Ancient Maya: The Rise and Fall of a Rainforest Civilization is an archaeological book about the ancient Maya civilization by Arthur Demarest, published by Cambridge University Press in 2004.

The book discusses the complex lifestyle and political history of the Maya states, from the first to eighth centuries. It also gives an explanation of the mystery of the ninth-century abandonment of most of the great rainforest cities. It concludes that the Maya civilization has lessons for modern civilization.

The author is the Ingram Professor of Anthropology at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee.