At the Edge of the World: Caves and Late Classic Maya World View by Karen Bassie-Sweet. From the blurb: ' re-evaluates Late Classic Maya cosmology based on the rituals recorded in their art and hieroglyphic writing as well as in Post Classic, post-conquest, and modern sources. The universe of the Late Classic Maya comprised the sky, the earth, a mythological sea, and an underworld. The Maya saw the earth as a flat disk floating on the sea. Their creator deities had established a quadrilateral space on the surface of the earth within which humans could live. The corners of this world were marked by the rise and set points of the solstice sun. Bassie-Sweet argues that there was a mythological mountain centred on each side of the quadrilateral world and that these mountains were the homes of the guardian deities and certain ancestors.' Illustrated. Hardcover. 245pp.
Fine in a fine dustjacket.
