JULY/AUGUST 2021 * VOLUME 74, NUMBER 4 CONTENTS 38 A painting on a Maya ceramic vessel depicts a ceremony or banquet. FEATURES 24 THE UGARIT ARCHIVES Thousands of cuneiform tablets written in a distinctive script tell the dramatic story of a Bronze Age merchant city in Syria BY ROGER ATWOOD 32 RISE OF THE KINGS OF TONGA By combining excavation and oral history, archaeologists are discovering how a dynasty of chiefs united a Polynesian archipelago BY BRIDGET ALEX 38 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A MAYA AMBASSADOR A grand monument and a humble burial chronicle the changing fortunes of a career diplomat BY ERIC A. POWELL 44 POMPEII'S URBAN OASIS Newly restored frescoes reveal an unexpected garden refuge BY JASON URBANUS 48 REDISCOVERING ARCHAIC AMERICA The surprising history of eastern North America's early hunter-gatherers BY MIKE TONER Cover: A faience pendant dating from between 1200 and 1150 B.C. found in the necropolis of Ugarit in Syria depicts a female mask. PHOTO: ERICH LESSING/ART RESOURCE, NY archaeology.org 1http://www.archaeology.org