Stone Houses and Earth Lords

"With Stone Houses and Earth Lords and another collection of broader scope (Brady & Prufer 2005), Maya cave archaeology has become one of the two best-studied traditions of subterranean achaeology in the world. Other than parts of France and Spain, there is no other region with such intensity of research and comparable intensity of ancient use. In no small part, this break-through results from the tenacity of James Brady... Brady can claim to have created a specialty that can now rework prior Mayanist perception of the landscape... The essential point of the chapters is that Maya caves relate to ideas and ritual practice, not to habitation and extraction of resources... The volume contains real surprises. Bradys comparison of finds from caves, especially in the Petexbatun sites, and those from surface excavations willand shouldshock most Mayanists. The sheer quantity of cave finds is stunning, as, incidentally, is their extraordinary preservation." Cambridge Archaeological Journal