The Quiche Mayas of Utatlan: The Evolution of a Highland Guatemala Kingdom

Now available in paperback for the first time since its publication in 1980, The Quiche Mayas of Utatlan offers a full account of the Quiches, the most powerful Maya group in the Guatemala highlands at the time of the Spanish Conquest.

The Quiches ruled from the city they built on the highland plains, to which they gave the splendid name K'umarcaaj, but which became known throughout the Maya world as Utatlan.

Robert M. Carmack re-creates the setting of this empire, and peoples it with the rulers, priests, warriors, allies, and travelers who gave it life. He describes the fall of Utatlan to the conquistadors, and the Quiches’ efforts to retain a semblance of their political structure and belief system. Drawing upon archaeological discoveries and native and Spanish written documents, Carmack has produced a work that is essential to understanding the Quiche people and indispensable to a full appreciation of the immortal work the Popol Vuh, the
first book of the New World.