The Yucatan Peninsula

The Mayan cities of the Yucatán Peninsula survived for over 300 years after the fall of the heartland sites. While the Yucatán sites shared fully in the Classic Mayan traditions, their location on important trade routes and an influx of population and new ideas (some no doubt from the collapsed jungle cities), apparently encouraged continuing prosperity. The Yucatán Peninsula is a limestone shelf. At the base of the peninsula are Mexican jungles and the frontiers of Guatemala and Belize. Much of the Yucatán is devoid of ground water such as springs or rivers, and is dependent for its supply of water on cenotes (fallen limestone sink holes which reveal underground rivers) or catchment systems for preserving heavy seasonal rainfall. As might be expected, the major sites of this geographical area occur where fertile soils can be supplied with water by the use of chultuns (man-made cistern systems) or where cenotes occur naturally. During the pre-Classic Period (600 B.C.–A.D. 300) there were a number of important early cities in the Yucatán. These were sites with massive architecture and sophisticated water control systems, such as Calakmul, Edzná, and Dzibilchaltún. They were of major importance in establishing the artistic and intellectual traditions on which Classic Maya culture was built. Throughout the following Classic Period (A.D. 300–900) some of these Yucatán sites faded but the area still remained a part of the amazing cultural development of such well known Mayan jungle cities as Tikal, Palenque, and Copan. Amazingly, the Yucatán region did not share in the collapse of the sites in the heartland area. Indeed, we now know that the rise of the great Puuc sites, such as Uxmal, Kabah, Sayil, Labná, and the florescence of the magnificent city of Chichén Itzá, occurred as other sites to the south were declining. The emergence of the greatest period in the Yucatán began perhaps as late as A.D. 800, and continued until the fall of Chichén Itzá at around 1250. During these years new ideas and new populations became part of the Mayan civilization, yet lifestyle and world view retained the Classic Maya concepts of culture. Chichén Itzá was the most important Mayan city on the Yucatán Peninsula until A.D. 1250. It exhibits clear influence from the valley of Mexico at this time. Contacts were probably established by ongoing trading interaction between Central Mexico and the Yucatán, beginning at around A.D. 700. However, influence did not flow one way; Mayan influences can be seen at Cacaxtla and Xochicalco in Central Mexico and people and ideas must have moved freely in both directions. The mechanisms for these exchanges/contacts may not have been direct (e.g. migrations, conquests), but may have been most closely tied to the increasing role of merchants and traders toward the end of the Classic Period throughout Mesoamerica. Archaeological research indicates that the Yucatán was a prime source for the trade of salt, honey, slaves, cotton, and perhaps cacao as well—all major items of exchange in the pre-Columbian world. Around A.D. 1250, Chichén Itzá fell to a group of competing Yucatán states led by Mayapan but it remained a center of religious pilgrimage and activity until the middle of the 16th century. By that time the Maya/Yucatán region was torn apart by small warring states participating in a complex trading system. This was the situation encountered by the Spanish when they first landed on the Mayan island of Cozumel. The actual conquest of the Yucatán did not come until 1528, when Francisco de Montejo, under the auspices of the Spanish crown, invaded the region. However, the dispersed states of the peninsula did not succumb easily to the invaders, and fought on until 1542 when a Spanish capital was finally established at Mérida. Today descendants of the Maya live on in towns and villages of the peninsula. Customs from the pre-Hispanic era dominate much of rural life, and traditions in agriculture, religion, and language still reflect the ancient patterns of the Mayan world.