THE BLOOD OF KINGS: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art <i> by Linda Schele and Mary Ellen Miller, photographs by Justin Kerr (Braziller: $29.95).</i>

Schele and Miller’s striking volume attracted widespread attention in 1986, when the hardcover edition was issued in conjunction with an exhibit of Meso-American artifacts. It remains an important work in the ongoing reinterpretation of Mayan civilization--a process greatly hampered by the wholesale destruction of Mayan literature by bigoted priests during the Spanish conquest. Archeologists now believe that the Mayas created not a pacific empire ruled by benevolent priest-kings and astronomers but a collection of rival city-states, reminiscent of Italy during the Renaissance. The blood in the title refers to the grisly practice of self-mutilation the rulers underwent, during public religious ceremonies in which royal blood gave ritual birth to the gods. Schele and Miller skillfully use diagrams and text to explicate the intricate symbolism of the Mayan ceramics, statuary and friezes.