Divinely sanctioned kingship is found among ancient civilizations throughout the world, including Asia, West Africa, and Europe, but it has been a largely unexplored process in ancient Mesoamerica. Sacred kings, who played key roles in the emergence of complex urban society, first appeared among the Olmec on the Gulf Coast of Mexico around 900 BC, but the full flowering of this phenomenon subsequently occurred in southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and western Honduras among the most brillant of the New World civilizations, the Maya. |