Contextualizing Maya History and Archaeology Part I: Reflections on the 25th Anniversary of Forest of Kings

This symposium celebrates the 25th anniversary of the publication Forest of Kings by Linda Schele and David Freidel. This book was a landmark in Maya archaeology in several respects. It was the first book to synthesize the explosion of epigraphic and iconographic studies that began in conjunction with the first Palenque Mesa Redonda meetings and fuse it with archaeological research. Using data from a series of important sites as well as vignettes, Schele and Freidel created a broad narrative of ancient Maya society that had a wide ranging impact on the field for its innovative and sometimes controversial interpretations. Further, Forest of Kings was published in a format that was not only accessible to the scientific community, but to the general public, which had a tremendous influence on how the ancient Maya as an idea was consumed by the lay community. The symposium is divided into two sessions. Papers presented in Part I focus on several themes including Maya ideology and cosmology, rise of complexity, and the central Maya lowlands in the Classic period. This symposium is a reflection on the impact the book had on the field and how far we have come since its publication.