ulture, together with decorated pottery and artifacts. That architecture was elaborately decorated with hieroglyphics whose specific meanings eluded translation until stone monuments were deciphered in the late twentieth century. The existence of the hieroglyphics, which in part suggest the content of cultural customs and practices that were witnessed by Spaniards should dispose of any idea that these were inferior peoples who simply were crushed under the thumb of the Spaniards. To be sure, Clendinnen cites "mass conversions" of sacrificing Mayans accomplished by Spaniards who disrupted sacrificial rites. However, the factuality of the conversations was in doubt. That is because Mayans exposed to Christianity repeatedly returned to indigenous practices, including human sacrifice, apparently in part out of a sense of self-assertion. One postconquest ritual combined traditional Mayan practices with a parody of crucifixion, which the Mayans had been exposed to by the numerous friars Spain sent to the New World.
The arcane symbology of Mayan architecture was only one aspect of the flowering of Mayan imperial influence, and the society itself was quite complex, if that symbology is any guide. Architectural stelae, hieroglyphic text, and relief sculpture have suggested that rituals were linked to elaborate religious doctrine. One temple bas relief has been interpreted as a celebratio
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