Astronomers, Scribes, and Priests - Intellectual Interchange between the Northern Maya Lowlands and Highland Mexico in the Late Postclassic Period

Astronomers, Scribes, and Priests examines evidence for cultural interchange among the intellectual powerbrokers in Postclassic Mesoamerica, specifically those centered in the northern Maya lowlands and the central Mexican highlands. Contributors to the volume’s thirteen chapters bring an interdisciplinary perspective to understanding the interactions that led to shared content in hieroglyphic codices and mural art. The authors address similarities in artifacts, architectural styles, and building alignments―often produced in regions separated by hundreds of miles―based on their analyses of iconographic, archaeological, linguistic, and epigraphic material. The volume includes a wealth of new data and interpretive frameworks in this comprehensive discussion of a critical time period in the Mesoamerican past.

Gabrielle Vail is Researcher in Anthropology at Tulane University.

Christine Hernández is Lecturer in Anthropology at Southeastern Louisiana University.

Anthony F. Aveni is Russell Colgate Distinguished University Professor of Astronomy, Anthropology, and Native American Studies at Colgate University.

Marilyn A. Masson is Professor and Chair of Anthropology at the University at Albany, State University of New York.

Karl Andreas Taube is an American Mesoamericanist, Mayanist, iconographer, and ethnohistorian. He is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, University of California, Riverside.