AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST Maya Codex Book Production and the Politics of Expertise: Archaeology of a Classic Period Household at Xultun, Guatemala Franco D. Rossi, William A. Saturno, and Heather Hurst ABSTRACT The discovery of mural paintings at the Classic Maya site of Xultun, Guatemala, provides an important context for the study of ancient literacy and writing in practice. The mural chamber was a place of writing where the hands of multiple scribes recorded events and astronomical tabulations on walls that were also painted with portraits of ritual specialists and the reigning king. We present evidence suggesting that creation and inscription of indigenous Maya books, called codices, also took place onsite by a specific cohort of ritual specialists called taaj. In this article, we seek to archaeologically “situate” these codex-like inscriptions in the mural room—revealing a crucial and distinctly Precolumbian window (as opposed to colonial Spanish view) into Maya bookmaking, its practitioners, and the physical contexts in which it was carried out. Together, the images, texts, and archaeological materials found in and around the chamber enable us to contextualize acts of writing and their authorship as well as engage larger questions regarding the social and political structures shaping literacy in Maya society during the eighth century. [bookmaking, political associations, writing and literacy, art, mural, codices, Maya, Guatemala] RESUMEN El descubrimiento de murales en el sitio Maya del periodo Cl ´ asico de Xult ´ un, Guatemala, provee un importante contexto para el estudio de la lectura y escritura pr ´ actica antigua. La rec ´ amara mural fue un lugar de escritura donde las manos de m ´ ultiples escribas registraron eventos y tabulaciones astron ´ omicas sobre paredes que fueron tambi ´ en pintadas con retratos de especialistas en rituales y el rey reinante. Presentamos evidencia sugiriendo que la creaci ´ on e inscripci ´ on de los libros ind´ıgenas Maya, llamados c ´ odices, tambi ´ en tuvieron lugar all´ı mismo por una cohorte espec´ıfica de especialistas en rituales llamados taaj. En este art´ıculo, buscamos “situar” arqueol ´ ogicamente estas inscripciones como c ´ odices en la rec ´ amara mural–revelando una ventana crucial y distintamente Precolombina (como opuesta a la vista colonial Espa ˜ nola) a la encuadernaci ´ on Maya, sus practicantes, y los contextos f´ısicos en los cuales se llevaba a cabo. Juntos, las im ´ agenes, los textos, y los materiales arqueol ´ ogicos encontrados en y alrededor de la rec ´ amara nos posibilita contextualizar actos de escribir y su autor´ıa, as´ı como explorar preguntas m ´ as amplias con relaci ´ on a las estructuras sociales y pol´ıticas que influencian la escritura y lectura en la sociedad Maya durante el siglo VIII. [encuadernaci ´ on, asociaciones pol´ ıticas, escritura y lectura, arte, mural, c ´ odices, Maya, Guatemala] They had books made from barks of trees with a white and per- petual gleam. –S´ anchez de Aguilar 1 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Vol. 117, No. 1, pp. 116–132, ISSN 0002-7294, online ISSN 1548-1433. C  2015 by the American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved. DOI: 10.1111/aman.12167 In the last 30 years, the study of writing systems and forms of literacy has advanced considerably, moving from analytical approaches that isolate the practice of writing from social contexts to ones that underscore its inseparability from the social and political settings that shape it. Once argued as a