Written by leading authorities and including thirteen personal accounts of the latest ground-breaking research, Courtly Arts of the Ancient Maya examines the royal courts and their art in unprecedented depth. Color photographs and specially commissioned drawings reveal a dazzling array of objects that still have the power to engage and astonish observers centuries after their creation.The book investigates the rise in the importance of the court, its mythical backdrop, the role of women and the place of warfare. The works of artists and scribes - ceramic censers, stucco heads, jade masks, terracotta figurines, stone boxes, and great carved limestone lintels - bring alive the form, texture, and color of their vanished world.