Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl
The Once and Future Lord of the Toltecs
foreword by Wendy Ashmore
afterword by Denise Brown
Mesoamerican Worlds Series
"All human societies are built on the stones and ashes of those that came before them, and all people construct their ideas of lived-space in relationship to that past. . . . The editors grasp this concept and have brought together a remarkable group to discuss the ways in which architecture is used and re-used over time, and to speculate on how the re-users perceived the monuments of their past."
—Keith Prufer, University of New Mexico
"The various authors present rich case studies that demonstrate ancient Maya people deliberately killed certain structures, re-used only select structures, and performed ceremonies of remembering and forgetting. . . . A compelling body of work that will make a significant impact."
—Traci Ardren, University of Miami
"Ruins of the Past is an important contribution to the study of Mayan heritage and an ambitious undertaking . . . of value to all who have an interest in the biographies of place."
—Paul Williams, Historical Geography
From the Preclassic to the present, Maya peoples have continuously built, altered, abandoned, and re-used structures, imbuing them with new meanings at each transformation. Ruins of the Past is the first volume to focus on how previously built structures in the Maya Lowlands were used and perceived by later peoples, exploring the topic through concepts of landscape, place, and memory. The collection, as Wendy Ashmore points out in her foreword, offers "a stimulating, productive, and fresh set of inferences about ancient Maya cognition of their own past."
Contributors: Anthony P. Andrews, Ana Lucía Arroyave Prera, Antonio Benavides C., M. Kathryn Brown, Marcello A. Canuto, Mark B. Child, David A. Freidel, James F. Garber, Charles W. Golden, Stanley P. Guenter, Jon B. Hageman, Richard D. Hansen, Brett A. Houk, Wayne K. Howell, Paul Hughbanks, Scott R. Hutson, Aline Magnoni, T. Kam Manahan, Olivia C. Navarro Farr, Travis W. Stanton, Lauren A. Sullivan, Fred Valdez, Jr.
