The Maya forged one of the greatest societies in the history of the ancient Americas ¿ and in all of human history. Long before contact with Europeans, Maya communities built spectacular cities with large, well-fed large populations. They mastered the visual arts, and developed a sophisticated writing system that recorded extraordinary knowledge in calendrics, mathematics, and astronomy. The Maya achieved all this without area-wide centralized control. Therewas never a single, unified Maya state or empire, but always numerous, evolving ethnic groups speaking dozens of distinct Mayan languages. The people we call "Maya" never thought of themselves as such; yet something definable, unique, and endlessly fascinating - what we call Maya culture - has clearlyexisted for millennia. So what was their self-identity and how did Maya civilization come to be "invented?"With the Maya historically subdivided and misunderstood in so many ways, the pursuit of what made them "the Maya" is all the more