The World of the Mayas

One of the World’s Longest-Lasting Civilisations

Maya brick with head, late Classic Period 600–900AD. By Gary Todd, 18 November 2014. This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

Pictures of people with flattened foreheads are realistic, not an artist’s imagination. The Mayas thought it looked noble, so they tied planks to babies’ heads while the bones were still soft, molding the child’s skull. Remains have been found with various skull shapes; created by different groups, and/or representing changing styles.

The Mayas had one of the earliest sophisticated writing systems, an extensive understanding of astronomy, architecture, and mathematics — they were among the first to include the concept of zero.

They developed non-repeating calendars with Long Count Dates, one with base 18 and another with base 20. They used three at a time, and this allowed them to identify any day by relating it to the number of days since their mythical creation date, in the fifth century BCE.

The Mayas also spent much of their time on inter-tribal warfare.

The people and their home

Mayan territory extended across much of Central America, from Mexico to modern Guatemala, Honduras and Belize. Their home was bordered by the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean, and the Pacific Ocean. Neighboring peoples, at various times, included Mixtecs, Olmecs and Aztecs, but the looser structure of Mayan civilization proved most durable.

The Mayas were not a homogenous group. They were many tribes living in city states, with no sense of unity. Relations between groups were sometimes belligerent, sometimes friendly, and always based on mutual needs.

Map of MesoAmerican Historical Sites. By P Miles, 30 November 2012. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Geographically, this region varies considerably, from warm, moist Lowland areas to cooler, drier Highlands. Most importantly for agriculture, fresh water is abundant in some places and rare in others. Adaptable as ever, people learned to live on all these types of land.

One major factor was trade; it makes whatever you need available. If you have something others want, you can exchange. If you’re strong enough, you just take what you want. Either way, you need to get around.

Sacbé — a remarkable road system

In Europe, we usually think of the Romans as the greatest ancient road builders. Their main road-building period was during the Empire (27BCE-395 CE). Roman roads were famously straight, and maintained in good condition.

On the other side of the Atlantic, the Mayas built a great network of roads too; as straight as Roman roads, and also level, as they filled in any hollows. Their roads were shining white, with a cap of crushed conch shells.

The sacbé was used for religious processions, for trade and for military transport. Road maintenance was a duty of all Mayan people and they came from cities to work on highway repair and improvement. They had no beasts of burden, and had to carry everything necessary on their backs.

Like the Roman roads, you can still see the Sacbé today:

Sacbé at Dzibilchaltun, Yucatán, Mexico. By Davud Wohl, 1 January 2002. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

A brief history

The oldest Mayan village so far found is Cuello (now in Belize), dated to 2600BCE during the Archaic period.

Historians have categorized the early cultivation of maize, calabazas, beans and chilies to the Pre-Classic period (2,000BCE to 250CE) — this includes the building of the first cities, between 750 and 500BCE.

Each city had its own “divine king,” believed to be half human and half god; usually the first son of the previous king, but he had to prove his ability. If he could not, someone else would be chosen.

Many cities were built near one or more cenotes. These provided water, and were also used for sacrifices. Mayans believed that gods dwelled in the cenotes. They would usually use a young girl as messenger; painted blue, the colour for sacrifices, she would be thrown into the water to swim down with messages and bring back any response. She was seldom seen again.

Mayan Crested Temple, from Museo Nacional de Antropología e Historía, Mexico City. Photo by Jorge Szeto, 19 June 2016. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

The Classic Period lasted from 250–900 CE, and they were most prosperous from 300–700CE, building Tulum in 433 and Chichen Itzá in 452. They also had a major intellectual center in Copán. During this period, sculptors started decorating monuments with hieroglyphics using images from the Mayan Calendar. Superb artwork was created, using jade, obsidian, ceramics, and wood.

In 378CE the nearby city of Teotihuacán (with many Mayan inhabitants) invaded several cities including Tikal and installed what we would now call puppet governments.

By 800CE, the Mayan population had increased to 3 million, but many died during a widespread drought. The combination of over-population and drought is always fatal, and the region is on the Pacific Ring of Fire, with many volcanoes and frequent earthquakes. Any of these could have triggered the disaster.

Palaces and pyramid/temples dominated all Mayan cities; their gods included images from nature (the sun, mon and rain) and Kukulkan, the Plumed Serpent which which, like many deities throughout history, “had left but would return”. He was also the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl. Mayas believed he was the Toltec governor of Chichen Itzá, and negotiated peace which lasted from 987–1017CE.

Ballcourts are also typical of Mayan architecture. There are over 1,300 rectangular ballcourts of different sizes identified in the region. Other ethnic groups played similar ball games

The Mayas played their complicated version for around 2,700 years. Players would control the ball (usually leather) using their right hips, elbows or knees, with the aim of passing it through a stone ring.

The ball games also had a deeper spiritual meaning, and some were based on a conflict between darkness and light., along with the religious concept of regeneration. Games were often accompanied by sacrifices, including of humans. The sacrificial victims were usually captured warriors. Like the messengers, they were painted blue to signify their role.

The end of an empire, and growth of a new one

The Mayan Post-Classic period is defined as starting in 900CE. Many cities were abandoned during the 9th century, during the famine and ensuing civil wars. Fighting between groups of Mayas continued. There was a long-lasting conflict between Tikal and Calakmul.

Chichen Itzá was destroyed sometime between 1000–1250CE and the victorious Mayapán became the main city. After its destruction in 1441, Mayan civilization declined into general tribal warfare, but they lasted a long time, and are still around today:

There are periods of growth and collapse in all civilizations, so historians give a range of dates.

Ancient Greece lasted about 18 centuries (1200BCE-600CE), Ancient Rome lasted nearly 13 centuries (8th Century BCE-500CE).

If you start from the first large cities (750BCE) Mayan civilization lasted for 23 centuries to 1546.

A few Europeans had traded with Mayas before, but the Conquistadors came to conquer not trade. One early arrival was in 1511, when Captain Valdivia’s ship, the caravel Santa María de la Barca, hit a reef near Jamaica. Twenty of his crew of forty escaped in a small boat and, despite lack of food and fresh water, twelve of them reached Cozumel.

A caravel, like Captain Valdivia’s ship. This one is Portuguese, and from the National Marine Museum in Paris. Photo by PHGCOM, 2007. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license.

Local Mayas sacrificed four of them, including Valdivia. Others died from disease. Jerónimo de Aguilar and Gonzalo Guerrero were enslaved, though Guerrero impressed with his military skills. He adopted the Mayan way of life, and married a local woman, becoming a great warrior, or nacom. In 1519, Hernán Cortés arrived, and de Aguilar was allowed to return to Spain with him.

In 1527, the Spanish returned, this time with a stronger army, including de Aguilar. The Mayas fought bravely until 1546. Nacom Guerrero led his soldiers to win several battles, but was shot by a Spanish soldier in 1535.

A few Mayas fought on, and El Petén was not conquered until 1697. The Spanish destroyed their books and their temples, and forced the Mayas to adopt Christianity.

According to some who can read Mayan writing, their predictions included the end of their own civilization. Xul — in the Mayan calendar -was accurate enough. It would be around 1546 in the Gregorian calendar. If more Mayan books remained, we might know more about this strange part of the story.

The Mayan people survive, and their culture recently enjoyed a renaissance, along with increased respect for indigenous peoples. Over six million people with Mayan ancestry are living in the region they once dominated, and 28 Mayan languages are still spoken today.

Maya Ceremony, Iximche. By Tom Fortunato, 21 December 2012. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Sources

Victor W von Hagen, Los Mayas,Editorial Gente Nueva, Havana, Cuba, 2010

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultura_maya

https://www.worldhistory.org/timeline/Maya_Civilization/

Francisco Cervantes de Salazar, Crónica de la Nueva España, Madrid, 1914.

https://www.historians.org/teaching-and-learning/teaching-resources-for-historians/teaching-and-learning-in-the-digital-age/the-history-of-the-americas/the-conquest-of-mexico/for-students/what-the-textbooks-have-to-say-about-the-conquest-of-mexico