saw the new edition of the volume standing on a table... I was a bit excited as I expected a lot of this second edition. Maybe I had misunderstood the nature of the additions or simply was awaiting the second edition to shake me as much as the first did...

__This second edition is simply a « revised edition » as said on the cover. New important discoveries that were realized since the first edition in 2000 have been inserted. One of the major addition concerns Naranjo's dynasty. In 2007 for example, Alexandre Tokovinine and Fiona Fialko published an important paper on recent finds (PARI journal ). The discovery of Naranjo stela 45 has indeed added new kings to the dynastic list of Naranjo (with the help of Luis Lopes' paper too). Otherwise, changes are minor and consist of orthographic revisions (depending on the decipherment of new signs), calendarical additions or revisions etc... The achieved goal of this edition was to be updated according to the ever changing standards of epigrafy... So if you own a copy of the first edition, that you have entirely read, if you follow the epigrafic progresses and read all the papers that are published on mayan history and epigrafy, this new edition may disapoint you (despite its evident practical aspect). Anyway, as always, Thames and Hudson edition has printed a beautifully illustrated book for a modic price (14.95 pounds, softcover; 240 pages, 366 illustrations, 86 in color).