Maya Rise and Fall

Great feature at National Geographic on the Maya, with a very extensive slide show:

The Maya have always been an enigma. Decades ago the glories of their ruined cities and their beautiful but undeciphered script had many researchers imagining a gentle society of priests and scribes. As epigraphers finally learned to read the Maya glyphs, a darker picture emerged, of warring dynasties, court rivalries, and palaces put to the torch. Maya history became a tapestry of precise dates and vividly named personages.

Below, a ceramic statue of a dwarf with detachable helmet.