MAYAMAYA
The Maya of Mesoamerica, along with the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru, 
made up the high civilizations of the American Indians at the time of the 
Spanish conquest. Both the Aztecs and the Incas were late empires (about AD 
1300-1533), capstones of a sequence of civilizations in Central Mexico and the 
Andes in South America, respectively. But the Maya of Yucatan and Guatemala 
exhibited a cultural continuity spanning more than 2,000 years (1000 BC-AD 
1542), and many aspects of their culture continue to the present.
Mesoamerica had three major time periods: preclassic (2000 BC-AD 300), classic 
(300-900), and postclassic (900-1500). During the six centuries of the classic 
period the Mayan civilization flourished first in the forests of the Peten in 
Guatemala and adjacent areas--creating such cities as Tikal, Uaxactun, Quirigua, 
Copan, and Palenque--and then in the semiarid scrublands of northern 
Yucatan--constructing such pilgrimage centers as Uxmal, Kabah, Sayil, Labna, 
Etzna, Old Chichen, and Coba.
The postclassic period in Yucatan was marked by the invasion of the Toltecs from 
Central Mexico and the establishment of their control at Chichen Itza 
(987-1200). Later the coastal trading town of Tulum grew in significance 
following the decline of military leagues led by Mayapan. Pyramids and temples 
were built in more than 40 cities, each with a population of about 20,000 
people. The Spanish conquest by Francisco de Montejo, whose house still stands 
on the central plaza in the capital of Merida, completed the downfall of the 
Mayan civilization in 1542.
Today more than 2 million Mayan Indians live in northern Yucatan and highland 
Guatemala in a style similar to that of the common people among their ancestors. 
Excavations at Dzibilchaltun near Merida revealed house sites from 1000 BC that 
resemble today's huts in rural regions. The same style of 
construction--wattle-and-daub walls in an oval shape with a thatched roof of 
palmetto fronds and little furniture--serves the native Maya, who continue to 
resist racial mixing and the dilution of their culture.
The design of the native house from antiquity is reproduced in stone as a 
decorative art motif in the Puuc style at such sites as Uxmal and Labna (800- 
1000). The Puuc style, named for a region of low limestone hills in northern 
Yucatan, is characterized by an unadorned lower level that contrasts sharply 
with an elaborately sculptured upper level. Examples are the Nunnery Quadrangle 
and the governor's palace. It is possible that the stone columns, or cylinders, 
also featured in this art style represent posts and wickerwork of the 
daub-and-wattle native huts.
Agriculture
The Mayan civilization in all stages--formative, flourishing, declining, and 
continuing--has been based on agriculture. Indian corn, or maize, was 
domesticated from a wild grass in central Mexico about 7,000 years ago and 
sustained most sedentary Indian civilizations from that time.
In the humid Peten a surplus of water and rapid growth of trees and vines 
encouraged the slash-and-burn farming method. The farmer cleared the cornfield 
by cutting bushes and girdling the trees, usually near the end of the rainy 
season, allowing the piled brush to dry under the hot sun of the dry season. 
Then the wood was burned and the ashes scattered among the stumps. A mattock of 
stone or wood to scoop the earth into a hummock and a fire-hardened pointed 
stick to poke a hole for the seed were used.
Culture
The productivity of the corn farmer sustained the Mayan civilization. It is 
estimated that as many as 150 days a year were free from daily drudgery in the 
fields. This surplus time was utilized by the nobility and the priests in a 
stratified society to build the cities, pyramids, and temples. There was 
sufficient leisure to support skilled craftsmen in arts and crafts. The Mayan 
workers who constructed the great stone structures and decorated the walls with 
artistic embellishment, however, were unaided by draft animals and wheeled 
carts. The lords of the land oversaw civic matters, while the priests conducted 
religious rituals, pursued intellectual studies, and corrected the calendar.
Cities that flourished in the classic period in lowland Guatemala are 
exemplified by Tikal, which has pyramid-temples more than 200 feet (60 meters) 
high and numerous carved stelae as time markers and reign recorders. Then the 
Old Empire collapsed. The stable city-states, comparable to ancient Greece in 
cultural accomplishment and administrative acumen, faded from memory.
No one knows why the culture declined and the cities were covered by encroaching 
forest until rediscovery in the 19th century. Possible causes include exhaustion 
of the cornfields by overpopulation, climatic changes, hurricanes, pestilences 
of epidemic proportions, wars, and insurrection.
Far to the north at the tip of Yucatan the New Empire waxed while the Old Empire 
waned. Archaeologists trace transition routes through Palenque in Chiapas, via 
Mirador and Rio Bec in Quintana Roo, and around Coba, where a network of 
causeway roads called sacbes connect distant cities.
The physical environment of the peninsula of Yucatan differs from that of the 
Peten. It too is lowland and limestone but arid and covered with desert scrub. 
Water is scarce and seasonal, draining underground via sinkholes and 
subterranean streams. Where the water table reaches the surface or the limestone 
layer can be breached, a cenote, or well, provides water for settlement and 
cultivation. Chaltunes are man-made cisterns lined with plaster to catch 
rainwater runoff. Such sites are typified by Uxmal and Chichen Itza with the 
Sacred Cenote, or Well of Sacrifice.
Palenque presents two notable features: the tomb of Lord Pacal (615-683), 
located inside the Temple of the Inscriptions, and the royal palace with a 
four-story square tower used not for defense observation but to notify the 
hospitable lords that visitors were approaching along the Usumacinta River, the 
artery of trade and travel to Tikal.
Uxmal (750-1000) is distinguished by the Temple of the Magician, which was 
rebuilt five times to comply with century cycles every 52 years according to the 
rounds of the lunar and solar calendars. The tracery of Kukulcan, or "feathered 
serpent" in the Mayan tongue, is intertwined through the mosaic of fretwork on 
the upper wall of the Nunnery Quadrangle.

El Castillo, or the Pyramid of Quetzalcoatl, the "feathered serpent" in the 
Nahuatl language of the Toltecs and Aztecs, is the outstanding feature of 
Chichen Itza (1000-1200). It heralds the coming of the Toltecs from Central 
Mexico and their dominance of the Maya of Old Chichen (800-1000). The themes of 
art and architecture duplicate Tula, the original capital in the highlands, with 
emphasis on the images and symbols of the feathered serpent. The Quetzalcoatl 
portal supported the lintel over the entrance to the Temple of the Warriors, and 
the memoirs of the associated military orders of Jaguar and Eagle are carved 
into the Court of the Thousand Columns. The head, body, and tail of the creator 
deity--the giver of corn and civilization--outline the grand staircase rising to 
the temple atop El Castillo. Inside, the red Jaguar throne is encrusted with 
pieces of precious jade. The Quetzalcoatl legend predicted the return of the god 
to Mexico, which happened to coincide with the arrival of the conquistadores, 
and Cortez astutely assumed the mantle of the deity to befuddle the 
superstitious Montezuma and complete the Spanish conquest.
Religion and the state among the Maya were as closely interconnected as among 
the Spaniards who conquered them. This convergence of customs and beliefs 
facilitated the merging of religions and the acceptance of authority during the 
colonial period. The Indians were converted to Roman Catholicism, but pagan 
practices persist, particularly in rural villages. In ancient days religious 
rites were conducted in temples by priests, and the government was administered 
by the aristocracy. The palace at Sayil and the governor's palace at Uxmal 
represent the residences of the landed elite.
Architecture achieved distinction in the Mayan cities of Yucatan, though the 
designers and builders were restricted by the technical limitations of the 
corbeled arch as compared to the Roman arch. The Roman model features a 
keystone, which affords wide coverage of space, whereas the corbeled arch 
contains a capstone, which allows only narrow spaces.
The huge arch approaching Kabah on the causeway from Uxmal is the largest in 
Mayaland, and the great gate at Labna is balanced with native huts in stone. A 
temple at Labna atop an unrestored mound illustrates Mayan construction methods: 
a one-room interior vaulted with a corbeled arch appears to be two stories high 
and is heightened still more by a roof comb for prestige. The roof comb exhibits 
an open lattice to reduce air pressure during windstorms.
Such special structures as the Caracol at Old Chichen and the observatory at 
Copan had an astronomical purpose. They were operated by the priests to devise 
and maintain a calendar more accurate than any except the Gregorian. The Maya 
invented a numerical system that involved the concept of zero, which was 
positional like the decimal system but based on 20 instead of 10. The symbols 
were dot-and-bar combinations and hieroglyphs. Scholars developed a system of 
hieroglyphic writing similar to the ideographic type of the ancient Egyptians 
but more primitive. The glyph inscriptions with narrative content are being 
translated with partial success.
Many buildings of Yucatan in the Puuc style are decorated with the face of Chac, 
the Mayan rain god, an all-important deity in a society dependent on 
agriculture. Chac can be recognized by an elephant tusk nose. Sometimes there 
are three or four Chacs stacked over a doorway, giving security in numbers, and 
on the corners of buildings with eyes surveying two sides at the same time. The 
use of Chacmools--the bearers of messages to the pantheon of deities--so 
prominent at Chichen Itza, was introduced by the Toltecs of Tula from Central 
Mexico.
The Maya located in the highlands lived in a third type of physical 
environment--the volcanic mountains and intermontane valleys of Guatemala. 
Kaminaljuyu arose as a notable urban center in the classic period, much 
influenced by Teotihuacan in Central Mexico. The region was harshly conquered by 
Pedro de Alvarado in 1524 after the submission of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec 
capital. The myths and traditions of the past are preserved in the Popul Vuh, 
the sacred book of the Quiche Maya, and the customs of the ancient Maya can 
still be observed in Quetzaltenango and Chichicastenango near Lake Atitlan. The 
Maya are a most resilient people.
 
Main Page 
Ragz-International