History of the Maya civilization
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The history of Maya civilization is divided into three principal periods: the Preclassic, Classic and Postclassic periods;[1] these were preceded by the Archaic Period, which saw the first settled villages and early developments in agriculture.[2] Modern scholars regard these periods as arbitrary divisions of chronology of the Maya civilization, rather than indicative of cultural evolution or decadence.[3] Definitions of the start and end dates of period spans can vary by as much as a century, depending on the author.[4] The Preclassic lasted from approximately 3000 BC to approximately 250 AD; this was followed by the Classic, from 250 AD to roughly 950 AD, then by the Postclassic, from 950 AD to the middle of the 16th century.[5] Each period is further subdivided:
Period | Division | Dates | |
---|---|---|---|
Archaic | 8000–2000 BC[6] | ||
Preclassic | Early Preclassic | 2000–1000 BC | |
Middle Preclassic | Early Middle Preclassic | 1000–600 BC | |
Late Middle Preclassic | 600–350 BC | ||
Late Preclassic | Early Late Preclassic | 350–1 BC | |
Late Late Preclassic | 1 BC – AD 159 | ||
Terminal Preclassic | AD 159–250 | ||
Classic | Early Classic | AD 250–550 | |
Late Classic | AD 550–830 | ||
Terminal Classic | AD 830–950 | ||
Postclassic | Early Postclassic | AD 950–1200 | |
Late Postclassic | AD 1200–1539 | ||
Contact period | AD 1511–1697[7] |
Preclassic period (c. 2000 BC – 250 AD)
The Maya developed their
During the
Murals excavated in 2005 have pushed back the origin of Maya writing by several centuries, with a developed script already being used at San Bartolo in Petén by the 3rd century BC, and it is now evident that the Maya participated in the wider development of Mesoamerican writing in the Preclassic.[18] In the Late Preclassic Period, the enormous city of El Mirador grew to cover approximately 16 square kilometres (6.2 sq mi).[19] It possessed paved avenues, massive triadic pyramid complexes dated to around 150 BC, and stelae and altars that were erected in its plazas.[19] El Mirador is considered to be one of the first capital cities of the Maya civilization.[19] The swamps of the Mirador Basin appear to have been the primary attraction for the first inhabitants of the area as evidenced by the unusual cluster of large cities around them.[20] The city of Tikal, later to be one of the most important of the Classic Period Maya cities, was already a significant city by around 350 BC, although it did not match El Mirador.[21] The Late Preclassic cultural florescence collapsed in the 1st century AD and many of the great Maya cities of the epoch were abandoned; the cause of this collapse is as yet unknown.[14]
In the highlands, Kaminaljuyu emerged as a principal centre in the Late Preclassic, linking the Pacific coastal trade routes with the Motagua River route, as well as demonstrating increased contact with other sites along the Pacific coast.[22] Kaminaljuyu was situated at a crossroads and controlled the trade routes westwards to the Gulf coast, north into the highlands, and along the Pacific coastal plain to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and El Salvador. This gave it control over the distribution networks for important goods such as jade, obsidian and cinnabar.[23] Within this extended trade route, Takalik Abaj and Kaminaljuyu appear to have been the two principal foci.[24] The early Maya style of sculpture spread throughout this network.[25] Takalik Abaj and Chocolá were two of the most important cities on the Pacific coastal plain during the Late Preclassic,[26] and Komchen grew to become an important site in northern Yucatán during the Preclassic.[27]
Classic period (c. 250–950 AD)
The Classic period is largely defined as the period during which the lowland Maya raised dated monuments using the
During the Classic Period, the Maya civilization achieved its greatest florescence.
At its height during the Late Classic, the Tikal city polity had expanded to have a population of well over 100,000.[37] Tikal's great rival was Calakmul, another powerful city polity in the Petén Basin.[38] Tikal and Calakmul both developed extensive systems of allies and vassals; lesser cities that entered one of these networks gained prestige from their association with the top-tier city, and maintained peaceful relations with other members of the same network.[39] Tikal and Calakmul engaged in the manoeuvering of their alliance networks against each other; at various points during the Classic period, one or other of these powers would gain a strategic victory over its great rival, resulting in respective periods of florescence and decline.[40]
In 629, Bʼalaj Chan Kʼawiil, a son of the Tikal king Kʼinich Muwaan Jol II, was sent to found a new city 120 kilometres (75 mi) to the west, at Dos Pilas, in the Petexbatún region, apparently as an outpost to extend Tikal's power beyond the reach of Calakmul. The young prince was just four years old at the time.[41] With the establishment of the new kingdom, Dos Pilas advertised its origin by adopting the emblem glyph of Tikal as its own.[42] For the next two decades he fought loyally for his brother and overlord at Tikal. In AD 648, king Yuknoom Chʼeen II ("Yuknoom the Great") of Calakmul attacked and defeated Dos Pilas, capturing Balaj Chan Kʼawiil. At about the same time, the king of Tikal was killed. Yuknoom Cheʼen II then reinstated Balaj Chan Kʼawiil upon the throne of Dos Pilas as his vassal.[43] In an extraordinary act of treachery for someone claiming to be of the Tikal royal family, he thereafter served as a loyal ally of Calakmul, Tikal's sworn enemy.[44]
In the southeast, Copán was the most important city.[38] Its Classic-period dynasty was founded in 426 by Kʼinich Yax Kʼukʼ Moʼ. The new king had strong ties with central Petén and Teotihuacan, and it is likely that he was originally from Tikal.[45] Copán reached the height of its cultural and artistic development during the rule of Uaxaclajuun Ubʼaah Kʼawiil, who reigned from 695 to 738.[46] His reign ended catastrophically in April 738, when he was captured by his vassal, king Kʼakʼ Tiliw Chan Yopaat of Quiriguá.[47] The captured lord of Copán was taken back to Quiriguá and, in early May 738, he was decapitated in a public ritual.[48] It is likely that this coup was backed by Calakmul, in order to weaken a powerful ally of Tikal.[49] Palenque and Yaxchilan were the most powerful cities in the Usumacinta region.[38] In the highlands, Kaminaljuyu in the Valley of Guatemala was already a sprawling city by AD 300.[50] In the north of the Maya area, Coba was the most important capital.[51]
Capital cities of Maya kingdoms could vary considerably in size, apparently related to how many vassal cities were tied to the capital.[52] Overlords of city-states that held sway over a greater number of subordinate lords could command greater quantities of tribute in the form of goods and labour.[53] The most notable forms of tribute pictured on Maya ceramics are cacao, textiles and feathers.[53] The social basis of the Classic Maya civilization was an extended political and economic network that reached throughout the Maya area and beyond into the greater Mesoamerican region.[54] The dominant Classic period polities were located in the central lowlands; during this period the southern highlands and northern lowlands can be considered culturally, economically, and politically peripheral to this core area. Those loci that existed between the core and the periphery acted as centres of trade and commerce.[55]
The most notable monuments are the pyramid-temples and palaces they built in the centres of their greatest cities.
The Maya civilization participated in long-distance trade, and important trade routes ran from the Motagua River to the Caribbean Sea, then north up the coast to Yucatán. Another route ran from Verapaz along the
Classic Maya collapse
During the 9th century AD, the central Maya region suffered major political collapse, marked by the abandonment of cities, the ending of dynasties and a northward shift in activity.[32] This decline was coupled with a cessation of monumental inscriptions and large-scale architectural construction. No universally accepted theory explains this collapse, but it is likely to have resulted from a combination of causes, including endemic internecine warfare, overpopulation resulting in severe environmental degradation, and drought.[67] During this period, known as the Terminal Classic, the northern cities of Chichen Itza and Uxmal show increased activity.[32] Major cities in the northern Yucatán Peninsula continued to be inhabited long after the cities of the southern lowlands ceased to raise monuments.[68]
There is evidence that the Maya population exceeded the carrying capacity of the environment, resulting in depleted agricultural resources, deforestation, and overhunting of megafauna. A 200-year long drought appears to have occurred around the same time.[69] Classic Maya social organisation was based upon the ritual authority of the ruler, rather than central control of trade and food distribution. This model of rulership was poorly structured to respond to changes, with the ruler's freedom of action being limited to traditional responses. The rulers reacted in their culturally-bound manner, by intensifying such activities as construction, ritual, and warfare. This was counterproductive and only served to exacerbate systemic problems.[70]
By the 9th and 10th centuries, this resulted in collapse of the system of rulership based around the divine power of the ruling lord. In the northern Yucatán, individual rule was replaced by a ruling council formed from elite lineages. In the southern Yucatán and central Petén, kingdoms generally declined; in western Petén and some other areas, the changes were catastrophic and resulted in the rapid depopulation of cities.[71] Within a couple of generations, large swathes of the central Maya area were all but abandoned.[72] Relatively rapid collapse affected portions of the southern Maya area that included the southern Yucatán Peninsula, northern Chiapas and Guatemala, and the area around Copán in Honduras. The largest cities had populations numbering 50,000 to 120,000 and were linked to networks of subsidiary sites. Both the capitals and their secondary centres were generally abandoned within a period of 50 to 100 years.[73]
By the late 8th century, endemic warfare had engulfed the
Postclassic period (c. 950–1539 AD)
The great cities that dominated Petén had fallen into ruin by the beginning of the 10th century AD with the onset of the Classic Maya collapse.[77] Although much reduced, a significant Maya presence remained into the Postclassic period after the abandonment of the major Classic period cities; the population was particularly concentrated near permanent water sources.[78] Unlike during previous cycles of contraction in the Maya region, abandoned lands were not quickly resettled in the Postclassic.[73] Activity shifted to the northern lowlands and the Maya Highlands; this may have involved migration from the southern lowlands, since many Postclassic Maya groups had migration myths.[79] Chichen Itza rose to prominence in the north in the 8th century AD, coincident with the abandonments occurring in the south, which underlines the economic and political factors involved in the collapse.[73] Chichen Itza became what was probably the largest, most powerful and most cosmopolitan of all Maya cities.[80] Chichen Itza and its Puuc neighbours declined dramatically in the 11th century, and this may represent the final episode of the Classic period collapse. After the decline of Chichen Itza, the Maya region lacked a dominant power until the rise of the city of Mayapan in the 12th century. New cities arose near the Caribbean and Gulf coasts, and new trade networks were formed.[81]
The Postclassic Period was marked by a series of changes that distinguished its cities from those of the preceding Classic Period.
Mayapan was abandoned around 1448, after a period of political, social and environmental turbulence that in many ways echoes the Classic period collapse in the southern Maya region. The abandonment of the city was followed by a period of prolonged warfare in the Yucatán Peninsula, which only ended shortly before Spanish contact in 1511. Even without a dominant regional capital, the early Spanish explorers reported wealthy coastal cities and thriving marketplaces.[81]
During the Late Postclassic, the Yucatán Peninsula was divided into a number of independent provinces that shared a common culture but varied in their internal sociopolitical organisation.
On the eve of the Spanish conquest, the highlands of Guatemala were dominated by several powerful Maya states.
Contact period and Spanish conquest (1511–1697 AD)
In 1511, a Spanish
Persistence of Maya culture
The Spanish conquest stripped away most of the defining features of Maya civilization. However, many Maya villages remained remote from Spanish colonial authority, and for the most part continued to manage their own affairs. Maya communities and the nuclear family maintained their traditional day-to-day life.[110] The basic Mesoamerican diet of maize and beans continued, although agricultural output was improved by the introduction of steel tools. Traditional crafts such as weaving, ceramics, and basketry continued to be produced. Community markets and trade in local products continued long after the conquest. At times the colonial administration encouraged the traditional economy in order to extract tribute in the form of ceramics or cotton textiles, although these were usually made to European specifications. Maya beliefs and language proved resistant to change, in spite of the vigorous efforts of Catholic missionaries.[111] The 260-day tzolkʼin ritual calendar continues in use in modern Maya communities in the highlands of Guatemala and Chiapas,[112] and millions of Mayan-language speakers inhabit the territory in which their ancestors developed their civilization.[113]
Investigation of the Maya civilization
From the 16th century onwards, Spanish soldiers, clergy and administrators were familiar with pre-Columbian Maya history and beliefs. The agents of the Catholic Church wrote detailed accounts of the Maya, in support of their efforts at evangelisation, and absorption of the Maya into the Spanish Empire.
In 1839 American traveller and writer
The final two decades of the 19th century saw the birth of modern scientific archaeology in the Maya region, with the meticulous work of Alfred Maudslay and Teoberto Maler.[120] Sites such as Altar de Sacrificios, Coba, Seibal, and Tikal were cleared and documented.[121] By the early 20th century, the Peabody Museum was sponsoring excavations at Copán and in the Yucatán Peninsula,[121] and artefacts were being smuggled out of the region to the museum's collection. In the first two decades of the 20th century, advances were made in the deciphering of the Maya calendar, and identification of deities, dates, and religious concepts.[122] Sylvanus Morley began a project to document every known Maya monument and hieroglyphic inscription, in some cases recording the texts of monuments that have since been destroyed.[123] The Carnegie Institution sponsored excavations at Copán, Chichen Itza and Uaxactun, and the modern foundations of Maya studies were laid.[124] From the 1930s onwards, the pace of archaeological exploration increased dramatically, with large-scale excavations across the entire Maya region.[125]
However, in many locations, Maya ruins have been overgrown by the jungle, becoming dense enough to hide structures just a few meters away. To find unidentified ruins, researchers have turned to satellite imagery, in order to look at the visible and near-infrared spectra. Due to their limestone construction, the monuments affected the chemical makeup of the soil as they deteriorated; some moisture-loving plants are entirely absent, while others were killed off or discoloured.[126]
In the 1960s, the distinguished Mayanist J. Eric S. Thompson promoted the ideas that Maya cities were essentially vacant ceremonial centres serving a dispersed population in the forest, and that the Maya civilization was governed by peaceful astronomer-priests.[127] These ideas arose from the limited understanding of Maya script at the time;[127] they began to collapse with major advances in the decipherment of the script in the late 20th century, pioneered by Heinrich Berlin, Tatiana Proskouriakoff, and Yuri Knorozov.[128] As breakthroughs in the understanding of Maya script were made from the 1950s onwards, the texts revealed the warlike activities of the Classic Maya kings, and the view of the Maya as peaceful could no longer be supported.[129] Detailed settlement surveys of Maya cities revealed the evidence of large populations, putting an end to the vacant ceremonial centre model.[130]
In 2018, 60,000 uncharted structures were revealed by archaeologists with the help of the revolutionary technology lasers called 'lidar' in northern Guatemala. The project applied Lidar technology on an area of 2,100 square kilometers in the Maya Biosphere Reserve in the Petén region of Guatemala. Unlike previous assumptions, thanks to the new findings, archaeologists believe that 7-11 million Maya people inhabited in northern Guatemala during the late classical period from 650 to 800 A.D. Lidar technology digitally removed the tree canopy to reveal ancient remains and showed that Maya cities like Tikal were bigger than previously assumed. Houses, palaces, elevated highways, and defensive fortifications were unearthed because of the Lidar. According to the archaeologist Stephen Houston, it is "one of the greatest advances in over 150 years of Maya archaeology".[131][132]
The capital of
Multiple domestic constructions used by the population for religious purposes. “Plaza Muk’ul Ton” or Monuments Plaza where people used to gather for ceremonies was also unearthed by the team.[135]
Notes
- ^ Estrada-Belli 2011, pp. 1, 3.
- ^ Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 98. Estrada-Belli 2011, p. 38.
- ^ Estrada-Belli 2011, p. 1.
- ^ Demarest 2004, p. 17.
- ^ a b Estrada-Belli 2011, p. 3.
- ^ Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 98.
- ^ Masson 2012, p. 18238. Pugh and Cecil 2012, p. 315.
- ^ Schieber de Lavarreda and Orrego Corzo 2010, p. 1.
- ^ Estrada-Belli 2011, p. 28.
- ^ Hammond et al. 1976, pp. 579–581.
- ^ a b Drew 1999, p.6.
- ^ Coe 1999, p. 47.
- ^ a b Olmedo Vera 1997, p.26.
- ^ a b c Martin and Grube 2000, p.8.
- ^ Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 276.
- ^ Sharer and Traxler 2006, pp. 182, 197.
- ^ Saturno, Stuart and Beltrán 2006, pp. 1281–1283.
- ^ a b c Olmedo Vera 1997, p.28.
- ^ Hansen et al. 2006, p.740.
- ^ Martin and Grube 2000, pp. 25–26.
- ^ Love 2007, pp. 293, 297. Popenoe de Hatch and Schieber de Lavarreda 2001, p. 991.
- ^ Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 232.
- ^ Popenoe de Hatch and Schieber de Lavarreda 2001, p. 991.
- ^ Orrego Corzo and Schieber de Lavarreda 2001, p. 788.
- ^ Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 236.
- ^ Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 275.
- ^ a b Coe 1999, p. 81.
- ^ Martin and Grube 2000, p. 21.
- ^ Schele and Mathews 1999, pp. 179, 182–183.
- ^ Acemoglu and Robinson 2012, pp. 143–149.
- ^ a b c Martin and Grube 2000, p.9.
- ^ Demarest 2004, p. 218. Estrada-Belli 2011, pp. 123–126.
- ^ Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 322. Martin and Grube 2000, p. 29.
- ^ Martin and Grube 2000, p. 30. Sharer and Traxler 2006, pp. 322, 324.
- ^ a b c Olmedo Vera 1997, p.36.
- ^ Foster 2002, p. 133.
- ^ Demarest 2004, pp. 224–226.
- ^ Sharer and Traxler 2006, pp. 383, 387.
- ^ Salisbury, Koumenalis & Barbara Moffett 2002. Martin & Grube 2000, p. 108. Sharer & Traxler 2006, p.387.
- ^ Martin and Grube 2000, pp. 54–55.
- ^ Martin and Grube 2000, pp 192–193. Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 342.
- ^ Martin and Grube 2000, pp. 200, 203.
- ^ Martin and Grube 2000, pp. 203, 205.
- ^ Miller 1999, pp. 134–135. Looper 2003, p. 76.
- ^ Looper 1999, pp. 81, 271.
- ^ Demarest 2004, p. 75.
- ^ Martin and Grube 2000, p.19.
- ^ a b Martin and Grube 2000, p.21.
- ^ Carmack 2003, p. 76.
- ^ Carmack 2003, pp. 76–77.
- ^ Demarest 2004, p. 89.
- ^ Demarest 2004, pp. 89–90.
- ^ Miller 1999, p. 9.
- ^ Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 235. Miller 1999, p. 9.
- ^ Stuart 1996, p. 149.
- ^ Miller 1999, pp. 78, 80.
- ^ Stuart 1996, p. 154.
- ^ Borowicz 2003, p. 217.
- ^ Demarest 2004, p. 163.
- ^ Demarest 2004, p. 148.
- ^ Demarest 2004, p. 149.
- ^ Coe 1999, pp. 151–155.
- ^ Becker 2004, p.134.
- ^ Beeland 2007.
- ^ Demarest 2004, p. 246.
- ^ Demarest 2004, p. 248.
- ^ Martin and Grube 2000, p. 226.
- ^ a b c Masson 2012, p. 18237.
- ^ Coe 1999, p. 152.
- ^ Foster 2002, p. 60.
- ^ Sharer 2000, p. 490.
- ^ Sharer and Traxler 2006, pp. 499–500.
- ^ Sharer and Traxler 2006, pp. 613, 616.
- ^ Foias 2014, p. 15.
- ^ a b Masson 2012, p. 18238.
- ^ a b Arroyo 2001, p.38.
- ^ Foias 2014, p. 17.
- ^ Foias 2014, pp. 100–102.
- ^ Andrews 1984, p. 589.
- ^ Caso Barrera 2002, p. 17.
- ^ Andrews 1984, pp. 589, 591.
- ^ Estrada-Belli 2011, p. 52. Rice and Rice 2009, p. 17. Feldman 2000, p. xxi.
- ^ a b Jones 2000, p. 353.
- ^ Rice and Rice 2009, p. 10. Rice 2009, p. 17.
- ^ Cecil, Rice and Rice 1999, p. 788.
- ^ Rice 2009, p. 17. Feldman 2000, p. xxi.
- ^ Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 717.
- ^ Restall and Asselbergs 2007, p. 5.
- ^ Restall and Asselbergs 2007, p. 6.
- ^ Lovell 2000, p. 398.
- ^ Lenkersdorf 2004, p. 72.
- ^ Lenkersdorf 2004, p. 78.
- ^ Sharer and Traxler 2006, pp. 759–760.
- ^ Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 763. Lovell 2005, p. 58. Matthew 2012, pp. 78–79.
- ^ Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 763.
- ^ Sharer and Traxler 2006, pp. 764–765. Recinos 1986, pp. 68, 74.
- ^ Schele and Mathews 1999, p.297. Guillemín 1965, p.9.
- ^ Schele and Mathews 1999, p.298.
- ^ Recinos 1986, p.110. del Águila Flores 2007, p.38.
- ^ Sharer and Traxler 2006, pp. 766–772.
- ^ Sharer and Traxler 2006, pp. 772–773.
- ^ Jones 1998, p. xix.
- ^ Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 9.
- ^ Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 10.
- ^ Zorich 2012, p. 29. Thompson 1932, p. 449.
- ^ Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 11.
- ^ a b Demarest 2004, p. 31.
- ^ Demarest 2004, p. 32.
- ^ Demarest 2004, pp. 32–33.
- ^ Koch 2013, pp. 1, 105.
- ^ Demarest 2004, p. 34.
- ^ Demarest 2004, pp. 33–34.
- ^ Demarest 2004, pp. 37–38.
- ^ a b Demarest 2004, p. 38.
- ^ Demarest 2004, p. 39.
- ^ Demarest 2004, pp. 39–40.
- ^ Demarest 2004, p. 41.
- ^ Demarest 2004, p. 42.
- ^ NASA Earth Observatory.
- ^ a b Demarest 2004, p. 44.
- ^ Demarest 2004, p. 45.
- ^ Foster 2002, p. 8.
- ^ Demarest 2004, pp. 49–51.
- ^ "Sprawling Maya network discovered under Guatemala jungle". BBC News. 2 February 2018.
- ^ "This Ancient Civilization Was Twice As Big As Medieval England". National Geographic News. 2018-02-01. Archived from the original on March 20, 2020. Retrieved 2019-09-17.
- ^ "Archaeologists discover lost capital of ancient Maya Kingdom". HeritageDaily - Archaeology News. 2020-03-12. Retrieved 2020-03-16.
- ^ Kettley, Sebastian (2020-03-13). "Archaeology breakthrough: Ancient Maya kingdom discovered in... a rancher's backyard". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 2020-03-16.
- ^ "Ancient Maya kingdom unearthed in a backyard in Mexico". phys.org. 2020-03-12. Retrieved 2020-03-16.
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