{"product_id":"lightning-gods-and-feathered-serpents-rex-koontz-9780292718999","title":"Lightning Gods and Feathered Serpents: The Public Sculpture of El Tajín","description":"\u003cp\u003eEl Tajín, an ancient Mesoamerican capital in Veracruz, Mexico, has long been admired for its stunning pyramids and ballcourts decorated with extensive sculptural programs. Yet the city's singularity as the only center in the region with such a wealth of sculpture and fine architecture has hindered attempts to place it more firmly in the context of Mesoamerican history. In \u003ci\u003eLightning Gods and Feathered Serpents\u003c\/i\u003e, Rex Koontz undertakes the first extensive treatment of El Tajín's iconography in over thirty years, allowing us to view its imagery in the broader Mesoamerican context of rising capitals and new elites during a period of fundamental historical transformations.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKoontz focuses on three major architectural features--the Pyramid of the Niches\/Central Plaza ensemble, the South Ballcourt, and the Mound of the Building Columns complex--and investigates the meanings of their sculpture and how these meanings would have been experienced by specific audiences. Koontz finds that the iconography of El Tajín reveals much about how motifs and elite rites growing out of the Classic period were transmitted to later Mesoamerican peoples as the cultures centered on Teotihuacan and the Maya became the myriad city-states of the Early Postclassic period.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBy reexamining the iconography of sculptures long in the record, as well as introducing important new monuments and contexts, \u003ci\u003eLightning Gods and Feathered Serpents\u003c\/i\u003e clearly demonstrates El Tajín's numerous iconographic connections with other areas of Mesoamerica, while also exploring its roots in an indigenous Gulf lowlands culture whose outlines are only now emerging. At the same time, it begins to uncover a largely ignored regional artistic culture of which Tajín is the crowning achievement.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Rex Koontz\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0292718993\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780292718999\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Texas Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/01\/2009\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 151\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.60lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 11.30h x 8.70w x 0.70d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChronicle of Higher Education\u003c\/i\u003e 05\/15\/2009 pg. 19\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 03\/01\/2010","brand":"Rex Koontz","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48086464954623,"sku":"9780292718999","price":60.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_1989a83a-cdbc-475c-8e8a-6bb7c58e1dfb.jpg?v=1769094819","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/lightning-gods-and-feathered-serpents-rex-koontz-9780292718999","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}