History map of the Maya civilization
Overview
The Maya was a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed writing system of Pre-Columbian Americas. It also had high-level achievements in art, architecture, and mathematics and astronomy.
Maya civilization shared many features with other Mesoamerican civilizations. This was due to the high degree of interaction that characterized the region. Advances such as writing and the calendar did not originate with the Maya, though they did bring these technologies to a peak of development within the Pre-Columbian context.
Geography
Maya civilization extended throughout the present-day southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Northern El Salvador and western Honduras. Its influences can be detected still further afield, throughout Nicaragua and as far north as central Mexico.
The Maya area is generally divided into three loosely defined zones:
- the southern Maya highlands, including all the mountain terrain in Guatemala;
- the southern lowlands, which lie just north of the highlands, and incorporate the Mexican states of Campeche and Quintana Roo and northern Guatemala, Belize and El Salvador. and
- the northern lowlands, which cover the remainder of the Yucatán Peninsula.
History
Modern scholars divide the history of Maya civilization into four parts:
- The Archaic period
- The Preclassical period
- The Classical period
- The Classical Maya collapse
- The Postclassical period
The Archaic period (up to 2000 BCE)
At the beginning of the Preclassic period, the Maya shifted from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a settled agricultural lifestyle that cultivated crops like maize (corn), beans, and squash. The first small farming settlements began to emerge in the southern lowlands, in what is now southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador.
The Preclassical period (2000 BCE – 250 CE)
The first evidence of urbanization appears in around 750 BCE, when large ceremonial centers and early pyramids structures began to take shape.
Following this, significant city-states such as Tikal, Uaxactún, and Kaminaljuyu emerged, and by the end of the Preclassic period the Maya had developed an early form of writing and an elaborate calendar system.
The Classical period (250 CE – 900 CE)
The Classic period marked the high point of Maya civilization. Large city-states such as Tikal, Palenque, Copán, Calakmul, Caracol and Yaxchilan flourished, ruled by powerful dynasties whose power was based on warfare, alliances, and trade. These cities’ ruins include impressive monumental architecture such as pyramids, temples, and palaces, and elaborate stone pillars which record royal deeds and historical events.
The impressive ruins of Tikal, a powerful Classical Maya city (Creative Commons Licence)
The Classical Maya developed the most sophisticated writing system of Pre-Columbian America. This is known as *Maya hieroglyphics* (see below). This complex system was used to record royal genealogies, historical events, and ritualistic ceremonies.
The Maya had a highly advanced understanding of mathematics and astronomy. They developed a vigesimal (base-20) number system, and discovered the concept of zero (probably before any culture in the old world). They had two calendar systems. One, called the *Haab*, was a 365-day solar calendar, and another, the *Tzolk’in*, was a 260-day ceremonial calendar. Both were highly accurate.
The Classical Maya also tracked celestial movements, and predicted solar eclipses and other astronomical events.
Classical Maya art was amongst the most sophisticated in Pre-Columbian America. It featured painted murals, ceramic and jade carvings. Maya religion was polytheistic, and included the practice of elaborate rituals, containing bloodletting and human sacrifice, to honor their gods and maintain cosmic order.
The Classical Maya collapse (c. 800 CE – c. 900 CE)
This period is also known as the Terminal Classic period. It marks the decline of the Maya cities in the southern lowlands, particularly in the Petén region.
This period ended in the abandonment of many of the largest and most powerful cities of the Classical period.
The reasons behind the collapse of the southern Maya cities are still debated by scholars, but a combination of factors likely playes a key part. These include climate change (possibly prolonged drought), environmental stress (leading to deforestation and soil depletion), internal social unrest, political instability and warfare between city-states.
The abandonment of these cities led to a decentralization of power and the dispersal of populations from the major cities.
For a blog post exploring the causes of the Classic Mayan Collapse, please click here.
The Postclassical period (c. 900 CE – c. 1500 CE)
As the old Classical city-states like Tikal and Calakmul weakened in the southern lowlands, new centres, such as Chichen Itza and Uxmal, rose to prominence in the northern Yucatán Peninsula.
The ruins of Chichen Itza, one of the leading cities of the Postclassical period.
These cities had a different architectural and cultural character compared to the Classic period cities, and modern scholars therefore classify them as belonging to Postclassical Maya period.
One of the most famous cities of the Postclassic period was Chichen Itza. This was a major political and economic center. The city is known for its massive pyramid, *El Castillo*, which was dedicated to the god Kukulkan (Feathered Serpent). Chichen Itza, like other city-states of the period, had a powerful army and controlled important trade routes which stretched out across Mesoamerica. Chichen Itza’s cultural influence spread throughout the Yucatán Peninsula.
The religious practices and artistic styles in the Postclassic period were not identical to those of the Classic period. The use of metal (especially copper) in religious artefacts became more widespread, and there was an increased emphasis on the god Kukulkan.
During the 15th century, internal conflicts and power struggles weakened many of the Postclassic cities, including Chichen Itza and Mayapan. Mayapan, fell in 1441, and event which is seen as signalling the end of the Postclassic Maya period.
The Spanish Conquest (1519 CE – 1697 CE)
Even after the fall of their great cities, many Maya groups continued to live in the region. However, the arrival of Spanish conquistadors in the early 16th century marked a radically new epoch for the Maya, as with all the indigenous people of the Americas. The Maya initially stoutly resisted Spanish incursions, but over time, the combination of military conquest and diseases (such as smallpox) led to the collapse of Mayan society as it had existed up to that point. Neverthlesss, it was not until 1697 that the last of the Maya strongholds was overcome.
Culture
Religion
Like the Aztec and Inca who came to power later, the Maya believed in a cyclical nature of time. The rituals and ceremonies were very closely associated with celestial and terrestrial cycles which they observed and inscribed as separate calendars. The Maya priest had the job of interpreting these cycles and giving a prophetic outlook on the future or past based on the number relations of all their calendars. They also had to determine if the heavens were propitious for performing certain religious ceremonies.
The Maya practiced human sacrifice. In some Maya rituals people were killed by having their arms and legs held while a priest cut the person’s chest open and tore out his heart as an offering. This is depicted on ancient objects such as pictorial texts. Much of the Maya religious tradition is still not understood by scholars, but it is known that the Maya believed that the cosmos had three major planes, the Earth, the underworld beneath and the heavens above.
There is a massive array of supernatural characters in the Maya religious tradition, only some of which recur with regularity. Good and evil traits are not permanent characteristics of Maya gods, nor is only “good” admirable. The life-cycle of maize lies at the heart of Maya belief. This philosophy is demonstrated on the belief in the Maya maize god as a central religious figure. The Maya bodily ideal is also based on the form of this young deity, which is demonstrated in their artwork.
Architecture
The most dramatic and easily recognizable examples of Maya architecture are the stepped pyramids. This puts Maya architecture in the mainstream of Mesoamerican culture, where pyramids – in fact, more like Mesopotamian ziggurats than `the classic Egyptian pyramids – were a feature of most cultures. Such pyramids formed the centrepiece of Maya city-scapes, and as in other Mesaamerican cultures were the scene of the human sacrifice which lay at the centre of Mesoamerican religious rituals. Probably the most famous of all Mayan pyramids is the “El Castillo” at Chichen Itza.
The “El Castillo” Pyramid at Chichen Itza (Creative Commons Licence)
These pyramids and other structures reflect the Maya mastery of stone masonry. Apart form pyramids, Maya architecture also featured other kinds of temples, and also palaces. These structures often feature corbel arches, which give them a more “rounded” feel than other Mesoamerican architectural traditions.
The Maya also modified cave sites for some of their temples. This reflect that fact that cave-origin myths play an important part of Maya religion (again, like other Mesoamerican peoples). Some cave sites are still used by the modern Maya in the Chiapas highlands.
Maya city layout was seldom the result of planning. Their cities were built somewhat haphazardly, as dictated by the topography of each independent location. Maya architects tended to integrate natural features into their designs – for instance, some cities on the flat limestone plains of Mexico grew into great sprawling municipalities, while others built in the hills used the natural elevation of their surroundings to raise towers and temples to impressive heights.
Art
Maya art has been considered to be the most sophisticated and beautiful of the Pre-Columbian World. We have only hints of the advanced painting of the classic Maya; mostly what has survived are funerary pottery and other Maya ceramics, and a building at Bonampak holds ancient murals that survived by chance.
A beautiful turquoise blue color that has survived through the centuries due to its unique chemical characteristics is known as Maya Blue. The use of Maya Blue survived until the 16th century when the technique was lost. Late Pre-classic murals of great artistic and iconographic perfection have been recently discovered. With the translation of the Maya script it was discovered that the Maya were one of the few civilizations where artists attached their name to their work.
Writing and Literacy
The Maya writing system is often called hieroglyphics from its superficial resemblance to Ancient Egypt writing. It is the only writing system of the Pre-Columbian New World which is known to represent the spoken language of its community. In total, the script has more than a thousand different glyphs, and many appear only rarely or are confined to particular localities. At any one time, no more than around 500 glyphs were in use, which indicates that the script evolved over the centuries.
A sample of Maya script (Creative Commons Licence)
The Maya script was in use up to the arrival of the Europeans, peaking during the Maya Classical Period. Although many Maya centers went into decline during or after this period, the skill and knowledge of Maya writing persisted amongst segments of the population, and the early Spanish conquistadors knew of individuals who could still read and write the script. Unfortunately, the Spanish displayed little interest in it, and as a result this knowledge was subsequently lost.
Mathematics
In common with the other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya used a base 20 and base 5 numbering system. The Maya and their neighbors independently developed the concept of zero by 36 BCE (before any society in the Eastern Hemisphere, so far as we know: it was not until the period of the Gupta empire of Ancient India that the concept of zero was first used).
Examples of Maya numerals, from the Dresden Codex (Public Domain)
Inscriptions occasionally show the Maya working with sums up to the hundreds of millions and dates so large it would take several lines just to represent it. They produced extremely accurate astronomical observations; their charts of the movements of the moon and planets are equal or superior to those of any other civilization working from naked eye observation. In common with the other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya had also measured the length of the solar year to a high degree of accuracy, far more accurately than that used in Europe as the basis of the Gregorian calendar.
Politics
A typical Classic Maya state consisted of city, and perhaps some lesser towns, each surrounded by an area of farmland from which the city was fed. These small city-state were ruled by dynasties of hereditary rulers. The king and the royal household formed the focus of Maya society, in terms not only of politics but of religion and probably trade – especially long-distance commerce, which was probably as much diplomacy as trade. Religious ritual was hugely important in Maya life, and so far as the people were concerned, the king’s ritual role was probably more important than any other aspect of his position. Having said that, his role in warfare was slaps clearly of great importance.
At times, a city would gain control over a larger territory, and dominated other city-states for a period of time. Interestingly, despite constant warfare and eventual shifts in regional power, most kingdoms never disappeared from the political landscape until the collapse of the Classical Maya system in the 9th century CE.
Agriculture
Solar’s have found it hard to determine the agriculture practices of the Maya, but it has become increasingly clear (often with the benefit of aerial photography) that their farming practices were highly advanced. They dug canals, ponds and irrigation channels, constructed permanent raised fields, terracing and forest gardens, managed fallows, and practiced wild harvesting.
These techniques allowed farming to be as intensive as possible within the environmental constraints of the Maya region, and were crucial in supporting the large and concentrated populations of the Classic period. Pollen records from lake sediments suggest that corn, sunflower seeds, cotton, beans and a host of other crops were cultivated.
Trade
The Maya city-states were linked together by a dense network of trade routes. Trade routes also extended outwards from the Maya area to encompass much of Mesoamerica. Evidence for the presence of Maya traders has been found as far afield as the great city of Teotihuacan, in central Mexico; and trade goods such as gold discs from Columbia, in South America, have been found in Maya archaeological sites.
A prized trade item was obsidian, which was valued both for its practical use as a very hard material which could be used as in cutting and chopping; but also for its deep dark colour, decorative jewellery and other objects. Others traded items were ceramics, cacao, textiles and copper decorative pieces.
Trade goods were carried overland on the backs of teams of porters (there being no beats of burden available in central America); or, in the frequent rivers of the Maya area and along seacoasts, they were transported in canoes.
Legacy
The Maya peoples never disappeared, neither at the time of the Classic period decline nor with the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors and the subsequent Spanish colonization of the Americas. Today, the Maya and their descendants form sizable populations throughout the Maya area and maintain a distinctive set of traditions and beliefs that are the result of the merger of pre-Columbian and post-Conquest ideas and cultures. Many Mayan languages continue to be spoken as primary languages today.