Maya civilization

The Maya civilization was a Mesoamerican civilization that lived from antiquity to the early modern period. It is known for its ancient temples, such as El Castillo at Chichen Itza and the Temple of the Great Jaguar at Tikal. The Maya are also known for their glyphs (script), its art, architecture, mathematics, calendar, and astronomical system. The Maya script was the most advanced and well-developed writing system in the pre-Columbian Americas.

The Maya civilization grew in the Maya Region. This area today includes southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western parts of Honduras and El Salvador. Today, their descendants, known together as the Maya, number well over 6 million people. They speak more than twenty-eight Mayan languages and still live in nearly the same area.

The Archaic period, before 2000 BC, saw the first farming and the earliest villages. During the Preclassic period, people in the Maya region grew main crops of the Maya diet, including maize, beans, squashes, and chili peppers. The first Maya cities grew up around 750 BC, and hieroglyphic writing was in use by the 3rd century BC. Later, large cities grew in the Petén Basin, and Kaminaljuyu became important in the Guatemalan Highlands. The Classic period began around 250 AD. It is known for the carved monuments with Long Count dates that the Maya built. Many city-states developed and were linked by a large trade network. Two great rivals, Tikal and Calakmul, became powerful in the Maya Lowlands. In the 9th century, a large political collapse in the central Maya region led to civil wars, empty cities, and people moving north.

The Postclassic period saw the rise of Chichen Itza in the north and the growth of the powerful Kʼicheʼ kingdom in the Guatemalan Highlands. In the 16th century, the Spanish Empire took control of the Mesoamerican region. After a long series of campaigns, Nojpetén, the last Maya city, fell in 1697. Rulers in the Classic period were seen as a "divine king" who linked people with the spirit world. Kingship was usually, though not always, patrilineal, and power normally passed to the eldest son. A future king was expected to be a skilled war leader as well as a ruler. By the Late Classic period, the aristocracy had grown, which made the king's power less exclusive.

The Maya made art using both perishable and non-perishable materials, including wood, jade, obsidian, ceramics, carved stone monuments, stucco, and painted murals. The Maya elite could read and write, and they developed a complex system of hieroglyphic writing. They recorded their history and ritual knowledge in screenfold books, and only three examples remain. Many Maya texts can also be found on stelae and ceramics. The Maya created a highly complex set of linked ritual calendars and used mathematics that included one of the earliest known uses of the zero in human history.

Etymology

"Maya" is a modern name for the many peoples who lived in this area. For most of their history, the Maya peoples did not share one identity or one government.

Early Spanish and Mayan-language colonial sources in the Yucatán Peninsula used the word "Maya" for the language spoken by the Yucatec Maya. They also used it for the area around the city of Mayapán, which was empty by then. The word "Maya" came from the name of that city. Some of these sources also used "Maya" for other Maya groups. They sometimes did this in an unkind way toward groups that did not want to be ruled by the Spanish.

Geography

Main article: Maya Region

The Maya lived in a large area of southeastern Mexico and northern Central America. This included the whole Yucatán Peninsula, the land of modern Guatemala and Belize, and parts of western Honduras and El Salvador. Their land covered about a third of Mesoamerica. The Maya had close ties with nearby peoples such as the Olmecs, Mixtecs, the people of Teotihuacan, and the Aztecs. The Maya city of Chichen Itza and the faraway Toltec capital of Tula had an especially close relationship.

Most of the Yucatán Peninsula is a large, flat plain with few hills or mountains. The Petén region is a flat, heavily forested area with limestone ground and a chain of fourteen lakes. A thick Maya forest covers northern Petén and Belize, most of Quintana Roo, southern Campeche, and part of southern Yucatán state. In the south, the land rises toward the Guatemalan Highlands. The littoral zone of Soconusco lies south of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas and is a narrow strip of coastal plain. The highest point of the highlands is in the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes. Many people lived in large valleys, such as the Valley of Guatemala and the Quetzaltenango Valley. The highlands also extend north into Verapaz.

History

Main article: History of the Maya civilization

The history of the Maya civilization is split into three main periods: the Preclassic, Classic, and Postclassic. Before these, the Archaic Period saw the first settled villages and early farming. Scholars use these periods to organize Maya time. They do not mean the culture only grew or only shrank. The start and end dates can differ by as much as a century. During the Preclassic period, small villages grew into cities such as El Mirador in the lowlands and Kaminaljuyu in the highlands. Culture was flourishing in the Late Preclassic, but it declined in the 1st century AD. No one knows for sure why.

The Classic period, from about 250 to 900 AD, was a time of large buildings, big cities, and important art and learning. The largest cities had many thousands of people. Cities were influenced by the great city of Teotihuacan, and powerful cities such as Tikal and Calakmul competed for control. In the 9th century AD, the central Maya region went through a major decline, and many cities were left empty. People moved north to cities such as Chichen Itza and Uxmal. In the Postclassic period, Mayapan became powerful in the 12th century. Spanish explorers arrived in 1511. In 1697, the last independent Maya city came under Spanish control. Even so, many Maya villages kept their own traditions, and the 260-day calendar is still used in some Maya communities today.

Politics

Unlike the Aztecs and the Inca, the Maya never joined their whole area into one single state or empire. Instead, the Maya area had a mix of states and chiefdoms with different amounts of power. These groups often changed how they got along with each other. Sometimes they were rivals, sometimes one ruled the other, and sometimes they made friends and allies. At different times, cities such as Calakmul, Caracol, Mayapan, and Tikal were the most powerful in their regions. The first political groups that we have clear proof of formed in the Maya lowlands in the 9th century BC.

In the Late Preclassic period, the Maya political system took a theopolitical form. This means that ideas about the gods helped justify the ruler's power. Public ceremonies, rituals, and religion supported this power. The divine king was the center of power. He led the government, the economy, justice, and the army. Because of this power, the king could bring nobles and common people together to work on huge building projects. It seems this happened without a police force or a standing army. In the Late Classic period, some cities held power over other large cities for long periods. For example, Caracol had control over Naranjo for about fifty years. Pride and honor among warrior nobles sometimes led to long disagreements. These disagreements caused instability and split up political groups.

Maya society

Women in Maya society

From the Early Preclassic, Maya society was divided between the elite and commoners. Over time, the population grew, jobs became more specialized, and leadership became more complex. By the Late Classic, hundreds of cities were linked together, and the wealthy group grew. A middle class may have included artisans, lower ranking priests and officials, merchants, and soldiers. Commoners included farmers, servants, workers, and slaves. Land was shared by noble houses or clans, who believed the land belonged to their ancestors.

Classic Maya kings were the top rulers and were seen as partly divine. They were linked to the young maize god. Royal power usually passed from father to eldest son (patrilineal). Queens ruled only when there was no other way to keep the royal family going. Government was built around the royal court, where officials were supported by higher-ranking nobles. Commoners made up over 90% of the population, but we know relatively little about them. They farmed and made goods such as cotton and cacao. They paid taxes in food like maize. They could rise in social rank by proving themselves as outstanding warriors.

Warfare

Main article: Maya warfare

Jaina Island figurine representing a Classic period warrior

Obsidian spearheads with a lithic core, Takalik Abaj

Wars were common in the Maya world. Armies fought for many reasons, such as control of trade routes and tribute, and sometimes to completely defeat an enemy state. We know little about how Maya armies were organized, supplied, or trained. Art from the Classic period shows warfare, and hieroglyphic writing mentions wars and victories. However, the writing does not explain why wars started or how they were fought.

In the 8th and 9th centuries, heavy fighting caused the kingdoms of the Petexbatún region of western Petén to fall apart. Around 810 AD, Aguateca was attacked by unknown enemies. Its people had to leave their homes and belongings behind.

Maya fighting included both large battles and small, quick raids. Raids were often planned for holidays, when enemies were less ready. Defeated cities were sometimes destroyed and never rebuilt. Others had to pay tribute to the winners. Warriors in the Contact period were often members of the upper class, and most were farmers who fought only part-time. Women mainly supported wars, though a few ruling queens led armies. Maya warriors used blowguns, spears, and darts or javelins. Later, they also used the bow and arrow. They also had swords with obsidian blades, similar to the Aztec macuahuitl. They wore quilted cotton armour and carried shields.

Trade

Main article: Trade in Maya civilization

See also: Economy of the Maya civilization

Trade was an important part of Maya society and of how the civilization grew. The cities that became the most powerful often controlled access to valuable trade goods or to the routes used to carry them. Kaminaljuyu and Qʼumarkaj in the Guatemalan Highlands, and Chalchuapa in El Salvador, each controlled access to obsidian at different times. The Maya were major producers of cotton, which was used to make cloth for trade across Mesoamerica. The most important cities in the northern Yucatán Peninsula controlled access to salt. In the Postclassic period, the Maya took part in a busy slave trade with the wider region. The Maya traded over long distances, within their own region, across Mesoamerica, and even beyond. An Early Classic Maya merchant area has been found at the distant city of Teotihuacan, in central Mexico. In the Early Classic period, Chichen Itza was at the center of a trade network that brought in gold discs from Colombia and Panama, and turquoise from Los Cerrillos, New Mexico. The royal family probably controlled long-distance trade. Rulers used valuable goods and gave them as gifts to keep allies and vassals loyal. Trade routes also moved people and ideas, and they changed as important cities rose and fell. Even after the Spanish Conquest, some trade continued. During the Contact period, the Manche Chʼol traded cacao, annatto, and vanilla into colonial Verapaz.

Little is known about Maya merchants, but they are shown on Maya pottery wearing fine noble clothing, so at least some were members of the elite. During the Contact period, Maya nobles joined long-distance trading trips. Most traders were middle class and worked mainly in local and regional trade. Travelling into dangerous foreign lands was compared to passing through the underworld. The patron gods of merchants were two underworld gods who carried backpacks, and merchants painted themselves black like these gods when they travelled. The Maya had no pack animals, so porters carried goods over land, while canoes were used on rivers and along the coast. A large Maya trading canoe was met off Honduras during Christopher Columbus's fourth voyage. Cacao was used as money, and it was valuable enough that fake pods were made by filling them with dirt or avocado rind. Marketplaces are hard to find through archaeology, but the Spanish reported a thriving market economy when they arrived. A 2007 study of soil from a modern Guatemalan market and a possible ancient market at Chunchucmil found high levels of zinc and phosphorus at both sites, which suggests similar food sales. When the Spanish arrived, highland cities had markets in open plazas, where officials settled disputes, enforced rules, and collected taxes.

Art

Main article: Ancient Maya art

Maya art was mostly made for the royal court. It showed the Maya elite and their world. Artists used both fragile and long-lasting materials, and the art helped link the Maya to their ancestors. Only a small part of it has survived, but it shows more subjects than any other art tradition in the Americas. Maya art has many regional styles. It is unique in the ancient Americas because it includes written stories. The finest surviving Maya art dates to the Late Classic period. The Maya loved the colour green and valued greenstones such as jade. They linked jade to the sun-god Kʼinich Ajau. Some lords even wore jade in their teeth through dental modification. Jade was also used for funerary masks, such as the one of Kʼinich Janaabʼ Pakal, king of Palenque. Maya stone sculptures included stelae, relief panels, and stairways decorated with carvings. The Maya also made huge stucco masks for temple fronts and painted murals on plastered walls.

Flint, chert, and obsidian were used as tools. Many pieces were also carefully shaped into eccentric flints, which were never meant to be used as tools. Their designs often showed people, animals, and geometric shapes linked to Maya religion. Maya textiles have rarely survived, but paintings and pottery show that the elite wore rich cloth. Pottery is the most common Maya art that has survived. The Maya made pottery without a potter's wheel. They built vessels by coiling strips of clay. Pottery was often painted and then polished. Ceramic figurines from Jaina Island show fine detail. Maya artists also carved bone and shell, such as Spondylus shells. After metalworking arrived in the 10th century AD, the Maya made small objects in gold, silver, and copper. A less-studied part of Maya folk art is graffiti. It was scratched into walls and floors at many Maya sites.

Architecture

Main article: Maya architecture

The Maya built many kinds of structures and left a large architectural legacy. They used both wood and stone. The stone they used depended on what was close by. Limestone was common across much of the Maya area. At Copán, they used volcanic tuff. At nearby Quiriguá, they used sandstone. At Comalcalco, where good stone was not available, they used fired bricks. Building took a lot of work. For example, a large elite home at Copán needed 10,686 man-days to build. A commoner's hut needed 67. Wood was used for beams and lintels. Adobe mud was used to coat walls.

Maya cities were not carefully planned. Most grew outward from their centres and upward as new buildings were placed on older ones. Each city centre had sacred areas with pyramid temples, palaces, plazas, and ballcourts. Causeways, which are raised roads, often linked the centre to outlying areas. The ruling elite lived in the centre, where government and religious ceremonies took place. Some buildings were lined up with the sky. E-Groups were used to mark the solstices and equinoxes. The Caracol at Chichen Itza had windows that marked the movements of Venus. Palaces and acropoleis were elite residential compounds. Triadic pyramids first appeared in the Preclassic period. Local styles varied by region. For example, the Chenes style included sites like Hochob, and the Río Bec style included sites like Chicanná.

Language

Main article: Mayan languages

Before 2000 BC, the Maya all spoke one language. Linguists call it proto-Mayan. Scientists think its first home was in the western or northern Guatemalan Highlands, but they are not completely sure. During the Preclassic period, proto-Mayan split into several main language groups. These included Huastecan, Greater Kʼicheʼan, Greater Qʼanjobalan, Mamean, Tzʼeltalan-Chʼolan, and Yucatecan. Over time, these groups split into even more languages. Today, more than 30 of these languages are still spoken.

Almost all Classic Maya writing across the Maya area is in Chʼolan. A Late Preclassic text from Kaminaljuyu, in the highlands, also seems to be in Chʼolan or a closely related language. Writing in Chʼolan does not mean it was the language people spoke every day. It may have been like Medieval Latin, which was used for ritual or as a prestige language. Classic Chʼolan may have been the prestige language of the Classic Maya elite. It was likely used for talks between leaders and for trade between city-states. By the Postclassic period, people were also writing Yucatec in Maya codices, next to Chʼolan.

Writing and literacy

Main article: Maya script

The Maya writing system is one of the great achievements of the people of the pre-Columbian Americas. It was the most advanced of more than a dozen writing systems that developed in Mesoamerica. Earlier systems, such as the Epi-Olmec and Zapotec scripts, came before it. The earliest Maya writing dates to 300–200 BC in the Petén Basin. The Catholic Church and colonial officials, including Bishop Diego de Landa, destroyed many Maya texts. Still, four pre-Columbian books from the Postclassic period survived. These are the Madrid Codex, the Dresden Codex, the Paris Codex and the Maya Codex of Mexico, which was previously known as the Grolier Codex. Most surviving Maya writing is carved in stone, such as on stelae, or painted on ceramics.

Maya writing uses phonetic signs for sounds and signs for whole words. It is often called hieroglyphs because it looks a little like Ancient Egyptian writing. Scribes came from the elite, and some women were also scribes. Scribes were called aj tzʼib, meaning "one who writes or paints." Some scribes signed their work. After the Spanish conquest, people lost the knowledge of how to read Maya writing. By the end of the 20th century, scholars could read most Maya texts.

Mathematics

Main article: Maya numerals

Maya numerals on a page of the Postclassic Dresden Codex

Like the other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya used a base 20 (vigesimal) system. A counting system of bars and dots was used in Mesoamerica by 1000 BC. The Maya adopted it by the Late Preclassic period and added a symbol for zero. This may have been the earliest known idea of zero in the world, although it may have come later than the Babylonian system. The earliest clear use of zero is on monuments dated to 357 AD. At first, zero was a place holder that showed a missing count. Later, it became a number used for calculation. It appeared in hieroglyphic writing for more than a thousand years, until the Spanish ended the writing system.

The basic system uses a dot for one and a bar for five. By the Postclassic period, a shell symbol stood for zero. During the Classic period, other symbols were used. The numbers from 0 to 19 were made by repeating these symbols. A symbol's value depended on its position. When it moved up a level, its value was multiplied by twenty. The lowest level counted single units, the next level counted groups of twenty, and the level above that counted groups of 400. For example, 884 was written with four dots on the lowest level, four dots on the next, and two dots on the level after that. This gives 4×1 + 4×20 + 2×400 = 884. This system let the Maya record very large numbers. Simple addition could be done by adding the dots and bars in two columns to get the result in a third column.

Calendar

Main articles: Maya calendar and Mesoamerican Long Count calendar

Main article: Mesoamerican Long Count calendar § Correlations between Western calendars and the Long Count

The Maya calendar began in the Preclassic period, like other Mesoamerican calendars. The Maya made it more advanced than the others. They tracked the Moon, the Sun, eclipses, and the movements of planets very carefully. In some cases, their calculations were more accurate than those of the Old World, such as their solar year compared with the Julian year. The calendar was closely connected to Maya ritual. It used a Long Count that did not repeat, along with three linked cycles: the 260-day tzolkʼin, the 365-day haabʼ, and the 52-year Calendar Round. The Calendar Round came from combining the tzolkʼin and the haabʼ. The basic unit was one day, or kʼin. Twenty kʼin made a winal. The next unit used 18 instead of 20 to roughly match the solar year, making a 360-day tun.

The 260-day tzolkʼin guided Maya ceremonies and prophecy. It may be based on the human gestation period, but no astronomical reason has been proven. The 365-day haabʼ ended with a 5-day period called the wayeb, which the Maya thought was a dangerous time. When the two cycles were combined, each day received a name and number. That combination repeated only once every 52 years. Mayanists call this period the Calendar Round. The Maya counted time from a fixed starting point, which they believed was the creation of the world as it is now. The Calendar Round is still used today. In the Late Classic period, the Maya also used a shorter system called the Short Count. The most widely accepted match between the Maya and Western calendars is the GMT correlation. It matches the Long Count date 11.16.0.0.0 13 Ajaw 8 Xul with the Gregorian date of 12 November 1539. Epigraphers Simon Martin and Nikolai Grube suggest a two-day shift from this match. Radiocarbon dating of dated wooden lintels at Tikal supports the GMT correlation.

Astronomy

Main article: Maya astronomy

See also: Archaeoastronomy

The famous astrologer John Dee used an Aztec obsidian mirror to see into the future. We may look down our noses at his ideas, but one may be sure that in outlook he was far closer to a Maya priest astronomer than is an astronomer of our century.

— J. Eric S. Thompson, Maya Astronomy: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 1974

The Maya watched the sky carefully. Priests used astronomy mainly for divination and astrological purposes. They wanted to understand past cycles of time and predict the future. Sky knowledge also helped people know when to plant and harvest crops. Priests recorded eclipses and the movements of Venus and the stars. They compared these with past events. By the time Europeans arrived, the Maya had eclipse tables, calendars, and star knowledge that was more accurate than similar knowledge in Europe.

The Maya measured the 584-day cycle of Venus very precisely. They also followed the movements of Jupiter, Mars and Mercury. When Venus appeared as the Morning Star, this was linked to the rebirth of the Maya Hero Twins. The heliacal rising of Venus was connected with destruction and big changes. The planet was also closely tied to warfare. Rulers chose the timing of military campaigns and important ceremonies based on these risings. Sight-lines through the Caracol building at Chichen Itza line up with the farthest northern and southern points of Venus' path. Solar and lunar eclipses were seen as especially important and sometimes frightening. The Maya recorded lunar tables to predict them and held ceremonies to protect their people.

Religion and mythology

Main articles: Maya religion and Maya mythology

Like other peoples of Mesoamerica, the Maya believed in a spiritual world with powerful gods. People honoured the gods with ceremonies and offerings. Worship of dead ancestors was at the centre of Maya religion, because ancestors could speak to the gods for their living family. The first go-betweens were shamans. Oracular priests called chilan used hallucinogens, and their visions were likely helped by water lilies, which can cause strange visions in large amounts. Over time, the ruling elite built religious cults that supported their right to rule. By the Late Preclassic, the divine king, the kʼuhul ajaw, held the highest political and religious power. The Maya saw the universe as highly ordered, with thirteen levels in the heavens, nine in the underworld, and the mortal world in between. Each level had four directions, each linked to a colour: north white, east red, south yellow, and west black. Households buried their dead under their floors with offerings, and royal families later built great pyramids to hold their ancestors' tombs.

Belief in gods shaped everyday life, from cooking to trade and politics. Priests recorded rituals, astronomy, and history in hieroglyphic books. Ceremonies included feasting, music, and dance. Some of the most important rituals included offerings of people, usually prisoners of war. Such offerings were sometimes linked to a myth about the vassal king Kʼakʼ Tiliw Chan Yopaat, who captured his overlord in AD 738, and to the Hero Twins story in the Popol Vuh.

Main article: Human sacrifice in Maya culture

The Maya world was full of deities, and it is considered inaccurate to give each one a single job. Their importance changed with the movements of the stars and planets, so priests who read astronomical records decided which gods needed offerings. Itzamna was the creator god and a sun god, and Maya kings often identified themselves with Kʼinich Ahau, his day-sun form. Other important gods included the Night Jaguar, the moon goddess, the maize god, and the Hero Twins. Feathered serpent deities were worshipped too, including Kukulkan in Yucatán and Qʼuqʼumatz among the Kʼicheʼ, both shaped by influences from Quetzalcoatl. Archaeologists study this religion using physical evidence like shrines and burials, along with Maya art, writing, and ethnographic records made by the Spanish during the conquest.

See also: List of Maya gods and supernatural beings

Agriculture

Main article: Maya cuisine

See also: Agriculture in Mesoamerica

The ancient Maya grew food in many different ways. People once thought that shifting cultivation (swidden) farming gave them most of their food. Today we know that other methods were also important. These included permanent raised fields, terracing, gardening, forest gardens, and managed fallows. These methods helped feed large populations in some areas during the Classic period. You can still see signs of these farms today. From the air, raised fields connected by canals can be seen in photographs. Plants that were useful to the ancient Maya grow more often in rainforest areas that had many people long ago. Studies of old pollen in lake mud show that maize, manioc, sunflower seeds, cotton, and other crops were grown in Mesoamerica for at least 4,500 years.

The main foods in the Maya diet were maize, beans, and squashes. People also ate many other plants that they grew in gardens or gathered in the forest. At Joya de Cerén, a volcanic eruption preserved stored foods in Maya homes. These included chilies and tomatoes. The Maya also grew valuable crops such as cotton, cacao, and vanilla. The rich people valued cacao the most. They drank chocolate beverages. Cotton was spun, dyed, and woven into cloth that was traded. The Maya had only a few animals kept as pets or for work. Dogs were tamed by 3000 BC, and the Muscovy duck was kept by the Late Postclassic. Ocellated turkeys could not be tamed, but people caught them in the wild and kept them penned so they could fatten up. Dogs were also used for hunting.

Maya sites

See also: List of Maya sites

There are hundreds of Maya sites in five countries: Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico. Six sites are especially famous for their impressive buildings and carvings. Four are in Mexico: Chichen Itza, Palenque, Uxmal, and Yaxchilan. The other two are Tikal in Guatemala and Copán in Honduras. Calakmul and El Mirador are also important, but they are hard to reach.

Many more sites are found in different regions. In the Puuc region, the main sites are Kabah, Labna, and Sayil, along with Uxmal. In the east of the Yucatán Peninsula are Coba and the small site of Tulum. In Belize, important sites include Altun Ha, Caracol, and Xunantunich.

Genetics

See also: Genetic history of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas

In 2024, researchers studied the DNA of ancient people from the Maya city of Chichén Itzá. These people lived around AD 500 to 900. The researchers compared it with blood samples from 68 people who live today in Tixcacaltuyub, Mexico.

The ancient people were most closely related to modern Indigenous American peoples, especially today's Maya. The 68 modern residents had about 92% Indigenous American ancestry, 7% European ancestry, and 0.03% African ancestry.

Museum collections

Main article: Ancient Maya collections

Many museums around the world have Maya objects in their collections. One group lists over 250 museums that have Maya items. A group in Europe lists just under 50 museums there.