by Megan E. O'Neil
University of Texas Press, 2024
Cloth: 978-1-4773-2939-9 | eISBN: 978-1-4773-2940-5
Library of Congress Classification F1435.3.S34O54 2024
Dewey Decimal Classification 305.89742

ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK

An exploration of how the ancient Maya engaged with their history by using, altering, and burying stone sculptures.


For the ancient Maya, monumental stone sculptures were infused with agency. As they were used, reused, altered, and buried, such sculptures retained ceremonial meaning. In Memory in Fragments, Megan E. O'Neil explores how ancient Maya people engaged with history through these sculptures, as well as how they interacted with the stones themselves over the course of the sculptures’ long “lives.” Considering Maya religious practices, historiography, and conceptions of materials and things, O’Neil explores how Maya viewers perceived sculptures that were fragmented, scarred, burned, damaged by enemies, or set in unusual locations. In each case, she demonstrates how different human interactions, amid dynamic religious, political, and historical contexts, led to new episodes in the sculptures' lives.


A rare example of cross-temporal and geographical work in this field, Memory in Fragments both compares sculptures within ancient Maya culture across Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, and Belize over hundreds of years and reveals how memory may accrue around and be evoked in material remains.


See other books on: Fragments | Lives | Maya sculpture | Mayas | Stele (Archaeology)
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