Mexico - Yucatan

The Mayan Civilization

Chichen Itza, Map 4, Mexico

Recenter Map To This Location

One of the most advanced cultures of the pre-Columbian World was that of the Classic Maya. Technologically, they were a Stone-Age people, lacking metal tools, draft animals, or knowledge of the wheel; but their artistic and intellectual achievements rank them with the other great civilizations of antiquity. The flowering of their culture encompassed a period from about A.D. 250–900. This span of years is defined for us by dates carved on large stone monuments known as stele. These stele are found at numerous Mayan sites and their dates can be read and correlated with our modern calendar. The earliest known so far is A.D. 292 and the last is A.D. 889. These two dates mark the beginning and the end of the 600 years of the Classic Period. The Mayan people themselves neither begin nor end with this designation of time. For 2,000 years they lived in the jungles and mountain valleys of the region creating a base of art and cultural traditions from which the Classic Period developed. Today over 4,000,000 people of Mayan descent still inhabit their original area, a geographical region that includes all the Yucatán Peninsula, Guatemala, and Belize, portions of Honduras and El Salvador, and parts of the Mexican states of Chiapas and Tabasco. While environment and climate vary widely, the culture itself was remarkably uniform, indicating close contacts and shared values during the Classic Period. Maya Classic civilization has intrigued scholars and laymen alike since its rediscovery about 150 years ago, but only recently have archaeologists begun to uncover the reality rather than the myth of this ancient culture. For many years the Maya were thought to have been a peaceful group of talented farmers, devoted to religion and led by brilliant, intellectual priests whose primary concerns were astronomy and the recording of time. Recent discoveries now challenge these assumptions. The Mayan elite may indeed have been the intellectual giants of their era and artistic and religious activities were certainly intimately interwoven in the culture. Realistically, however, the Mayan world was composed of small and large warlike states with constantly changing alliances based on military action and royal intermarriage. Their economic and demographic growth was built on secular activities such as trade and exchange, tribute payments, and military conquest. Even Mayan religious practices were not peaceful, simple ceremonies as previously thought. Instead we now know that they were elaborate costumed rituals, which included blood letting, brutality, and human sacrifices—all dedicated to demanding gods and the rulers who were their earthly representatives. As evidence of the bloody religious ceremonies practiced by the Maya and other cultures in Mesoamerica, archaeologists found at some Mayan sites an almost life-size sculpture called a chacmool. This is a finely carved stone figure reclining on its back with knees drawn up in front. It was here that the heart was cut from the sacrificial victim and probably placed on the stone disk on the chacmool’s abdomen as an offering to the gods. Like many other early civilizations, the Maya had an overwhelming concern with death and the afterlife and they buried their rulers and elite with elaborate gifts of pottery, jade, and stone. These artifacts, along with recent major advancements in reading the Mayan hieroglyphic texts and meticulous archaeological excavations, have done much to expand our understanding of the ancient Maya and their way of life. There are a number of specific traits and accomplishments of the Classic Period that set it apart from the Pre-Classic and Post-Classic Mayan Periods. Among these are: a sophisticated calendrical system that can be correlated with our modern calendar; a hieroglyphic writing system; the erection of tall stone stele to commemorate actual events in time; the use and possible invention of the concept of zero; the development of an elaborate and complicated style of art; and the construction of monumental stone architecture using a corbel arch. Architecture is probably the most important, and certainly the most visible form of Mayan art and creativity. While sites on the seacoasts, in the mountain valleys, and on the Yucatán Peninsula are fairly easily seen and visited, massive stone ruins of ancient cities still lie buried deep in the jungle. Structures at almost all Mayan sites include palaces,    
pyramids, temples, roads, reservoirs, markets, and ball courts—all built of stone and covered originally with a coating of white stucco and bright paint. The magnificent high-stepped pyramids that rise above the landscape were once surmounted by temples dedicated to the Mayan gods, and often hidden within their depths are the rich tombs of Mayan kings. At large sites, these immense pyramids usually dominate both ends of central plazas with lower platforms supporting the palaces and public building associated with them. Sacbes (stucco-covered stone roadways) connect regional sites, and were probably used for commerce and trading caravans, movements of troops, and for ritual processionals. A ritual ball game was played on stone courts found all over Mesoamerica. In the Mayan area the game took on cosmic significance relating to the ongoing struggle between the forces of the day and night (the sun and moon, good and evil, etc.). In addition, the actual origin myth of the Maya was based on the outcome of a game of ball. In the Mayan book, the Popol Vuh, two young twin ball players descend to the underworld to play a game of ball against the gods of pestilence, famine, and death. They eventually defeat these gods of darkness on the underworld ball court of Xibalba. Their hard-won game assures the victory of light and life over the forces of darkness and death. The ritual sport often ended with the decapitation of the captain of the losing team; numerous depictions of this event are seen on painted and carved pottery, colorful murals, and the carved friezes on the walls of the ball court at the site of Chichén Itzá. Though architecture may be the most impressive of Mayan achievements, other artifacts also offer concrete evidence of the skill of Mayan craftsmen and artists. These highly trained professionals were probably attached to ruling families or ceremonial centers and held special status in Mayan society. With a few recently discovered exceptions, artists and craftsmen remain anonymous. Most creations were unsigned by their makers and the artist was primarily important as an instrument through which the rulers and gods were honored. These talented artists used various media to create beautiful objects. Stonemasons carved tall limestone stele with figures of rulers wearing the elaborate feather headdresses and jade ornaments that were status symbols among Mayan elite. Scribes carved or painted hieroglyphic texts and calendrical information on stone monuments, walls of buildings and the pages of codices (Mayan books). Potters decorated the smoothed surfaces of ceramic vessels with scenes from the underworld, activities of gods and kings, and repetitive hieroglyphics texts. It has been suggested that the primary function of some artists may have been as scribes, craftsmen who painted the codices, which were once abundant in the Mayan world. All but four of these books have been lost due to damp climate and to their intentional destruction by the invading Spanish conquerors. Nevertheless, enough evidence remains to indicate strong resemblances between these lost books and the scenes and hieroglyphs painted on Mayan burial ceramics and on the walls of the ancient buildings. The Maya were also highly skilled workers in jade, shell, flint, and bone. Jade was the most precious of all materials to the Maya. They were especially fond of the emerald-green or imperial jade and carved it into bead necklaces, masks, pendants, and ear-spools. Gold and other metals were not worked by the Classic Maya, but later when gold was known and used during the post-Classic Period, jade remained the more valued and preferred material. The Classic Maya used the same hieroglyphic symbols to mean jade, water, and precious—indicating the gemstone’s supreme value in their life and religious activities. Other artifacts made of perishable materials are now lost from the archaeological record but can be identified from depictions on ceramics and stone. Finely woven and decorated textiles, paper ornaments, bark-paper books, and many objects carved in wood were documented in this way, but have not survived the damp, tropical climate. After about A.D. 900, the Classic Maya cities located in the tropical jungle region collapsed. In other Mayan regions, such as the Yucatán Peninsula, Mayan traditions continued, but the magnificent sites of this lowland area were abandoned to the jungle and the great art of the period ceased. Rulers, dignitaries, and priests disappeared and the elaborate religious ceremonies were no longer performed in the temples and plazas created for them. The reasons for the collapse are still unclear. Possibly constant warfare, overpopulation, drought, epidemics, and military invasion may all have been contributing factors. Whatever the causes, the collapse was so complete that some of the lowland tropical areas once occupied by this civilization were only sparsely inhabited until about 50 years ago. Yet this vanished civilization is not truly “lost.” Archaeologists continue to work and uncover artifacts and information from the once-forgotten jungle sites. Magnificent works of art still remain to speak to us across the centuries of the culture and people of the Classic Maya world.