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Introduction
Maya Civilization, an ancient Native American culture that represented
one of the most advanced civilizations in the western hemisphere
before the arrival of Europeans. The people known as the Maya lived
in the region that is now eastern and southern Mexico, Guatemala,
Belize, El Salvador, and western Honduras. The
Maya culture reached its highest development from about ad 300 to
900. The Maya built massive stone pyramids, temples, and sculpture
and accomplished complex achievements in mathematics and astronomy,
which were recorded in hieroglyphs (a pictorial form of writing).
After 900 the Maya mysteriously declined in the southern lowlands
of Guatemala. They later revived in the north on the Yucatán
Peninsula and continued to dominate the area until the Spanish conquest
in the 16th century. Descendants of the Maya still form a large
part of the population of the region. Although many have adopted
Spanish ways, a significant number of modern Maya maintain traditional
cultural practices.II
Preclassic Period
Many aspects of Maya civilization developed slowly through a long
Preclassic period, from about 2000 bc to ad 300. By the beginning
of that period, Mayan-speaking Native Americans were settled in
three adjacent regions of eastern and southern Mexico and Central
America: the dry, limestone country along the north coast of Mexico’s
Yucatán Peninsula; the inland tropical jungle in the
Petén region of northern Guatemala; and an area of
volcanic highlands and mountain peaks in southern Guatemala near
the Pacific Ocean.The earliest Maya were farmers who lived in small,
scattered villages of pole and thatch houses. They cultivated their
fields as a community, planting seeds in holes made with a pointed
wood stick. Later in the Preclassic period, they adopted intensive
farming techniques such as continuous cultivation involving crop
rotation and fertilizers, household gardens, and terraces. In some
areas, they built raised fields in seasonal swamps. Their main crops
included maize (corn), beans, squash, avocados, chili peppers, pineapples,
papayas, and cacao, which was made into a chocolate drink with water
and hot chilies. The women ground corn on specially shaped grinding
stones and mixed the ground meal with water to make a drink known
as atole or to cook as tortillas (flat cakes) on flat pottery griddles.
The Maya also drank balche made from fermented honey mixed with
the bark of the balche tree. Rabbits, deer, and turkeys were hunted
for making stews. Fishing also supplied part of their diet. Turkeys,
ducks, and dogs were kept as domesticated animals.
When they were not hunting, fishing, or in the fields, Maya men
made stone tools, clay figurines, jade carvings, ropes, baskets,
and mats. The women made painted pottery vessels out of coiled strands
of clay, and they wove ponchos, mená loincloths, and women's
skirts, out of fibers made from cotton or from the leaves of the
maguey plant. They also used the bark of the wild fig tree to make
paper, which they used primarily for ceremonial purposes. Since
the Maya had neither draft animals nor wheeled vehicles, they carried
goods for trade over the narrow trails with tumplines (backpacks
supported by a strap slung across the forehead or chest) or transported
them in dugout canoes along the coasts and rivers.The early Maya
probably organized themselves into kin-based settlements headed
by chiefs. The chiefs were hereditary rulers who commanded a following
through their political skills and their ability to communicate
with supernatural powers. Along with their families, they composed
an elite segment of society, enjoying the privileges of high social
rank. However, these elites did not yet constitute a social class
of nobles as they would in the Classic period. A council of chiefs
or elders governed a group of several settlements located near one
another. The council combined both political and religious functions.
Like other ancient farming peoples, the early Maya worshiped agricultural
gods, such as the rain god and, later, the corn god. Eventually
they developed the belief that gods controlled events in each day,
month, and year, and that they had to make offerings to win the
god's favor. Maya astronomers observed the movements of the sun,
moon, and planets, made astronomical calculations, and devised almanacs
(calendars combined with astronomical observations). The astronomers'
observations were used to divine auspicious moments for many different
kinds of activity, from farming to warfare.Rulers and nobles directed
the commoners in building major settlements, such as Kaminaljuy,
in the southern highlands, and Tikal, in the central lowlands of
the Petén jungle. Pyramid-shaped mounds of rubble topped
with altars or thatched temples sat in the center of these settlements,
and priests performed sacrifices to the gods on them. As the Preclassic
period progressed, the Maya increasingly used stone in building.
Both nobles and commoners lived in extended family compounds.
During the Preclassic period the basic patterns of ancient Maya
life were established. However, the period was not simply a rehearsal
for the Classic period but a time of spectacular achievements. For
example, enormous pyramids were constructed at the site of El Mirador,
in the lowlands of Guatemala. These pyramids are among the largest
constructions in the ancient Maya world. By about 400 bc El Mirador
was a major population center that served as the seat of a powerful
chiefdom.
The highland and the lowland regions were in close contact at this
time. Obsidian, a smooth volcanic rock used to make weapons and
tools, from highland Guatemala has been found at El Mirador, and
a sculptural style that originated in the Pacific lowland region
of Chiapas and Guatemala was common in the southern highlands. Kaminaljuyú
was the most powerful chiefdom of the highlands, and it probably
controlled the flow of obsidian to the lowlands. Control of this
important resource allowed Kaminaljuyú to dominate
trade networks. Economic and political institutions during this
period were more advanced in the southern highland area.
Classic Period
Classic Maya civilization became more complex in about ad 300 as
the population increased and centers in the highlands and the lowlands
engaged in both cooperation and competition with each other. Trade
and warfare were important stimuli to cultural growth and development.
The greatest developments occurred in the Petén jungle and
surrounding regions of the lowlands where major city-states, such
as Tikal, Palenque, Piedras Negras, and Copán, arose and
developed from ad 300 to 900.
Society became more complex, with distinct social classes developing.
Families of nobles formed a hereditary ruling class that stood apart
from the common Maya. At the top of society, a hereditary king ruled
over each Maya city. Kings were similar to the earlier ruling chiefs
except that they formed a distinct social class along with other
nobles. Under the direction of their kings, who also performed as
priests, the centers of the lowland Maya became densely populated
jungle cities with vast stone and masonry temple and palace complexes.
The core area of Tikal, for example, covered about 9 sq km (about
3 sq mi) and included about 2700 structures with an estimated population
of 11,300. The total area of Tikal, including the core, peripheral,
and rural areas, is estimated at 314 sq km (121 sq mi) with an estimated
population of 92,000.
During the Classic period, warfare was conducted on a fairly limited,
primarily ceremonial scale. Maya rulers, who were often depicted
on stelae (carved stone monuments) carrying weapons, attempted to
capture and sacrifice one another for ritual and political purposes.
The rulers often destroyed parts of some cities, but the destruction
was directed mostly at temples in the ceremonial precincts; it had
little or no impact on the economy or population of a city as a
whole. Some city-states did occasionally conquer others, but this
was not a common occurrence until very late in the Classic period
when lowland civilization had begun to disintegrate. Until that
time, the most common pattern of Maya warfare seems to have consisted
of raids employing rapid attacks and retreats by relatively small
numbers of warriors, most of whom were probably nobles.
Lowland Maya centers were true cities with large resident populations
of commoners who sustained the ruling elites through payments of
tribute in goods and labor. They built temples, palaces, courtyards,
water reservoirs, and causeways. Walls, floors, and other surfaces
in a lowland Maya city were smoothly covered with red or cream-colored
limestone stucco, which shone brilliantly in the tropical sun. Sculptors
carved stelae, which recorded information about the rulers, their
family and political histories, and often included exaggerated statements
about their conquests of other city-states.
Society and Economy
Classic Maya kings carried the title k’ul ahau
(supreme and sacred ruler). In the latter part of the Classic period,
kings were assisted in governing by a hereditary ruling council.
The power of the king existed as both a political and religious
authority in this period. In contrast, the king's religious power
declined during the Postclassic period (ad 900 to 1521) because
the institution of priesthood appeared.Merchants were important
to Maya society because of the significance of trade. Principal
interior trade routes connected all the great Classic lowland centers
and controlled the flow of goods such as salt, obsidian, jade, cacao,
animal pelts, tropical bird feathers, and luxury ceramics. In the
early Classic period Teotihuacán in central Mexico emerged
as the greatest city in Mesoamerica, an area that included modern
Mexico and most of Central America. The religious and political
power of Teotihuacán radiated throughout Mesoamerica. One
result of Teotihuacán's influence was a highly integrated
network of trade in which the Maya participated.Highland Maya from
the southern region carried obsidian for tools and weapons; grinding
stones; jade; green parrot and quetzal feathers; a tree resin called
copal to burn as incense; and cochineal, a red dye made from dried
insects. Those from the lowlands brought jaguar pelts, chert (flint),
salt, cotton fibers and cloth, balche, wax, honey, dried fish, and
smoked venison. People either bartered goods directly or exchanged
them for cacao beans, which were used as a kind of currency. Wealth
acquired from trade enabled the upper classes to live in luxury,
although there was little improvement in the lives of the lower
classes.
A Maya nobleman wore an embroidered cotton loincloth trimmed with
feathers; a robe of cotton, jaguar skin, or feathers; sandals; and
an elaborate feather headdress that was sometimes as large as himself.
His head had been fashionably elongated by being pressed between
boards when he was a few days old, and his eyes had purposely been
crossed in childhood by having objects dangled before them. His
nose was built up with putty to give it an admired beak shape, and
his ears and teeth were inlaid with jade. A noblewoman wore a loose
white cotton robe that was often embroidered. Her head was also
elongated, and she filed her teeth to points.
Nobles lived in houses of cut stone with plastered walls that often
bore brightly painted murals. In the living room nobles gave banquets
of turkey, deer, duck, chocolate, and balche. The guests were expected
to bring gifts and to give a banquet in return. A dead noble was
buried in a stone vault with jade and pottery ornaments, and occasionally
with human sacrifices, which were provided to serve him in the afterlife.
Most of the Maya people were village farmers who gave two-thirds
of their produce and much of their labor to the upper classes. Commoner
men wore plain cotton loincloths and simple tunics. Women wore woven
cotton blouses and skirts or loose-fitting sack dresses with simple
embroidered patterns. Women and girls wore their hair long and took
care that it was always combed and arranged attractively. Different
hairstyles signaled the marital status of women. Both men and women
tattooed their bodies with elaborate designs.
At the bottom of Maya society were slaves who were convicted criminals,
poor commoners who sold themselves into bondage, captives of war,
or individuals acquired by trade. Slaves performed menial tasks
for their owners and they were often sacrificed when their owners
died so that they could continue to serve in the afterlife.
Religion
The Maya cosmos comprised a wide range of diverse and varied supernatural
beings or deities. The chief god, Hunab Ku, the creator of the world,
was considered too far above men to figure in worship. He was more
important in his manifestation as Itzamna, a sky deity considered
lord of the heavens and lord of day and night who brought rain and
patronized writing and medicine. He was worshiped especially by
the priests, and he appears to have been the patron deity of the
royal lineages. Closer to the common people were Yum Kaax, the maize
deity, and the four Chacs, or rain gods, each associated with a
cardinal direction and with its own special color. Women worshiped
Ix Chel, a rainbow deity associated with healing, childbirth, and
weaving. All the Maya revered Ixtab, goddess of suicide, and thought
that suicides went to a special heaven. The Maya also recognized
the gods who controlled each day, month, and year. See also Pre-Columbian
Religions.
The Maya performed many rituals and ceremonies to communicate with
their deities. At stated intervals, such as the Maya New Year in
July, or in emergencies' such as famine, epidemics, or a great drought
the people gathered in ritual plazas to honor the gods. They hung
feathered banners in doorways all about the plaza. Groups of men
or women in elaborate feathered robes and headdresses, with bells
on their hands and feet, danced in the plaza to the music of drums,
whistles, rattles, flutes, and wood trumpets. Worshipers took ritual
steam baths and drank intoxicating balche. Participants often ingested
other hallucinogenic drugs, such as mushrooms, and they smoked a
very strong form of tobacco with hallucinogenic effects. Young Maya
nobles played a sacred ball game on specially constructed courts.
Without using their hands, players tried to knock a rubber ball
through one of the vertical stone rings built into the walls of
the court. On special occasions players who lost the game would
be sacrificed to the gods.Many ceremonies focused on sacrifices
to gain the favor of the gods. The sacrifices took place on the
great stone pyramids that rose above the plazas, with stairs leading
to a temple and altar on top. The temple, a resting place for the
god, was deeply carved or painted with designs and figures and was
topped with a carved vertical slab of stone called a roof comb.
Some had distinctive corbeled arches, in which each stone extended
beyond the one beneath it until the two sides of the arch were joined
by a single keystone at the top. Before the altar, smoke rose from
copal incense burning in pottery vessels.
Worshipers sometimes gave the gods simple offerings of corn, fruit,
game, or blood, which a worshiper obtained by piercing his own lips,
tongue, or genitals. For major favors they offered the gods human
sacrifice, usually children, slaves, or prisoners of war. A victim
was painted blue and then ceremonially killed on top of the pyramid,
either by being shot full of arrows or by having his arms and legs
held while a priest cut open his chest with a sacrificial flint
knife and tore out his heart as an offering. Captured rulers were
sometimes ritually sacrificed by decapitating them with an axe.
Science and Writing
Although Maya builders possessed many practical skills, the most
distinctive Maya achievements were in abstract mathematics and astronomy.
One of their greatest intellectual achievements was a pair of interlocking
calendars, which was used for such purposes as the scheduling of
ceremonies. One calendar was based on the sun and contained 365
days. The second was a sacred 260-day almanac used for finding lucky
and unlucky days. The designation of any day included the day name
and number from both the solar calendar and the sacred almanac.
The two calendars can be thought of as two geared wheels that meshed
together at one point along the rim, with the glyphs for the days
of the sun calendar on one wheel and the glyphs for the days of
the sacred almanac on the other. With each new day the wheels were
turned by one gear. The name for each day was formed by combining
the name for the sun calendar day with the name for the sacred almanac
day.
Maya astronomers could make difficult calculations, such as finding
the day of the week of a particular calendar date many thousands
of years in the past or in the future. They also used the concept
of zero, an extremely advanced mathematical concept. Although they
had neither decimals nor fractions, they made accurate astronomical
measurements by dropping or adding days to their calendar. For example,
during 1000 years of observing the revolution of the planet Venus,
which is completed in 583.92 days, Maya astronomers calculated the
time of the Venusian year as 584 days. The Maya method of reckoning
time involved counting forward from a hypothetical fixed point and
expressing the date in time periods based on the number 20 and counted
in intervals of 1, 20, 360, 7200, and 144,000 days. Such dates appear
on carved stone monuments dating to as early as the late Preclassic
period, and they are prevalent throughout the lowlands on monuments
from the Classic period.
The Maya developed a complex system of hieroglyphic writing to record
not only astronomical observations and calendrical calculations,
but also historical and genealogical information. Many recent advances
have occurred in the decipherment of the Mayan script. These breakthroughs
made it possible to conclude that Mayan hieroglyphs were a mixture
of glyphs that represent complete words and glyphs that represent
sounds, which were combined to form complete words. Scribes carved
hieroglyphs on stone stelae, altars, wooden lintels, and roof beams,
or painted them on ceramic vessels and in books made of bark paper.
Collapse of Classic Civilization
From about ad 790 to 889, Classic Maya civilization in the lowlands
collapsed. Construction of temples and palaces ceased, and monuments
were no longer erected. The Maya abandoned the great lowland cities,
and population levels declined drastically, especially in the southern
and central lowlands. Scholars debate the causes of the collapse,
but they are in general agreement that it was a gradual process
of disintegration rather than a sudden dramatic event.
A number of factors were almost certainly involved, and the precise
causes were different for each city-state in each region of the
lowlands. Among the factors that have been suggested are natural
disasters, disease, soil exhaustion and other agricultural problems,
peasant revolts, internal warfare, and foreign invasions. Whatever
factors led to the collapse, their net result was a weakening of
lowland Maya social, economic, and political systems to the point
where they could no longer support large populations. Another result
was the loss of inestimable amounts of knowledge relating to Maya
religion and ritual.
Postclassic Period
After the collapse in the central and southern lowlands, Maya civilization
continued and even flourished in the northern lowlands of Yucatán
and in the southern highlands of Guatemala. The decline of the older
powers in the south led to unprecedented growth in the Yucatán
Peninsula and the rise of a number of new cities in that region.
Among these were Uxmal, Sayil, and Labna, characterized by a distinctive
architectural style known as Puuc, which features elaborate mosaic
decoration.
In Postclassic times (ad 900 to 1521) the city-states of Yucatán
were ruled by a hereditary halach uinic (also called ahau) who was
also the highest religious authority. The halach uinic had very
broad powers. He formulated domestic and foreign policy and appointed
batabs (lesser lords), who administered the surrounding towns and
villages. Local councils made up of clan leaders aided the batabs.
Other local Maya officials collected taxes and kept order. Postclassic
merchants and professional craftworkers composed a kind of middle
class.
A high priest, known as ahaucan, conducted major ceremonies and
was in charge of the education of priests and nobles. He was assisted
by a hierarchy of priests who took part in ceremonies, kept vigils
in the temples, performed healing rituals, taught, and served as
oracles for the gods. Although similar features and patterns existed
in the Classic political structure, the institution of priesthood
appears only in the Postclassic.
At the same time, during the 9th century, a new group of Maya, known
as the Putun (or Chontal) Maya, began to arrive in Yucatán
from their homeland in the Gulf Coast region of Mexico. The Putuns
were warriors and traders without equal in the Maya area. At first
they were interested in trade along rivers and overland routes.
Eventually they became seafaring people whose merchants plied coastal
trade routes around the peninsula and beyond in canoes. These large
oceangoing canoes traveled the coast transporting huge loads of
heavy and bulky goods much more efficiently than was possible in
earlier times. Italian-Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus encountered
such a canoe off the Caribbean coast of Honduras on his fourth voyage
to the Americas in 1502.
Ports of trade, such as Xicalanco (now in Tabasco, Mexico), served
as international meeting places that attracted not only Maya but
also traders from highland Mexico to the west and Central America
to the south. Wealthy Maya merchants organized expeditions that
traveled great distances in fleets of canoes or over well-constructed
stone roads and causeways. Along the routes they built warehouses
for goods and rest houses for their carriers. The need to protect
the trade networks led the Putuns to develop very aggressive military
forces.
Ethnically Maya, the Putuns adopted many stylistic influences from
central Mexico in their art and architecture. Especially common
was the image of the feathered serpent representing the deity known
as Quetzalcoatl in Mexico and as Kukulcan to the Maya. One very
powerful Putun group, the Itzá, founded their capital
at Chichán Itzá.
Chichán Itzá
The Itzá brought their Mexicanized Maya culture to Chichán
Itzá in the northern part of the Yucatán Peninsula.
During their rule, Mexican-influenced cultures produced certain
changes in the traditional Maya way of life. In the social structure
military lords rose in power, and the institution of a formalized
priesthood separated from political rulers. This change was echoed
in religion, in which the feathered serpent-god Kukulcan dominated
all others. The use of human sacrifice in worship became increasingly
important. There were also new forms of sacrifice; the Itzá
threw victims into a sacred cenote, or natural well, along with
offerings of pottery, gold, jade, and other valuables. This cenote,
in fact, determined the location of Chichán Itzá and
was responsible for the city's importance as a pilgrimage center.Chichán
Itzá was a very large city with a central area covering about
5 sq km (2 sq mi). Its architecture shows the introduction of columns,
wider rooms and doorways, and sloping zones around the base of the
buildings. The core area includes numerous temples and ball courts,
one of which is the largest known in Mesoamerica. One distinctive
structure of the city is a round temple that functioned as an observatory.
Statues and motifs of Kukulcan appeared on buildings, staircases,
roofs, columns, and doorway lintels. Life-size stone figures supported
the altars, and great reclining stone figures, called Chacmools,
were sculpted. Warriors depicted in bas-relief columns lack the
Classic Maya distortion of head and eyes. Pottery became monochrome,
or single-colored, instead of multicolored, as it had been in the
Classic era, but it was often carved or incised with intricate designs.
Gold, copper, turquoise, and onyx were used in jewelry. Painted
books, called codices, were made of bark fiber or deerskin. Trade
and commerce, especially maritime exchange, increased.
How to cite this article:
"Maya Empire," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia
2003
http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All
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