As one of the representative civilizations of Central America, the Maya civilization was born in the 10th century B.C. and flourished in the lowlands of southeastern Mexico, northern Guatemala, Belize, and western Honduras before the arrival of Europeans in the region in the sixteenth century. This mysterious and unique civilization is called the “Ancient Maya”.

Ancient Maya peoples were extraordinarily creative. Magnificent cities, majestic pyramids, hieroglyphic writing system, advanced mathematics, as well as the precise calendar all displayed the high achievements of Maya civilization in the fields of art, architecture, astronomy, mathematics and so on, leaving precious cultural legacies for the world. The Maya also regarded the cosmos, the sun, the rain, the lightning and all things growing on the earth as the existence of supernatural forces. With the help of various murals, stone carvings, ceramics and other works of art, the Maya made the supernatural forces expressive and visualized, and then portrayed a world in which everything had a life, leaving behind a true record of their own lives, but also presenting a distinctive spiritual world.

By showcasing 214 works from LACMA’s collection of the Art of the Ancient Americas, we will start a dream journey to glimpse the splendid supernatural world in ancient Maya art.