mesoamerican former civilization

The Maya civilization ( ) was a mesoamerican civilization developed by the Maya peoples, and noted for its logosyllabic handwriting —the most sophisticated and highly developed writing organization in pre-columbian Americas —as well as for its art, architecture, mathematics, calendar, and astronomic system. The Maya civilization developed in the area that today comprises southeast Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. It includes the northerly lowlands of the Yucatán Peninsula and the highlands of the Sierra Madre, the Mexican country of Chiapas, southern Guatemala, El Salvador, and the southern lowlands of the Pacific littoral plain. “ Maya ” is a modern term used to refer jointly to the versatile peoples that inhabited this sphere. They did not call themselves “ Maya, ” and did not have a sense of common identity or political one. [ 1 ] today, their descendants, known jointly as the Maya, number well over 6 million individuals, speak more than twenty-eight surviving mayan languages, and reside in about the same area as their ancestors. [ 2 ]

The Archaic period, before 2000 BC, saw the first developments in farming and the earliest villages. The Preclassic period ( c. 2000 BC to 250 AD ) saw the administration of the first complex societies in the Maya region, and the polish of the raw material crops of the Maya diet, including gamboge, beans, squashes, and chili peppers. The first gear Maya cities developed around 750 BC, and by 500 BC these cities possessed massive computer architecture, including big temples with elaborate stucco façades. Hieroglyphic write was being used in the Maya region by the third hundred BC. In the Late Preclassic a count of large cities developed in the Petén Basin, and the city of Kaminaljuyu rose to prominence in the Guatemalan Highlands. Beginning about 250 AD, the authoritative period is largely defined as when the Maya were raising sculpt monuments with Long Count dates. This period saw the Maya civilization develop many city-states linked by a complex trade network. In the Maya Lowlands two big rivals, the cities of Tikal and Calakmul, became knock-down. The classic period besides saw the intrusive intervention of the central Mexican city of Teotihuacan in Maya dynastic politics. In the ninth century, there was a far-flung political break down in the central Maya region, resulting in internecine war, the abandonment of cities, and a north shift of population. The Postclassic period saw the ascent of Chichen Itza in the north, and the expansion of the aggressive Kʼicheʼ kingdom in the Guatemalan Highlands. In the sixteenth century, the spanish Empire colonised the mesoamerican area, and a drawn-out series of campaigns saw the fall of Nojpetén, the last Maya city, in 1697. rule during the classical period centred on the concept of the “ divine king ”, who was thought to act as a mediator between mortals and the supernatural kingdom. Kingship was patrilineal, and office normally passed to the eldest son. A prospective king was expected to be a successful war drawing card deoxyadenosine monophosphate well as a ruler. closed patronage systems were the dominant push in Maya politics, although how condescension affected the political makeup of a kingdom varied from city state to city state. By the late classical time period, the nobility had grown in size, reducing the previously exclusive power of the king. The Maya developed twist art forms using both perishable and non-perishable materials, including wood, tire, obsidian, ceramics, sculpted stone monuments, stucco, and finely paint murals. Maya cities tended to expand organically. The city centers comprised ceremony and administrative complexes, surrounded by an irregularly shaped sprawl of residential districts. Different parts of a city were frequently linked by causeways. architecturally, city buildings included palaces, pyramid-temples, ceremony ballcourts, and structures particularly aligned for astronomic observation. The Maya elite were literate, and developed a complex system of hieroglyphic write. Theirs was the most advanced write system in the pre-columbian Americas. The Maya recorded their history and ritual cognition in screenfold books, of which only three uncontested examples remain, the rest having been destroyed by the spanish. In addition, a bang-up many examples of Maya text can be found on stele and ceramics. The Maya developed a highly complex series of interlocking ritual calendars, and employed mathematics that included one of the earliest know instances of the explicit zero in human history. As a part of their religion, the Maya practised human sacrifice .

mesoamerica

The Maya area within Mesoamerica Remains in Joya de Cerén, a Classic-era village in El Salvador buried under volcanic ash around 600 AD. Its preservation has greatly helped in the learn of everyday liveliness in a Maya farm residential district. The Maya refinement developed within the mesoamerican cultural area, which covers a region that spreads from northern Mexico southwards into Central America. [ 3 ] Mesoamerica was one of six cradles of civilization cosmopolitan. [ 4 ] The Mesoamerican area gave rise to a series of cultural developments that included complex societies, agribusiness, cities, massive architecture, write, and calendric systems. [ 5 ] The set of traits shared by Mesoamerican cultures besides included astronomic cognition, lineage and human sacrifice, and a cosmovision that viewed the earth as divided into four divisions aligned with the cardinal directions, each with unlike attributes, and a tripartite division of the populace into the celestial kingdom, the land, and the underworld. [ 6 ] By 6000 BC, the early inhabitants of Mesoamerica were experimenting with the tameness of plants, a procedure that finally led to the establishment of sedentary agricultural societies. [ 7 ] The diverse climate allowed for broad pas seul in available crops, but all regions of Mesoamerica cultivated the base crops of corn, beans, and squashes. [ 8 ] All Mesoamerican cultures used Stone Age engineering ; after c. 1000 AD bull, silver and aureate were worked. Mesoamerica lacked draft animals, did not use the bicycle, and possessed few domestic animals ; the principal means of transport was on foot or by canoe. [ 9 ] Mesoamericans viewed the world as hostile and governed by unpredictable deities. The ritual Mesoamerican ball game was widely played. [ 10 ] Mesoamerica is linguistically divers, with most languages falling within a small number of speech families —the major families are Mayan, Mixe–Zoquean, Otomanguean, and uto-aztecan ; there are besides a number of smaller families and isolates. The mesoamerican language area shares a number of important features, including widespread loanwords, and function of a vigesimal number system. [ 11 ] The district of the Maya covered a one-third of Mesoamerica, [ 12 ] and the Maya were engaged in a dynamic relationship with neighbor cultures that included the Olmecs, Mixtecs, Teotihuacan, the Aztecs, and others. [ 13 ] During the early classic menstruation, the Maya cities of Tikal and Kaminaljuyu were samara Maya stress in a net that extended beyond the Maya area into the highlands of central Mexico. [ 14 ] At around the like clock, there was a potent Maya presence at the Tetitla compound of Teotihuacan. [ 15 ] Centuries subsequently, during the ninth hundred AD, murals at Cacaxtla, another site in the cardinal Mexican highlands, were painted in a Maya vogue. [ 16 ] This may have been either an attempt to align itself with the still-powerful Maya area after the flop of Teotihuacan and ensuing political fragmentation in the Mexican Highlands, [ 17 ] or an attack to express a aloof Maya origin of the inhabitants. [ 18 ] The Maya city of Chichen Itza and the distant Toltec capital of Tula had an specially near relationship. [ 19 ]

geography

Maya area The Maya civilization occupied a wide district that included southeastern Mexico and northerly Central America. This sphere included the stallion Yucatán Peninsula and all of the district now incorporated into the modern countries of Guatemala and Belize, a well as the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. [ 20 ] Most of the peninsula is formed by a huge plain with few hills or mountains and a generally low coastline. [ 21 ] The Petén area consists of densely forested low-lying limestone knit ; [ 22 ] a chain of fourteen lakes runs across the cardinal drain basin of Petén. [ 23 ] To the south the plain gradually rises towards the Guatemalan Highlands. [ 24 ] Dense forest covers northern Petén and Belize, most of Quintana Roo, southerly Campeche, and a part of the south of Yucatán state. Farther north, the vegetation turns to lower forest consist of dense scrub. [ 25 ] The littoral partition of Soconusco lies to the south of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas, [ 26 ] and consists of a narrow-minded coastal obviously and the foothills of the Sierra Madre. [ 27 ] The Maya highlands extend eastwards from Chiapas into Guatemala, reaching their highest in the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes. The major pre-columbian population centres of the highlands were located in the largest upland valley, such as the Valley of Guatemala and the Quetzaltenango Valley. In the southerly highlands, a swath of volcanic cones runs analogue to the Pacific seashore. The highlands extend northwards into Verapaz, and gradually descend to the east. [ 28 ]

history

The history of Maya culture is divided into three principal periods : the Preclassic, Classic, and Postclassic periods. [ 29 ] These were preceded by the Archaic Period, during which the first settled villages and early developments in department of agriculture emerged. [ 30 ] Modern scholars regard these periods as arbitrary divisions of Maya chronology, quite than indicative mood of cultural development or worsen. [ 31 ] Definitions of the begin and end dates of period spans can vary by american samoa much as a century, depending on the author. [ 32 ]

Maya chronology[33]
Period Division Dates
Archaic 8000–2000 BC[34]
Preclassic Early Preclassic 2000–1000 BC
Middle Preclassic Early Middle Preclassic 1000–600 BC
Late Middle Preclassic 600–350 BC
Late Preclassic Early Late Preclassic 350–1 BC
Late Late Preclassic 1 BC – AD 159
Terminal Preclassic AD 159–250
Classic Early Classic AD 250–550
Late Classic AD 550–830
Terminal Classic AD 830–950
Postclassic Early Postclassic AD 950–1200
Late Postclassic AD 1200–1539
Contact period AD 1511–1697[35]

Preclassic period ( c. 2000 BC – 250 AD )

The Maya developed their first civilization in the Preclassic period. [ 36 ] Scholars continue to discuss when this era of Maya civilization began. Maya occupation at Cuello ( contemporary Belize ) has been carbon paper dated to around 2600 BC. [ 37 ] Settlements were established around 1800 BC in the Soconusco region of the Pacific coast, and the Maya were already cultivating the staple crops of gamboge, beans, squash, and chili pepper. [ 38 ] This time period was characterised by sedentary communities and the insertion of pottery and fired clay figurines. [ 39 ] A Lidar survey of the newly discovered Aguada Fénix locate at Tabasco, Mexico uncovered large structures suggested to be a ceremonial web site dating from between 1000 and 800 BC. The 2020 reputation of the surveil, in the journal nature, suggests its use as a ceremonial observation of the winter and summer solstices, with consociate festivities and social gatherings. [ 40 ] During the Middle Preclassic Period, humble villages began to grow to form cities. [ 41 ] Nakbe in the Petén department of Guatemala is the earliest well-documented city in the Maya lowlands, [ 42 ] where large structures have been dated to around 750 BC. [ 41 ] The northern lowlands of Yucatán were wide settled by the Middle Preclassic. [ 43 ] By approximately 400 BC, early Maya rulers were raising stele. [ 44 ] A developed handwriting was already being used in Petén by the third hundred BC. [ 45 ] In the late Preclassic Period, the enormous city of El Mirador grew to cover approximately 16 square kilometres ( 6.2 sq michigan ). [ 46 ] Although not as large, Tikal was already a meaning city by around 350 BC. [ 47 ] In the highlands, Kaminaljuyu emerged as a principal center in the Late Preclassic. [ 48 ] Takalik Abaj and Chocolá were two of the most important cities on the Pacific coastal plain, [ 49 ] and Komchen grew to become an important site in northerly Yucatán. [ 50 ] The Late Preclassic cultural blossoming collapsed in the first hundred AD and many of the great Maya cities of the era were abandoned ; the lawsuit of this collapse is unknown. [ 51 ]

classic period ( c. 250–900 AD )

The classic period is largely defined as the period during which the lowland Maya raised dated monuments using the Long Count calendar. [ 53 ] This period marked the vertex of large-scale structure and urbanism, the record of massive inscriptions, and demonstrated meaning intellectual and aesthetic development, particularly in the southern lowland regions. [ 53 ] The classic period Maya political landscape has been likened to that of Renaissance Italy or Classical Greece, with multiple city-states engaged in a building complex network of alliances and enmities. [ 54 ] The largest cities had populations numbering 50,000 to 120,000 and were linked to networks of subordinate sites. [ 55 ] During the early Classic, cities throughout the Maya region were influenced by the big city of Teotihuacan in the distant Valley of Mexico. [ 56 ] In AD 378, Teotihuacan decisively intervened at Tikal and other nearby cities, deposed their rulers, and installed a new Teotihuacan-backed dynasty. [ 57 ] This interposition was led by Siyaj Kʼakʼ ( “ Born of Fire ” ), who arrived at Tikal in early 378. The king of Tikal, Chak Tok Ichʼaak I, died on the lapp day, suggesting a violent coup d’etat. [ 58 ] A year late, Siyaj Kʼakʼ oversaw the installation of a raw king, Yax Nuun Ahiin I. [ 59 ] The initiation of the newfangled dynasty led to a time period of political authority when Tikal became the most herculean city in the central lowlands. [ 59 ] Tikal ‘s great equal was Calakmul, another mighty city in the Petén Basin. [ 60 ] Tikal and Calakmul both developed extensive systems of allies and vassals ; lesser cities that entered one of these networks gained prestige from their association with the top-tier city, and maintained passive relations with other members of the lapp network. [ 61 ] Tikal and Calakmul engaged in the manoeuver of their alliance networks against each other. At assorted points during the classical menstruation, one or other of these powers would gain a strategic victory over its great rival, resulting in respective periods of blossoming and decline. [ 62 ]
Calakmul was one of the most important Classic period cities. In 629, Bʼalaj Chan Kʼawiil, a son of the Tikal king Kʼinich Muwaan Jol II, was sent to found a new city at Dos Pilas, in the Petexbatún area, apparently as an outstation to extend Tikal ‘s ability beyond the reach of Calakmul. [ 63 ] For the adjacent two decades he fought loyally for his buddy and overlord at Tikal. In 648, king Yuknoom Chʼeen II of Calakmul captured Balaj Chan Kʼawiil. Yuknoom Chʼeen II then reinstated Balaj Chan Kʼawiil upon the toilet of Dos Pilas as his vassal. [ 64 ] He thereafter served as a patriotic ally of Calakmul. [ 65 ] In the southeasterly, Copán was the most significant city. [ 60 ] Its Classic-period dynasty was founded in 426 by Kʼinich Yax Kʼukʼ Moʼ. The new king had strong ties with cardinal Petén and Teotihuacan. [ 66 ] Copán reached the acme of its cultural and artistic growth during the rule of Uaxaclajuun Ubʼaah Kʼawiil, who ruled from 695 to 738. [ 67 ] His reign ended catastrophically when he was captured by his vassal, king Kʼakʼ Tiliw Chan Yopaat of Quiriguá. [ 68 ] The get lord of Copán was taken back to Quiriguá and was decapitated in a populace ritual. [ 69 ] It is likely that this coup d’etat was backed by Calakmul, in order to weaken a potent ally of Tikal. [ 70 ] Palenque and Yaxchilan were the most knock-down cities in the Usumacinta area. [ 60 ] In the highlands, Kaminaljuyu in the Valley of Guatemala was already a sprawl city by 300. [ 71 ] In the north of the Maya area, Coba was the most important capital. [ 72 ]

classical Maya break down

Chichen Itza was the most important city in the northern Maya region. During the ninth hundred AD, the central Maya area suffered major political collapse, marked by the abandonment of cities, the ending of dynasties, and a north shift in activity. [ 56 ] No universally accepted hypothesis explains this crash, but it likely had a combination of causes, including endemic internecine war, overpopulation resulting in severe environmental degradation, and drought. [ 73 ] During this period, known as the Terminal Classic, the northern cities of Chichen Itza and Uxmal showed increase activity. [ 56 ] major cities in the northern Yucatán Peninsula continued to be inhabited long after the cities of the southerly lowlands ceased to raise monuments. [ 74 ] classic Maya sociable organization was based on the ritual authority of the rule, preferably than central control of deal and food distribution. This model of rulership was ailing structured to respond to changes, because the ruler ‘s actions were limited by custom to such activities as construction, ritual, and war. This only served to exacerbate systemic problems. [ 75 ] By the 9th and 10th centuries, this resulted in collapse of this system of rulership. In the northerly Yucatán, individual rule was replaced by a rule council formed from elect lineages. In the southerly Yucatán and cardinal Petén, kingdoms declined ; in western Petén and some other areas, the changes were catastrophic and resulted in the rapid depopulation of cities. [ 76 ] Within a match of generations, large swathes of the cardinal Maya area were all but abandoned. [ 77 ] Both the capitals and their secondary coil centres were generally abandoned within a period of 50 to 100 years. [ 55 ] One by one, cities stopped sculpting date monuments ; the last Long Count date was inscribed at Toniná in 909. Stelae were no longer raised, and squatters moved into abandoned royal palaces. mesoamerican craft routes shifted and bypassed Petén. [ 78 ]

Postclassic time period ( c. 950–1539 AD )

Although much reduced, a significant Maya presence remained into the Postclassic menstruation after the abandonment of the major authoritative period cities ; the population was particularly concentrated near permanent water sources. [ 80 ] Unlike during former cycles of contraction in the Maya region, abandoned lands were not quickly resettled in the Postclassic. [ 55 ] Activity shifted to the northerly lowlands and the Maya Highlands ; this may have involved migration from the southerly lowlands, because many Postclassic Maya groups had migration myths. [ 81 ] Chichen Itza and its Puuc neighbor declined dramatically in the eleventh century, and this may represent the final examination episode of classical Period collapse. After the decline of Chichen Itza, the Maya area lacked a dominant exponent until the rise of the city of Mayapan in the twelfth century. New cities arose near the Caribbean and Gulf coasts, and raw trade networks were formed. [ 82 ] The Postclassic Period was marked by changes from the preceding classical Period. [ 83 ] The once-great city of Kaminaljuyu in the Valley of Guatemala was abandoned after continuous occupation of about 2,000 years. [ 84 ] Across the highlands and neighbouring Pacific coast, long-occupied cities in uncover locations were relocated, apparently due to a proliferation of war. Cities came to occupy more-easily defend hilltop locations surrounded by trench ravines, with ditch-and-wall defences sometimes supplementing the security provided by the lifelike terrain. [ 84 ] One of the most important cities in the Guatemalan Highlands at this time was Qʼumarkaj, the capital of the aggressive Kʼicheʼ kingdom. [ 83 ] The government of Maya states, from the Yucatán to the Guatemalan highlands, was frequently organised as joint rule by a council. however, in rehearse one extremity of the council could act as a supreme ruler, while the other members served him as advisors. [ 85 ]
Mayapan was abandoned around 1448, after a period of political, social and environmental turbulence that in many ways echoed the classic time period flop in the southern Maya region. The abandonment of the city was followed by a menstruation of elongated war, disease and natural disasters in the Yucatán Peninsula, which ended lone concisely before spanish contact in 1511. [ 86 ] tied without a prevailing regional capital, the early spanish explorers reported affluent coastal cities and thriving marketplaces. [ 82 ] During the Late Postclassic, the Yucatán Peninsula was divided into a number of independent provinces that shared a common culture but varied in home sociopolitical constitution. [ 87 ] On the eve of the spanish conquest, the highlands of Guatemala were dominated by respective mighty Maya states. [ 88 ] The Kʼicheʼ had carved out a humble empire covering a large part of the westerly Guatemalan Highlands and the neighbor Pacific coastal complain. however, in the decades before the spanish invasion the Kaqchikel kingdom had been steadily eroding the kingdom of the Kʼicheʼ. [ 89 ]

In 1511, a spanish caravel was wrecked in the Caribbean, and about a twelve survivors made landfall on the coast of Yucatán. They were seized by a Maya lord, and most were sacrificed, although two managed to escape. From 1517 to 1519, three separate spanish expeditions explored the Yucatán seashore, and engaged in a number of battles with the Maya inhabitants. [ 90 ] After the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan fell to the spanish in 1521, Hernán Cortés despatched Pedro de Alvarado to Guatemala with 180 cavalry, 300 infantry, 4 cannons, and thousands of allied warriors from central Mexico ; [ 91 ] they arrived in Soconusco in 1523. [ 92 ] The Kʼicheʼ capital, Qʼumarkaj, fell to Alvarado in 1524. [ 93 ] Shortly afterwards, the spanish were invited as allies into Iximche, the capital city of the Kaqchikel Maya. [ 94 ] full relations did not last, due to excessive spanish demands for gold as tribute, and the city was abandoned a few months late. [ 95 ] This was followed by the fall of Zaculeu, the Mam Maya capital, in 1525. [ 96 ] Francisco de Montejo and his son, Francisco de Montejo the Younger, launched a long series of campaigns against the polities of the Yucatán Peninsula in 1527, and last completed the seduction of the northerly helping of the peninsula in 1546. [ 97 ] This left merely the Maya kingdoms of the Petén Basin freelancer. [ 98 ] In 1697, Martín de Ursúa launched an assault on the Itza capital Nojpetén and the death independent Maya city fell to the spanish. [ 99 ]

continuity of Maya culture

The spanish conquest stripped away most of the defining features of Maya culture. however, many Maya villages remained distant from spanish colonial assurance, and for the most part continued to manage their own affairs. Maya communities and the nuclear family maintained their traditional daily life. [ 100 ] The basic Mesoamerican diet of gamboge and beans continued, although agrarian output was improved by the introduction of steel tools. traditional crafts such as weave, ceramics, and basketry continued to be practised. Community markets and trade in local products continued retentive after the seduction. At times, the colonial administration encouraged the traditional economy in order to extract tribute in the class of ceramics or cotton textiles, although these were normally made to european specifications. Maya impression and language proved immune to change, despite vigorous efforts by catholic missionaries. [ 101 ] The 260-day tzolkʼin ritual calendar continues in use in modern Maya communities in the highlands of Guatemala and Chiapas, [ 102 ] and millions of Mayan-language speakers inhabit the territory in which their ancestors developed their civilization. [ 103 ]

investigation of Maya civilization

The agents of the Catholic Church wrote detailed accounts of the Maya, in digest of their efforts at Christianization, and preoccupation of the Maya into the spanish Empire. [ 104 ] This was followed by versatile spanish priests and colonial officials who left descriptions of ruins they visited in Yucatán and Central America. [ 105 ] In 1839, American traveler and writer John Lloyd Stephens set out to visit a number of Maya sites with English architect and draftsman Frederick Catherwood. [ 106 ] Their illustrate accounts of the ruins sparked potent popular interest, and brought the Maya to the attention of the world. [ 104 ] The late nineteenth century saw the recording and recovery of ethnohistoric accounts of the Maya, and the first steps in deciphering Maya hieroglyph. [ 107 ] The concluding two decades of the nineteenth century saw the birth of modern scientific archeology in the Maya region, with the meticulous work of Alfred Maudslay and Teoberto Maler. [ 108 ] By the early twentieth hundred, the Peabody Museum was sponsoring excavations at Copán and in the Yucatán Peninsula. [ 109 ] In the first two decades of the twentieth hundred, advances were made in deciphering the Maya calendar, and identifying deities, dates, and religious concepts. [ 110 ] Since the 1930s, archaeological exploration increased dramatically, with large-scale excavations across the Maya region. [ 111 ]
In the 1960s, the spot Mayanist J. Eric S. Thompson promoted the ideas that Maya cities were basically vacant ceremonial centres serving a disperse population in the forest, and that the Maya culture was governed by passive astronomer-priests. [ 112 ] These ideas began to collapse with major advances in the decoding of the handwriting in the former twentieth century, pioneered by Heinrich Berlin, Tatiana Proskouriakoff, and Yuri Knorozov. [ 113 ] With breakthroughs in sympathize of Maya handwriting since the 1950s, the text revealed the militant activities of the Classic Maya kings, and the view of the Maya as passive could no long be supported. [ 114 ] The capital of Sak Tz ’ iodine ’ ( an Ancient Maya kingdom ) immediately named Lacanja Tzeltal, was revealed by researchers led by associate anthropology professor Charles Golden and bioarchaeologist Andrew Scherer in Chiapas in the backyard of a mexican farmer in 2020. [ 115 ] Multiple domestic constructions used by the population for religious purposes. “ Plaza Muk ’ ul Ton ” or Monuments Plaza where people used to gather for ceremonies was besides unearthed by the team. [ 116 ] The city will continue to be inspected and scanned by archaeologists under thick forest canopy using LIDAR engineering ( light detection and range ) in June 2020. [ 115 ]

Politics

Unlike the Aztecs and the Inca, the Maya political system never integrated the integral Maya cultural area into a unmarried state or empire. Rather, throughout its history, the Maya area contained a varying mix of political complexity that included both states and chiefdoms. These polities fluctuated greatly in their relationships with each other and were engaged in a complex network of rivalries, periods of dominance or submission, serfdom, and alliances. At times, different polities achieved regional authority, such as Calakmul, Caracol, Mayapan, and Tikal. The first faithfully evidenced polities formed in the Maya lowlands in the ninth hundred BC. [ 117 ] During the Late Preclassic, the Maya political system coalesced into a theopolitical class, where elect political orientation justified the ruler ‘s authority, and was reinforced by public display, ritual, and religion. [ 118 ] The divine king was the concentrate of political ability, exercising ultimate control over the administrative, economic, judicial, and military functions of the polity. The divine agency invested within the ruler was such that the king was able to mobilize both the gentry and commoners in executing huge infrastructure projects, obviously with no patrol military unit or standing army. [ 119 ] Some polities engaged in a scheme of increasing presidency, and filling administrative posts with loyal supporters rather than blood relatives. [ 120 ] Within a polity, mid-ranking population centres would have played a cardinal character in managing resources and internal conflict. [ 121 ] The Maya political landscape was highly complex and Maya elites engaged in political intrigue to gain economic and social advantage over neighbours. [ 122 ] In the Late Classic, some cities established a long period of laterality over early large cities, such as the dominance of Caracol over Naranjo for half a century. In other cases, idle confederation networks were formed around a dominant allele city. [ 123 ] Border settlements, normally located about halfway between neighbouring capitals, much switched allegiance over the course of their history, and at times acted independently. [ 124 ] Dominant capitals exacted tribute in the shape of lavishness items from subjugated population centres. [ 125 ] Political exponent was reinforced by military power, and the capture and humiliation of enemy warriors played an significant share in elect culture. An overriding sense of pride and honor among the warrior nobility could lead to extended feud and vendettas, which caused political imbalance and the atomization of polities. [ 126 ]

company

From the early Preclassic, Maya society was sharply divided between the elite and commoners. As population increased over time, assorted sectors of society became increasingly specialised, and political arrangement became increasingly complex. [ 127 ] By the Late Classic, when populations had grown enormously and hundreds of cities were connected in a complex world wide web of political hierarchies, the affluent segment of society multiplied. [ 128 ] A middle class may have developed that included artisans, low ranking priests and officials, merchants, and soldiers. Commoners included farmers, servants, labourers, and slaves. [ 129 ] According to autochthonal histories, land was held communally by lord houses or clans. such clans held that the land was the property of the kin ancestors, and such ties between the kingdom and the ancestors were reinforced by the burial of the dead within residential compounds. [ 130 ]

King and motor hotel

authoritative Maya rule was centred in a royal culture that was displayed in all areas of Classic Maya art. The king was the supreme rule and held a semi-divine status that made him the mediator between the deadly kingdom and that of the gods. From very early times, kings were specifically identified with the young gamboge god, whose gift of gamboge was the basis of Mesoamerican refinement. Maya royal succession was patrilineal, and royal power merely passed to queens when doing otherwise would result in the extinction of the dynasty. typically, power was passed to the eldest son. A unseasoned prince was called a chʼok ( “ young person ” ), although this parole former came to refer to nobility in general. The imperial heir was called bʼaah chʼok ( “ head youth ” ). versatile points in the young prince ‘s childhood were marked by ritual ; the most authoritative was a bloodletting ceremony at age five or six years. Although being of the royal pedigree was of utmost importance, the heir besides had to be a successful war drawing card, as demonstrated by taking of captives. The coronation of a modern king was a highly elaborate ceremony, involving a series of disjoined acts that included coronation upon a jaguar-skin cushion, human sacrifice, and receiving the symbols of royal baron, such as a headband bearing a jade green representation of the alleged “ jester deity “, an detailed headdress adorned with quetzal feathers, and a scepter representing the deity Kʼawiil. [ 132 ] Maya political government, based around the royal court, was not bureaucratic in nature. Government was hierarchical, and official posts were sponsored by ranking members of the nobility ; officials tended to be promoted to higher levels of position during the class of their lives. Officials are referred to as being “ owned ” by their patron, and this relationship continued flush after the end of the sponsor. [ 133 ] The Maya royal court was a vibrant and dynamic political mental hospital. [ 134 ] There was no universal structure for the Maya royal court, alternatively each polity formed a royal court that was suited to its own individual context. [ 135 ] A count of royal and lord titles have been identified by epigraphers translating authoritative Maya inscriptions. Ajaw is normally translated as “ lord ” or “ king ”. In the early Classic, an ajaw was the ruler of a city. Later, with increasing social complexity, the ajaw was a extremity of the rule class and a major city could have more than one, each regnant over different districts. [ 136 ] Paramount rulers distinguished themselves from the extended nobility by prefixing the word kʼuhul to their ajaw title. A kʼuhul ajaw was “ cleric lord ”, primitively confined to the kings of the most esteemed and ancient royal lines. [ 137 ] Kalomte was a royal title, whose demand meaning is not yet deciphered, but it was held only by the most knock-down kings of the strongest dynasties. It indicated an overlord, or high gear king, and the title was only in habit during the classic time period. [ 138 ] By the Late Classic, the absolute might of the kʼuhul ajaw had weakened, and the political system had diversified to include a wide-eyed nobility, that by this time may well have expanded disproportionately. [ 139 ]
sajal Aj Chak Maax presenting captives before ruler [140] classical period sculpt showingAj Chak Maax presenting captives before rule Itzamnaaj Bʼalam III of Yaxchilan A sajal was ranked below the ajaw, and indicated a implemental overlord. A sajal would be lord of a second- or third-tier web site, answering to an ajaw, who may himself have been subservient to a kalomte. [ 136 ] A sajal would often be a war captain or regional governor, and inscriptions often link the sajal entitle to warfare ; they are frequently mentioned as the holders of war captives. [ 141 ] Sajal meant “ feared one ”. [ 142 ] The titles of ah tzʼihb and ah chʼul hun are both relate to scribes. The ah tzʼihb was a royal scribe, normally a extremity of the royal syndicate ; the ah chʼul hun was the Keeper of the Holy Books, a title that is closely associated with the ajaw title, indicating that an ajaw always held the ah chʼul hun title simultaneously. [ 143 ] other courtly titles, the functions of which are not well silent, were yajaw kʼahk’ ( “ Lord of Fire ” ), tiʼhuun and ti’sakhuun. These last two may be variations on the like title, [ 144 ] and Mark Zender has suggested that the holder of this style may have been the spokesman for the rule. [ 145 ] Courtly titles are overwhelmingly male-oriented, and in those relatively rare occasions where they are applied to a woman, they appear to be used as honorifics for female royalty. [ 146 ] Titled elites were much associated with finical structures in the hieroglyph inscriptions of classic period cities, indicating that such office holders either owned that structure, or that the structure was an crucial focus for their activities. [ 147 ] A lakam, or color bearer, was possibly the only non-elite post-holder in the royal court. [ 133 ] The lakam was only found in larger sites, and they appear to have been creditworthy for the taxation of local districts ; [ 133 ] one lakam, Apoch’Waal, was a diplomatic emissary for the ajaw of Calakmul, celebrated for establishing an confederation between Calakmul and Copán in 726. [ 148 ] different factions may have existed in the royal woo. The kʼuhul ahaw and his family would have formed the cardinal power-base, but other important groups were the priesthood, the warrior gentry, and other aristocratic courtiers. Where ruling councils existed, as at Chichen Itza and Copán, these may have formed an extra cabal. Rivalry between unlike factions would have led to dynamic political institutions as compromises and disagreements were played out. In such a place, populace performance was critical. such performances included ritual dances, presentation of war captives, offerings of tribute, human sacrifice, and religious ritual. [ 149 ]

Commoners

Commoners are estimated to have comprised over 90 % of the population, but relatively fiddling is known about them. Their houses were by and large constructed from perishable materials, and their remains have left little touch in the archaeological read. Some common dwellings were raised on broken platforms, and these can be identified, but an unknown quantity of commoner houses were not. such low-status dwellings can entirely be detected by extensive remote-sensing surveys of obviously empty terrain. [ 150 ] The image of commoners was broad ; it consisted of everyone not of noble give birth, and therefore included everyone from the poorest farmers to wealthy craftsmen and commoners appointed to bureaucratic positions. [ 151 ] Commoners engaged in substantive production activities, including that of products destined for use by the elite, such as cotton and cacao, a well as subsistence crops for their own use, and utilitarian items such as ceramics and stone tools. [ 152 ] Commoners took part in war, and could advance socially by proving themselves as outstanding warriors. [ 153 ] Commoners paid taxes to the elite in the form of basic goods such as gamboge, flour and game. [ 125 ] It is likely that hard-working commoners who displayed exceeding skills and enterprise could become influential members of Maya company. [ 154 ]

war

Warfare was prevalent in the Maya world. military campaigns were launched for a variety of reasons, including the manipulate of deal routes and tribute, raids to take captives, scaling up to the complete destruction of an enemy department of state. small is known about Maya military organization, logistics, or educate. Warfare is depicted in Maya art from the classical period, and wars and victories are mentioned in hieroglyph inscriptions. [ 155 ] unfortunately, the inscriptions do not provide data upon the causes of war, or the shape it took. [ 156 ] In the 8th–9th centuries, intensifier war resulted in the collapse of the kingdoms of the Petexbatún region of western Petén. [ 156 ] The rapid abandonment of Aguateca by its inhabitants has provided a rare opportunity to examine the remains of Maya weaponry in situ. [ 157 ] Aguateca was stormed by obscure enemies around 810 AD, who overcame its formidable defences and burned the imperial palace. The elite inhabitants of the city either fled or were captured, and never returned to collect their abandoned property. The inhabitants of the periphery abandoned the web site soon after. This is an example of intensive war carried out by an foe in order to wholly eliminate a Maya express, preferably than subjugate it. Research at Aguateca indicated that authoritative period warriors were primarily members of the elect. [ 158 ] From vitamin a early as the Preclassic period, the rule of a Maya polity was expected to be a signalize war leader, and was depicted with trophy heads hanging from his belt. In the classic time period, such trophy heads no long appeared on the king ‘s belt, but classical period kings are frequently depicted standing over broken war captives. [ 155 ] Right up to the end of the Postclassic period, Maya kings led as war captains. Maya inscriptions from the Classic show that a get the better of king could be captured, tortured, and sacrificed. [ 153 ] The spanish recorded that Maya leaders kept track of troop movements in motley books. [ 159 ] The result of a successful military political campaign could vary in its impact on the defeated polity. In some cases, entire cities were sacked, and never resettled, as at Aguateca. [ 160 ] In other instances, the victors would seize the defeated rulers, their families, and patron gods. The capture nobles and their families could be imprisoned, or sacrificed. At the least severe end of the scale, the kill polity would be obliged to pay tribute to the victor. [ 161 ]

Warriors

During the Contact period, it is known that certain military positions were held by members of the nobility, and were passed on by patrilineal succession. It is likely that the specify cognition built-in in the particular military function was taught to the successor, including strategy, ritual, and war dances. [ 153 ] Maya armies of the Contact period were highly disciplined, and warriors participated in unconstipated educate exercises and drills ; every able adult male was available for military service. Maya states did not maintain standing armies ; warriors were mustered by local officials who reported back to appointed warleaders. There were besides units of full-time mercenaries who followed permanent leaders. [ 162 ] Most warriors were not full-time, however, and were chiefly farmers ; the needs of their crops normally came before war. [ 163 ] Maya war was not sol much aimed at end of the enemy as the capture of captives and loot. [ 164 ] There is some tell from the classic period that women provided supporting roles in war, but they did not act as military officers with the exception of those rare rule queens. [ 165 ] By the Postclassic, the native chronicles suggest that women occasionally fought in struggle. [ 153 ]

Weapons

The atlatl ( spear-thrower ) was introduced to the Maya region by Teotihuacan in the early Classic. [ 167 ] This was a 0.5-metre-long ( 1.6 foot ) stick with a erose end to hold a flit or javelin. [ 168 ] The stay was used to launch the projectile with more force out and accuracy than could be accomplished by just hurling it with the arm alone. [ 167 ] evidence in the shape of stone blade points recovered from Aguateca indicate that darts and spears were the primary weapons of the Classic Maya warrior. [ 169 ] Commoners used blowguns in war, which besides served as their search weapon. [ 167 ] The bow and arrow is another weapon that was used by the ancient Maya for both war and hunt. [ 156 ] Although portray in the Maya region during the classic period, its use as a weapon of war was not favoured ; [ 170 ] it did not become a common weapon until the Postclassic. [ 167 ] The Contact period Maya besides used ambidextrous swords crafted from strong wood with the blade fashioned from gusset obsidian, [ 171 ] alike to the Aztec macuahuitl. Maya warriors wore body armor in the form of quilt cotton that had been soaked in salt water to toughen it ; the resulting armour compared favorably to the steel armour worn by the spanish when they conquered the region. [ 172 ] Warriors bore wooden or animal hide shields decorated with feathers and animal skins. [ 163 ]

Trade

Trade was a identify component of Maya club, and in the exploitation of the Maya civilization. The cities that grew to become the most crucial normally control access to critical deal goods, or portage routes. Cities such as Kaminaljuyu and Qʼumarkaj in the Guatemalan Highlands, and Chalchuapa in El Salvador, variously controlled access to the sources of obsidian at different points in Maya history. [ 173 ] The Maya were major producers of cotton, which was used to make the textiles to be traded throughout Mesoamerica. [ 174 ] The most crucial cities in the northern Yucatán Peninsula controlled access to the sources of strategic arms limitation talks. [ 173 ] In the Postclassic, the Maya engaged in a brandish slave deal with wide Mesoamerica. [ 175 ] The Maya engaged in retentive outdistance trade across the Maya region, and across greater Mesoamerica and beyond. As an illustration, an early classic Maya merchant quarter has been identified at the distant city of Teotihuacan, in cardinal Mexico. [ 176 ] Within Mesoamerica beyond the Maya area, craft routes particularly focused on cardinal Mexico and the Gulf coast. In the early on Classic, Chichen Itza was at the hub of an extensive trade network that imported amber phonograph record from Colombia and Panama, and turquoise from Los Cerrillos, New Mexico. Long-distance barter of both luxury and utilitarian goods was credibly controlled by the royal family. Prestige goods obtained by trade wind were used both for pulmonary tuberculosis by the city ‘s ruler, and as luxury gifts to consolidate the loyalty of vassals and allies. [ 173 ] Trade routes not only add physical goods, they facilitated the campaign of people and ideas throughout Mesoamerica. [ 177 ] Shifts in trade routes occurred with the heighten and fall of authoritative cities in the Maya area, and have been identified in every major reorganization of the Maya refinement, such as the heighten of Preclassic Maya refinement, the transition to the Classic, and the Terminal Classic crack up. [ 173 ] even the spanish Conquest did not immediately terminate all Maya trade action ; [ 173 ] for example, the Contact menstruation Manche Chʼol traded the prestige crops of cacao, annatto and vanilla into colonial Verapaz. [ 178 ]

Merchants

little is known of Maya merchants, although they are depicted on Maya ceramics in elaborate noble dress. From this, it is known that at least some traders were members of the elite. During the Contact period, it is known that Maya nobility took part in long-distance trade expeditions. [ 179 ] The majority of traders were middle class, but were largely engaged in local and regional trade preferably than the prestigious long distance trade that was the conserve of the elect. [ 180 ] The travel of merchants into dangerous extraneous territory was likened to a passage through the underworld ; the patron deities of merchants were two underworld gods carrying backpacks. When merchants travelled, they painted themselves black, like their patron gods, and went heavily armed. [ 176 ] The Maya had no clique animals, so all craft goods were carried on the backs of porters when going overland ; if the trade road followed a river or the seashore, then goods were transported in canoes. [ 181 ] A substantial Maya deal canoe was encountered off Honduras on Christopher Columbus ‘s fourthly voyage. It was made from a large hollowed-out tree luggage compartment and had a palm-covered canopy. The canoe was 2.5 metres ( 8.2 foot ) wide and was powered by 25 rowers. Trade goods carried include cacao, obsidian, ceramics, textiles, food and swallow for the crew, and copper bells and axes. [ 182 ] Cacao was used as currency ( although not entirely ), and its value was such that counterfeiting occurred by removing the flesh from the pod, and stuffing it with crap or avocado rind. [ 183 ]

Marketplaces

Marketplaces are unmanageable to identify archaeologically. [ 184 ] however, the Spanish reported a thriving market economy when they arrived in the area. [ 185 ] At some classic period cities, archaeologists have tentatively identified formal arcade-style masonry architecture and parallel alignments of scatter stones as the permanent foundations of market stalls. [ 186 ] A 2007 learn analysed soils from a modern Guatemalan market and compared the results with those obtained from analysis at a propose ancient marketplace at Chunchucmil. unusually high levels of zinc and phosphorus at both sites indicated like food production and vegetable sales activity. The account concentration of grocery store stalls at Chunchucmil strongly suggests that a thriving market economy already existed in the early Classic. [ 187 ] Archaeologists have tentatively identified marketplaces at an increasing number of Maya cities by means of a combination of archeology and dirty analysis. [ 188 ] When the spanish arrived, Postclassic cities in the highlands had markets in permanent plaza, with officials on hand to settle disputes, enforce rules, and collect taxes. [ 189 ]

artwork

Maya art is basically the artwork of the royal court. It is about entirely refer with the Maya elect and their earth. Maya artwork was crafted from both perishable and non-perishable materials, and served to link the Maya to their ancestors. Although surviving Maya art represents merely a belittled proportion of the art that the Maya created, it represents a wider assortment of subjects than any other art tradition in the Americas. [ 192 ] Maya art has many regional styles, and is unique in the ancient Americas in bearing narrative textbook. [ 193 ] The finest survive Maya artwork dates to the late classical period. [ 194 ] The Maya exhibited a preference for the tinge green or bluish green, and used the same news for the tinge blue and green. correspondingly, they placed high value on apple-green hack, and other greenstones, associating them with the sun-god Kʼinich Ajau. They sculpted artefacts that included fine tessera and beads, to carved heads weighing 4.42 kilograms ( 9.7 pound ). [ 195 ] The Maya nobility practised alveolar consonant alteration, and some lords wear encrusted jade in their teeth. Mosaic funerary masks could besides be fashioned from tire, such as that of Kʼinich Janaabʼ Pakal, king of Palenque. [ 196 ]
Maya stone sculpt emerged into the archaeological record as a fully build up tradition, suggesting that it may have evolved from a tradition of sculpting wood. [ 198 ] Because of the biodegradability of woodwind, the corpus of Maya woodwork has about entirely vanish. The few wooden artefacts that have survived include three-dimensional sculptures, and hieroglyphic panels. [ 199 ] Stone Maya stele are widespread in city sites, often paired with first gear, round stones referred to as altars in the literature. [ 200 ] Stone sculpt besides took early forms, such as the limestone relief panels at Palenque and Piedras Negras. [ 201 ] At Yaxchilan, Dos Pilas, Copán, and early sites, stone stairways were decorated with sculpture. [ 202 ] The hieroglyphic stairway at Copán comprises the longest surviving Maya hieroglyphic text, and consists of 2,200 individual glyph. [ 203 ] The largest Maya sculptures consisted of architectural façades crafted from stucco. The grating imprint was laid out on a plain plaster base coat on the rampart, and the three-dimensional shape was built up using little stones. last, this was coated with stucco and moulded into the eat up shape ; human body forms were inaugural modelled in stucco, with their costumes added afterwards. The final stucco sculpt was then brilliantly painted. [ 204 ] Giant stucco masks were used to adorn temple façades by the Late Preclassic, and such decoration continued into the classical menstruation. [ 205 ] The Maya had a long custom of mural paint ; full-bodied polychrome murals have been excavated at San Bartolo, dating to between 300 and 200 BC. [ 206 ] Walls were coated with plaster, and polychromatic designs were painted onto the smooth finish. The majority of such murals have not survived, but Early Classic grave painted in cream, red, and black have been excavated at Caracol, Río Azul, and Tikal. Among the best preserve murals are a life-size series of late authoritative paintings at Bonampak. [ 207 ]
Flint, chert, and obsidian all served utilitarian purposes in Maya culture, but many pieces were finely crafted into forms that were never intended to be used as tools. [ 209 ] Eccentric flints are among the finest lithic artefacts produced by the ancient Maya. [ 210 ] They were technically very challenging to produce, [ 211 ] requiring considerable skill on the separate of the craftsman. large obsidian eccentrics can measure over 30 centimetres ( 12 in ) in length. [ 212 ] Their actual form varies well but they broadly depict human, animal and geometric forms associated with Maya religion. [ 211 ] eccentric flints show a bang-up variety show of forms, such as crescents, crosses, snakes, and scorpions. [ 213 ] The largest and most elaborate examples display multiple homo heads, with minor heads sometimes branching off from larger one. [ 214 ] Maya textiles are very ailing represented in the archaeological record, although by comparison with other pre-columbian cultures, such as the Aztecs and the Andean area, it is likely that they were high-value items. [ 215 ] A few scraps of textile have been recovered by archaeologists, but the best tell for textile art is where they are represented in other media, such as painted murals or ceramics. such secondary representations show the elect of the Maya court adorned with deluxe cloths, broadly these would have been cotton, but jaguar pelts and deer hides are besides shown. [ 216 ]
Ceramics are the most normally surviving type of Maya artwork. The Maya had no cognition of the potter ‘s wheel, and Maya vessels were built up by coiling rolled strips of clay into the desire form. mayan pottery was not glazed, although it much had a finely finish produced by burnishing. Maya ceramics were painted with clay slips blended with minerals and coloured clays. Ancient Maya firing techniques have however to be replicated. [ 217 ] A quantity of extremely fine ceramic figurines have been excavated from recently Classic grave on Jaina Island, in northern Yucatán. They stand from 10 to 25 centimetres ( 3.9 to 9.8 in ) high and were pass modelled, with dainty detail. [ 218 ] The Ik -style polychrome ceramic corpus, including finely painted plates and cylindrical vessels, originated in late classical Motul de San José. It includes a set of features such as hieroglyph painted in a pinko or pale red discolor and scenes with dancers wearing masks. One of the most classifiable features is the naturalistic representation of subjects as they appeared in biography. The subject matter of the vessels includes courtly life from the Petén region in the eighth hundred AD, such as diplomatic meetings, feasting, bloodbath, scenes of warriors and the sacrifice of prisoners of war. [ 219 ] bone, both homo and animal, was besides sculpted ; homo bones may have been trophies, or relics of ancestors. [ 198 ] The Maya valued Spondylus shells, and worked them to remove the white exterior and spines, to reveal the all right orange interior. [ 220 ] Around the tenth century AD, metallurgy arrived in Mesoamerica from South America, and the Maya began to make modest objects in gold, eloquent and copper. The Maya generally hammered tabloid metallic into objects such as beads, bells, and disk. In the final centuries before the spanish Conquest, the Maya began to use the lost-wax method acting to cast modest metal pieces. [ 221 ] One ill learn area of Maya tribe art is graffito. [ 222 ] Additional graffito, not region of the planned decoration, was incised into the stucco of interior walls, floors, and benches, in a wide kind of buildings, including temples, residences, and storerooms. Graffiti has been recorded at 51 Maya sites, particularly clustered in the Petén Basin and southern Campeche, and the Chenes region of northwestern Yucatán. At Tikal, where a great measure of graffito has been recorded, the subject matter includes drawings of temples, people, deities, animals, banners, litters, and thrones. Graffiti was frequently enroll randomly, with drawings overlapping each other, and display a shuffle of blunt, untrained art, and examples by artists who were familiar with Classic-period artistic conventions. [ 223 ]

architecture

The Puuc-style Labna gateway. The passage is formed by a corbel arch, a common component in Maya architecture. The Maya produced a huge array of structures, and have left an extensive architectural bequest. Maya computer architecture besides incorporates assorted art forms and hieroglyphic text. Masonry architecture built by the Maya evidences trade specialization in Maya club, centralised administration and the political means to mobilize a big work force. It is estimated that a big elite residency at Copán required an estimate 10,686 man-days to build, which compares to 67-man-days for a common ‘s hut. [ 224 ] It is further estimated that 65 % of the parturiency required to build the noble mansion was used in the quarry, transport, and coating of the stone used in construction, and 24 % of the british labour party was required for the industry and application of limestone-based plaster. raw, it is estimated that two to three months were required for the construction of the residency for this single lord at Copán, using between 80 and 130 full-time labourers. A Classic-period city like Tikal was spread over 20 square kilometres ( 7.7 sq mi ), with an urban core covering 6 square kilometres ( 2.3 sq mile ). The tug required to build such a city was huge, running into many millions of man-days. [ 225 ] The most massive structures always erected by the Maya were built during the Preclassic period. [ 226 ] Craft specialization would have required consecrated stonemasons and plasterers by the Late Preclassic, and would have required planners and architects. [ 225 ]

Urban design

Maya cities were not formally planned, and were topic to irregular expansion, with the haphazard addition of palaces, temples and other buildings. [ 227 ] Most Maya cities tended to grow outwards from the congress of racial equality, and upwards as new structures were superimposed upon preceding architecture. [ 228 ] Maya cities normally had a ceremony and administrative center surrounded by a huge irregular sprawl of residential complexes. [ 227 ] The centres of all Maya cities featured sacred precincts, sometimes separated from nearby residential areas by walls. [ 229 ] These precincts contained pyramid temples and early monumental architecture dedicated to elite activities, such as radical platforms that supported administrative or elect residential complexes. Sculpted monuments were raised to record the deeds of the govern dynasty. City centres besides featured plaza, sacred ballcourts and buildings used for marketplaces and schools. [ 230 ] Frequently causeways linked the center to outlying areas of the city. [ 229 ] Some of these classes of architecture formed lesser groups in the outlying areas of the city, which served as hallowed centres for non-royal lineages. The areas adjacent to these sacred compounds included residential complexes housing affluent lineages. The largest and rich of these elect compounds sometimes amuck sculpt and art of craft equal to that of royal artwork. [ 230 ] The ceremonial center of the Maya city was where the rule elite lived, and where the administrative functions of the city were performed, together with religious ceremonies. It was besides where the inhabitants of the city gathered for public activities. [ 227 ] Elite residential complexes occupied the best land around the city concentrate, while commoners had their residences dispersed further away from the ceremony concentrate. residential units were built on top of stone platforms to raise them above the tied of the rain season floodwaters. [ 231 ]

build materials and methods

Fired bricks with animal designs from Comalcalco. Made from brick since there was a lack of readily available stone, it is unique among major Maya sites. The Maya built their cities with Neolithic engineering ; [ 232 ] they built their structures from both perishable materials and from stone. The demand type of stone used in freemasonry construction varied according to locally available resources, and this besides affected the build expressive style. Across a broad swaddle of the Maya area, limestone was immediately available. [ 233 ] The local limestone is relatively easy when newly cut, but hardens with exposure. There was great variety show in the quality of limestone, with good-quality rock available in the Usumacinta area ; in the northern Yucatán, the limestone used in construction was of relatively inadequate quality. [ 232 ] Volcanic tuff was used at Copán, and nearby Quiriguá employed sandstone. [ 233 ] In Comalcalco, where desirable stone was not available locally, [ 234 ] fired bricks were employed. [ 233 ] Limestone was burned at high temperatures in rate to manufacture cement, plaster, and stucco. [ 234 ] Lime-based cement was used to seal stonework in place, and stone blocks were fashioned using rope-and-water grinding, and with obsidian tools. The Maya did not employ a functional wheel, so all loads were transported on litters, barges, or rolled on logs. Heavy loads were lifted with lasso, but credibly without employing pulleys. [ 232 ] wood was used for glow, and for lintels, even in freemasonry structures. [ 235 ] Throughout Maya history, common huts and some temples continued to be built from wooden poles and thatch. Adobe was besides applied ; this consisted of mud strengthened with strew and was applied as a coat over the woven-stick walls of huts. Like wood and thatch, adobe was used throughout Maya history, even after the development of masonry structures. In the southerly Maya area, adobe was employed in monumental architecture when no desirable stone was locally available. [ 234 ]

principal construction types

The great cities of the Maya civilization were composed of pyramid temples, palaces, ballcourts, sacbeob ( causeways ), patios and plaza. Some cities besides possessed across-the-board hydraulic systems or defensive walls. The exteriors of most buildings were painted, either in one or multiple colours, or with imagination. many buildings were adorned with sculpture or painted stucco relief. [ 236 ]

Palaces and acropoleis

[237] Terminal Classic palace building complex at Sayil, in northern Yucatán These complexes were normally located in the site effect, beside a principal plaza. Maya palaces consisted of a platform supporting a multiroom scope structure. The term acropolis, in a Maya context, refers to a complex of structures built upon platforms of varying height. Palaces and acropoleis were basically elect residential compounds. They by and large extended horizontally as opposed to the towering Maya pyramids, and often had restricted access. Some structures in Maya acropoleis supported roof comb. Rooms much had stone benches, used for dormant, and holes indicate where curtains once hang. large palaces, such as at Palenque, could be fitted with a body of water issue, and sweat baths were often found within the complex, or nearby. During the early Classic, rulers were sometimes buried underneath the acropolis complex. [ 238 ] Some rooms in palaces were true throne rooms ; in the royal palace of Palenque there were a number of throne rooms that were used for crucial events, including the inauguration of new kings. [ 239 ] Palaces are normally arranged around one or more courtyards, with their façades facing inwards ; some examples are adorned with sculpt. [ 240 ] Some palaces own associated hieroglyphic descriptions that identify them as the royal residences of named rulers. There is abundant tell that palaces were far more than simple elite residences, and that a range of courtly activities took place in them, including audiences, formal receptions, and important rituals. [ 241 ]

Pyramids and temples

Temples were sometimes referred to in hieroglyphic text as kʼuh nah, meaning “ god ‘s house ”. Temples were raised on platforms, most often upon a pyramid. The earliest temples were probably thatched huts built upon depleted platforms. By the late Preclassic period, their walls were of rock, and the growth of the corbel arch allowed pit roof to replace thatch. By the classic time period, synagogue ceiling were being topped with roof combs that extended the stature of the temple and served as a foundation for monumental art. The synagogue shrines contained between one and three rooms, and were dedicated to important deities. Such a deity might be one of the patron gods of the city, or a deify ancestor. [ 243 ] In general, freestanding pyramids were shrines honouring brawny ancestors. [ 244 ]

E-Groups and observatories

The Maya were keen observers of the sun, stars, and planets. [ 245 ] E-Groups were a particular arrangement of temples that were relatively common in the Maya area ; [ 246 ] they take their names from Group E at Uaxactun. [ 247 ] They consisted of three small structures facing a fourth social organization, and were used to mark the solstices and equinoxes. The earliest examples date to the Preclassic period. [ 246 ] The Lost World complex at Tikal started out as an E-Group build towards the end of the Middle Preclassic. [ 248 ] due to its nature, the basic layout of an E-Group was constant. A structure was built on the west side of a plaza ; it was normally a radial pyramid with stairways facing the cardinal directions. It faced east across the plaza to three little temples on the far side. From the west pyramid, the sun was seen to rise over these temples on the solstices and equinoxes. [ 245 ] E-Groups were raised across the central and southerly Maya sphere for over a millennium ; not all were properly aligned as observatories, and their affair may have been emblematic. [ 249 ] a well as E-Groups, the Maya built other structures dedicated to observing the movements of celestial bodies. [ 245 ] Many Maya buildings were aligned with astronomic bodies, including the planet Venus, and assorted constellations. [ 250 ] [ 246 ] The Caracol structure at Chichen Itza was a circular multi-level building, with a conic superstructure. It has slit windows that marked the movements of Venus. At Copán, a pair of stele were raised to mark the position of the set sun at the equinoxes. [ 245 ]

Triadic pyramids

Triadic pyramids first gear appeared in the Preclassic. They consisted of a dominant structure flanked by two smaller inward-facing buildings, all mounted upon a individual basal platform. The largest known triadic pyramid was built at El Mirador in the Petén Basin ; it covers an area six times a large as that covered by Temple IV, the largest pyramid at Tikal. [ 251 ] The three superstructures all have stairways leading up from the cardinal plaza on top of the basal platform. [ 252 ] No securely established forerunners of Triadic Groups are known, but they may have developed from the eastern crop construction of E-Group complexes. [ 253 ] The triadic imprint was the prevailing architectural form in the Petén region during the Late Preclassic. [ 254 ] Examples of triadic pyramids are known from vitamin a many as 88 archaeological sites. [ 255 ] At Nakbe, there are at least a twelve examples of triadic complexes and the four largest structures in the city are triadic in nature. [ 256 ] At El Mirador there are credibly arsenic many as 36 triadic structures. [ 257 ] Examples of the triadic mannequin are even known from Dzibilchaltun in the far north of the Yucatán Peninsula, and Qʼumarkaj in the Highlands of Guatemala. [ 258 ] The triadic pyramid remained a popular architectural form for centuries after the first examples were built ; [ 253 ] it continued in use into the authoritative Period, with former examples being found at Uaxactun, Caracol, Seibal, Nakum, Tikal and Palenque. [ 259 ] The Qʼumarkaj model is the lone one that has been dated to the Postclassic Period. [ 260 ] The triple-temple form of the triadic pyramid appears to be related to Maya mythology. [ 261 ]

Ballcourts

The ballcourt is a distinctive pan-Mesoamerican form of architecture. Although the majority of Maya ballcourts date to the classical period, [ 262 ] the earliest examples appeared around 1000 BC in northwestern Yucatán, during the Middle Preclassic. [ 263 ] By the prison term of spanish contact, ballcourts were only in use in the Guatemalan Highlands, at cities such as Qʼumarkaj and Iximche. [ 262 ] Throughout Maya history, ballcourts maintained a characteristic class consist of an ɪ condition, with a cardinal playing area terminating in two cross end zones. [ 264 ] The central playing sphere normally measures between 20 and 30 metres ( 66 and 98 ft ) long, and is flanked by two lateral structures that stood up to 3 or 4 metres ( 9.8 or 13.1 foot ) high. [ 265 ] The lateral platforms frequently supported structures that may have held inside spectators. [ 266 ] The Great Ballcourt at Chichen Itza is the largest in Mesoamerica, measuring 83 metres ( 272 foot ) long by 30 metres ( 98 foot ) across-the-board, with walls standing 8.2 metres ( 27 foot ) high. [ 267 ]

regional architectural styles

Although Maya cities shared many common features, there was considerable version in architectural style. [ 268 ] such styles were influenced by locally available construction materials, climate, topography, and local anesthetic preferences. In the Late Classic, these local differences developed into classifiable regional architectural styles. [ 269 ]

central Petén

The central Petén style of computer architecture is modelled after the big city of Tikal. The style is characterised by tall pyramids supporting a acme enshrine adorned with a roof comb, and accessed by a individual doorway. extra features are the use of stela-altar pairings, and the decoration of architectural façades, lintels, and roof combs with relief sculptures of rulers and gods. [ 269 ] One of the finest examples of Central Petén style architecture is Tikal Temple I. [ 270 ] Examples of sites in the Central Petén style include Altun Ha, Calakmul, Holmul, Ixkun, Nakum, Naranjo, and Yaxhá. [ 271 ]

Puuc

The exemplar of Puuc-style architecture is Uxmal. The expressive style developed in the Puuc Hills of northwestern Yucatán ; during the Terminal Classic it spread beyond this core region across the northern Yucatán Peninsula. [ 269 ] Puuc sites replaced debris cores with birdlime cement, resulting in stronger walls, and besides strengthened their corbel arches ; [ 272 ] this allowed Puuc-style cities to build freestanding entrance archways. The upper façades of buildings were decorated with precut stones mosaic-fashion, erected as facing over the core, forming elaborate compositions of long-nosed deities such as the rain god Chaac and the Principal Bird Deity. The motif besides included geometric patterns, lattices and spools, possibly influenced by styles from highland Oaxaca, outside the Maya area. In contrast, the lower façades were left unadorned. Roof combs were relatively rare at Puuc sites. [ 273 ]

Chenes

detailed Chenes-style façade at Hochob false pyramids adorn the façade of a Río Bec palace. The Chenes expressive style is very alike to the Puuc manner, but predates the habit of the mosaic façades of the Puuc region. It featured fully adorned façades on both the upper and lower sections of structures. Some doorways were surrounded by mosaic masks of monsters representing batch or sky deities, identifying the doorways as entrances to the supernatural region. [ 274 ] Some buildings contained home stairways that accessed different levels. [ 275 ] The Chenes expressive style is most normally encountered in the southerly assign of the Yucatán Peninsula, although individual buildings in the style can be found elsewhere in the peninsula. [ 274 ] Examples of Chenes sites include Dzibilnocac, Hochob, Santa Rosa Xtampak, and Tabasqueño. [ 275 ]

Río Bec

The Río Bec style forms a sub-region of the Chenes style, [ 274 ] and besides features elements of the Central Petén style, such as outstanding roof comb. [ 276 ] Its palaces are distinctive for their false-tower decorations, lacking inside rooms, with steep, about vertical, stairways and false doors. [ 277 ] These towers were adorned with deity masks, and were built to impress the viewer, rather than serve any virtual function. such false towers are alone found in the Río Bec region. [ 274 ] Río Bec sites include Chicanná, Hormiguero, and Xpuhil. [ 276 ]

Usumacinta

The Usumacinta style developed in the cragged terrain of the Usumacinta drain. Cities took advantage of the hillsides to support their major architecture, as at Palenque and Yaxchilan. Sites modified corbel vaulting to allow sparse walls and multiple access doors to temples. As in Petén, roof combs adorned principal structures. Palaces had multiple entrances that used post-and-lintel entrances rather than corbel vaulting. many sites erected stele, but Palenque rather developed finely sculpted empanel to decorate its buildings. [ 269 ]

language

Before 2000 BC, the Maya spoke a single terminology, dubbed proto-Mayan by linguists. [ 278 ] Linguistic analysis of restore Proto-Mayan vocabulary suggests that the original Proto-Mayan fatherland was in the westerly or northern Guatemalan Highlands, although the tell is not conclusive. [ 3 ] Proto-Mayan diverge during the Preclassic period to form the major Mayan language groups that make up the family, including Huastecan, Greater Kʼicheʼan, Greater Qʼanjobalan, Mamean, Tzʼeltalan-Chʼolan, and Yucatecan. [ 20 ] These groups diverged further during the pre-columbian earned run average to form over 30 languages that have survived into modern times. [ 279 ] The linguistic process of about all classic Maya text over the entire Maya area has been identified as Chʼolan ; [ 280 ] Late Preclassic text from Kaminaljuyu, in the highlands, besides appears to be in, or related to, Chʼolan. [ 281 ] The use of Chʼolan as the language of Maya text does not necessarily indicate that it was the language normally used by the local anesthetic populace – it may have been equivalent to Medieval Latin as a ritual or prestige linguistic process. [ 282 ] Classic Chʼolan may have been the prestige linguistic process of the Classic Maya elect, used in inter-polity communication such as delicacy and trade. [ 283 ] By the Postclassic period, Yucatec was besides being written in Maya codices aboard Chʼolan. [ 284 ]

Writing and literacy

Paris Codex, one of the few surviving Pages from the Postclassic period, one of the few surviving Maya books in being The Maya writing system is one of the great achievements of the pre-columbian inhabitants of the Americas. [ 286 ] It was the most advanced and highly developed writing system of more than a twelve systems that developed in Mesoamerica. [ 287 ] The earliest inscriptions in an identifiably Maya handwriting date back to 300–200 BC, in the Petén Basin. [ 288 ] however, this is preceded by several other mesoamerican writing systems, such as the Epi-Olmec and Zapotec scripts. early Maya handwriting had appeared on the Pacific coast of Guatemala by the recently first hundred AD, or early on second hundred. [ 289 ] Similarities between the Isthmian script and early Maya script of the Pacific slide hint that the two systems developed in bicycle-built-for-two. [ 290 ] By about AD 250, the Maya script had become a more validate and coherent publish system. [ 291 ] The Catholic Church and colonial officials, notably Bishop Diego de Landa, destroyed Maya texts wherever they found them, and with them the cognition of Maya write, but by chance three uncontested pre-columbian books dated to the Postclassic period have been preserved. These are known as the Madrid Codex, the Dresden Codex and the Paris Codex. [ 292 ] A few pages survive from a fourth, the Grolier Codex, whose authenticity is disputed. Archaeology conducted at Maya sites often reveals early fragments, rectangular lumps of poultice and paint chips which were codices ; these tease remains are, however, excessively badly damaged for any inscriptions to have survived, most of the organic fabric having decayed. [ 293 ] In reference to the few extant Maya writings, Michael D. Coe stated :

[ O ] ur cognition of ancient Maya thought must represent lone a bantam fraction of the hale movie, for of the thousands of books in which the broad extent of their learn and ritual was recorded, only four have survived to modern times ( as though all that posterity knew of ourselves were to be based upon three prayer books and ‘Pilgrim ‘s Progress ‘ ). — Michael D. Coe, The Maya, London : Thames and Hudson, 6th ed., 1999, pp. 199–200 .

Most surviving pre-columbian Maya writing dates to the classical time period and is contained in stone inscriptions from Maya sites, such as stele, or on ceramics vessels. other media include the aforesaid codices, stucco façades, frescoes, wooden lintels, cave walls, and portable artefacts crafted from a kind of materials, including bone, shell, obsidian, and adulteress. [ 294 ]

Writing system

Bʼalam (“BA, LA and MA. The Maya son ( “ jaguar “ ) written doubly in the Maya handwriting. The beginning glyph writes the son logographicaly with the jaguar head standing for the entire word. The moment glyph block writes the give voice phonetically using the three syllable signsand The Maya write arrangement ( much called hieroglyphs from a superficial resemblance to Ancient Egyptian writing ) [ 295 ] is a logosyllabic write system, combining a syllabary of phonetic signs representing syllables with logogram representing entire words. [ 294 ] [ 296 ] Among the writing systems of the pre-columbian New World, Maya script most closely represents the talk lyric. [ 297 ] At any one prison term, no more than around 500 glyphs were in use, some 200 of which ( including variations ) were phonetic. [ 294 ] The Maya script was in use up to the arrival of the Europeans, its use top out during the authoritative Period. [ 298 ] In overindulgence of 10,000 individual texts have been recovered, largely inscribed on stone monuments, lintels, stele and ceramics. [ 294 ] The Maya besides produced texts painted on a form of newspaper manufactured from processed tree-bark generally now known by its Nahuatl-language mention amatl used to produce codices. [ 299 ] [ 300 ] The skill and cognition of Maya writing persisted among segments of the population right up to the spanish conquest. The cognition was subsequently lost, as a leave of the impact of the conquest on Maya club. [ 301 ] The decoding and convalescence of the cognition of Maya write has been a hanker and arduous serve. [ 302 ] Some elements were first deciphered in the late 19th and early twentieth hundred, by and large the parts having to do with numbers, the Maya calendar, and astronomy. [ 303 ] Major breakthroughs were made from the 1950s to 1970s, and accelerated quickly thereafter. [ 304 ] By the end of the twentieth hundred, scholars were able to read the majority of Maya text, and ongoing function continues to further illuminate the content. [ 305 ] [ 306 ]

Logosyllabic script

The basic unit of Maya logosyllabic text is the glyph pulley, which transcribes a discussion or phrase. The block is composed of one or more individual glyph attached to each other to form the glyph block, with individual glyph blocks by and large being separated by a space. Glyph blocks are normally arranged in a grid pattern. For relief of reference, epigraphers refer to glyph blocks from left to right alphabetically, and top to bottom numerically. frankincense, any glyph auction block in a piece of textbook can be identified. C4 would be third blocking count from the leave, and the one-fourth block count downwards. If a monument or artifact has more than one inscription, column labels are not repeated, quite they continue in the alphabetic series ; if there are more than 26 columns, the label continues as A ‘, B ‘, etc. Numeric row labels restart from 1 for each discrete unit of measurement of text. [ 307 ] Although Mayan textbook may be laid out in varying manners, broadly it is arranged into double column of glyph blocks. The reading decree of text starts at the top impart ( block A1 ), continues to the second obstruct in the double-column ( B1 ), then drops down a quarrel and starts again from the leave half of the double column ( A2 ), and thus continues in zigzag fashion. Once the bottom is reached, the inscription continues from the top leave of the future double column. Where an inscription ends in a individual ( odd ) column, this final column is normally read straight downwards. [ 307 ] individual glyph blocks may be composed of a number of elements. These consist of the main sign, and any affixes. Main signs represent the major element of the block, and may be a noun, verb, adverb, adjective, or phonetic sign. Some main signs are outline, some are pictures of the object they represent, and others are “ head variants ”, personifications of the give voice they represent. Affixes are smaller rectangular elements, normally attached to a main signal, although a freeze may be composed entirely of affixes. Affixes may represent a wide variety of language elements, including nouns, verbs, verbal suffixes, prepositions, pronouns, and more. small sections of a main augury could be used to represent the whole chief sign, and Maya scribes were highly imaginative in their usage and adaptation of glyph elements. [ 308 ]

Although the archaeological record does not provide examples of brushes or pens, analysis of ink strokes on the Postclassic codices suggests that it was applied with a brush with a tip fashioned from ductile haircloth. [ 300 ] A Classic period sculpture from Copán, Honduras, depicts a scriber with an ink bottle fashioned from a conch shell. [ 309 ] Excavations at Aguateca uncovered a number of scribal artefacts from the residences of elect condition scribes, including palettes and mortars and pestles. [ 158 ]

Scribes and literacy

Commoners were ignorant ; scribes were drawn from the elite. It is not known if all members of the gentry could read and write, although at least some women could, since there are representations of female scribes in Maya art. [ 310 ] Maya scribes were called aj tzʼib, meaning “ one who writes or paints ”. [ 311 ] There were credibly scribal schools where members of the nobility were taught to write. [ 312 ] Scribal activity is identifiable in the archaeological record ; Jasaw Chan Kʼawiil I, king of Tikal, was interred with his paint pot. Some junior members of the Copán imperial dynasty have besides been found buried with their writing implements. A palace at Copán has been identified as that of a noble linage of scribes ; it is decorated with sculpture that includes figures holding ink pots. [ 313 ] Although not much is known about Maya scribes, some did sign their work, both on ceramics and on stone sculpt. normally, alone a single scriber signed a ceramic vessel, but multiple sculptors are known to have recorded their names on stone sculpt ; eight sculptors signed one stele at Piedras Negras. however, most works remained unsigned by their artists. [ 314 ]

Mathematics

In coarse with the early mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya used a root 20 ( vigesimal ) system. [ 315 ] The bar-and-dot count arrangement that is the base of Maya numerals was in practice in Mesoamerica by 1000 BC ; [ 316 ] the Maya adopted it by the Late Preclassic, and added the symbol for zero. [ 317 ] This may have been the earliest know occurrence of the theme of an explicit zero global, [ 318 ] although it may have been predated by the babylonian system. [ 319 ] The earliest explicit practice of zero occurred on monuments dated to 357 AD. [ 320 ] In its earliest uses, the zero served as a invest holder, indicating an absence of a particular calendric count. This later developed into a numeral that was used to perform calculation, [ 321 ] and was used in hieroglyph textbook for more than a thousand years, until the writing system was extinguished by the spanish. [ 322 ] The basic number organization consists of a dot to represent one, and a bar to represent five. [ 323 ] By the Postclassic period a shell symbol represented zero ; during the authoritative period other glyph were used. [ 324 ] The Maya numerals from 0 to 19 secondhand repetitions of these symbols. [ 323 ] The value of a numeral was determined by its place ; as a numeral shift upwards, its basic prize multiplied by twenty dollar bill. In this way, the lowest symbol would represent units, the future symbol up would represent multiples of twenty dollar bill, and the symbol above that would represent multiples of 400, and then on. For example, the count 884 would be written with four dots on the lowest horizontal surface, four dots on the next level improving, and two dots on the adjacent degree after that, to give 4×1 + 4×20 + 2×400 = 884. Using this arrangement, the Maya were able to record huge numbers. [ 315 ] Simple accession could be performed by summing the dots and bars in two columns to give the result in a third column. [ 325 ]

calendar

The Maya calendric system, in common with other mesoamerican calendars, had its origins in the Preclassic period. however, it was the Maya that developed the calendar to its maximal sophistication, recording lunar and solar cycles, eclipses and movements of planets with bang-up accuracy. In some cases, the Maya calculations were more accurate than equivalent calculations in the Old World ; for model, the Maya solar year was calculated to greater accuracy than the julian year. The Maya calendar was intrinsically tied to Maya ritual, and it was cardinal to Maya religious practices. [ 326 ] The calendar combined a non-repeating Long Count with three interlocking cycles, each measuring a increasingly larger period. These were the 260-day tzolkʼin, [ 327 ] the 365-day haabʼ, [ 328 ] and the 52-year Calendar Round, resulting from the combination of the tzolkʼin with the haab’. [ 329 ] There were besides extra calendric cycles, such as an 819-day cycle associated with the four quadrants of Maya cosmology, governed by four different aspects of the god Kʼawiil. [ 330 ] The basic unit in the Maya calendar was one day, or kʼin, and 20 kʼin grouped to form a winal. The next unit, alternatively of being multiplied by 20, as called for by the vigesimal system, was multiplied by 18 in order to provide a harsh approximation of the solar year ( therefore producing 360 days ). This 360-day class was called a tun. Each succeeding level of generation followed the vigesimal system. [ 331 ]

Long Count periods[331]
Period Calculation Span Years (approx.)
kʼin 1 day 1 day
winal 1 x 20 20 days
tun 18 x 20 360 days 1 year
kʼatun 20 x 18 x 20 7,200 days 20 years
bakʼtun 20 x 18 x 20 x 20 144,000 days 394 years
piktun 20 x 18 x 20 x 20 x 20 2,880,000 days 7,885 years
kalabtun 20 x 18 x 20 x 20 x 20 x 20 57,600,000 days 157,700 years
kinchiltun 20 x 18 x 20 x 20 x 20 x 20 x 20 1,152,000,000 days 3,154,004 years
alawtun 20 x 18 x 20 x 20 x 20 x 20 x 20 x 20 23,040,000,000 days 63,080,082 years

The 260-day tzolkʼin provided the basic bicycle of Maya ceremony, and the foundations of Maya prophecy. No astronomic basis for this reckon has been proved, and it may be that the 260-day count is based on the human gestation period. This is reinforced by the consumption of the tzolkʼin to record dates of parturition, and provide corresponding prophecy. The 260-day cycle repeated a series of 20-day-names, with a numeral from 1 to 13 prefixed to indicated where in the bicycle a particular day occurred. [ 330 ] The 365-day haab was produced by a cycle of eighteen named 20-day winal mho, completed by the addition of a 5-day menstruation called the wayeb. [ 332 ] The wayeb was considered to be a dangerous time, when the barriers between the deadly and supernatural realms were broken, allowing malignant deities to cross over and interfere in human concerns. [ 329 ] In a similar way to the tzʼolkin, the named winal would be prefixed by a number ( from 0 to 19 ), in the case of the inadequate wayeb menstruation, the prefix numbers ran 0 to 4. Since each day in the tzʼolkin had a name and total ( e.g. 8 Ajaw ), this would interlock with the haab, producing an extra total and name, to give any day a more complete appointment, for model 8 Ajaw 13 Keh. such a day name could only recur once every 52 years, and this period is referred to by Mayanists as the Calendar Round. In most mesoamerican cultures, the Calendar Round was the largest unit of measurement for measuring meter. [ 332 ] As with any non-repeating calendar, the Maya measured time from a fixed start bespeak. The Maya set the beginning of their calendar as the goal of a previous cycle of bakʼtun second, equivalent to a day in 3114 BC. This was believed by the Maya to be the day of the creation of the worldly concern in its current kind. The Maya used the Long Count Calendar to fix any given day of the Calendar Round within their stream big Piktun cycle dwell of either 20 bakʼtun s. There was some version in the calendar, specifically texts in Palenque prove that the piktun cycle that ended in 3114 BC had only 13 bakʼtun s, but others used a cycle of 13 + 20 bakʼtun in the current piktun. [ 333 ] additionally, there may have been some regional variation in how these especial cycles were managed. [ 334 ] A full long reckon date consisted of an introductory glyph followed by five glyphs counting off the issue of bakʼtun mho, katʼun second, tun s, winal s, and kʼin south since the begin of the current universe. This would be followed by the tzʼolkin helping of the Calendar Round date, and after a count of intervening glyph, the Long Count date would end with the Haab dowry of the Calendar Round date. [ 335 ]

correlation of the Long Count calendar

Although the Calendar Round is still in use today, [ 336 ] the Maya started using an abbreviated Short Count during the Late Classic menstruation. The Short Count is a count of 13 kʼatuns. The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel [ 337 ] contains the only colonial reference to classic long-count dates. The most generally accepted correlation is the Goodman-Martínez-Thompson, or GMT, correlation. This equates the Long Count date 11.16.0.0.0 13 Ajaw 8 Xul with the gregorian date of 12 November 1539. [ 338 ] Epigraphers Simon Martin and Nikolai Grube argue for a two-day shift from the standard GMT correlation. [ 339 ] The Spinden Correlation would shift the Long Count dates back by 260 years ; it besides accords with the documentary testify, and is better suited to the archeology of the Yucatán Peninsula, but presents problems with the rest of the Maya region. [ 338 ] The George Vaillant Correlation would shift all Maya dates 260 years later, and would greatly shorten the Postclassic time period. [ 338 ] Radiocarbon dating of go steady wooden lintels at Tikal supports the GMT correlation. [ 338 ]

astronomy

The celebrated 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 lookout 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[340]

The Maya made meticulous observations of celestial bodies, patiently recording astronomic data on the movements of the sun, daydream, Venus, and the stars. This information was used for divination, so Maya astronomy was basically for astrological purposes. Although Maya astronomy was chiefly used by the priesthood to comprehend past cycles of time, and project them into the future to produce prophecy, it besides had some virtual applications, such as providing aid in crop establish and harvest. [ 342 ] [ 343 ] The priesthood refined observations and commemorate eclipses of the sunday and moon, and movements of Venus and the stars ; these were measured against date events in the by, on the assumption that similar events would occur in the future when the lapp astronomic conditions prevailed. [ 344 ] Illustrations in the codices show that priests made astronomic observations using the naked eye, assisted by crossed sticks as a sight device. [ 345 ] analysis of the few remaining Postclassic codices has revealed that, at the time of european contact, the Maya had recorded overshadow tables, calendars, and astronomic cognition that was more accurate at that time than comparable cognition in Europe. [ 346 ] The Maya measured the 584-day Venus cycle with an error of merely two hours. Five cycles of Venus equated to eight 365-day haab calendric cycles, and this period was recorded in the codices. The Maya besides followed the movements of Jupiter, Mars and Mercury. When Venus rose as the Morning Star, this was associated with the reincarnation of the Maya Hero Twins. [ 347 ] For the Maya, the heliacal arise of Venus was associated with destruction and turbulence. [ 345 ] Venus was closely associated with war, and the hieroglyph meaning “ war ” incorporated the glyph-element symbolizing the planet. [ 348 ] Sight-lines through the windows of the Caracol build at Chichen Itza align with the northernmost and southernmost extremes of Venus ‘ path. [ 345 ] Maya rulers launched military campaigns to coincide with the heliacal or cosmical rise of Venus, and would besides sacrifice significant captives to coincide with such conjunctions. [ 348 ] solar and lunar eclipses were considered to be specially dangerous events that could bring calamity upon the world. In the Dresden Codex, a solar eclipse is represented by a serpent devouring the kʼin ( “ day ” ) hieroglyph. [ 349 ] Eclipses were interpreted as the sunlight or moon being bitten, and lunar tables were recorded in ordering that the Maya might be able to predict them, and perform the appropriate ceremonies to ward off disaster. [ 348 ]

religion and mythology

In common with the rest of Mesoamerica, the Maya believed in a supernatural kingdom inhabited by an array of powerful deities who needed to be placated with ceremonial offerings and ritual practices. [ 350 ] At the core of Maya religious practice was the worship of dead person ancestors, who would intercede for their be descendants in dealings with the supernatural region. [ 351 ] The earliest intermediaries between humans and the supernatural were shamans. [ 352 ] Maya ritual included the function of hallucinogens for chilan, oracular priests. Visions for the chilan were likely facilitated by consumption of water system lilies, which are hallucinogenic in high doses. [ 353 ] As the Maya civilization developed, the ruling elite codified the Maya universe position into religious cults that justified their veracious to rule. [ 350 ] In the Late Preclassic, [ 354 ] this action culminated in the initiation of the providential king, the kʼuhul ajaw, endowed with ultimate political and religious office. [ 352 ] The Maya viewed the cosmos as highly structured. There were thirteen levels in the heavens and nine in the underworld, with the deadly universe in between. Each charge had four cardinal directions associated with a unlike color ; north was white, east was crimson, south was yellow, and west was black. major deities had aspects associated with these directions and colours. [ 355 ] Maya households interred their dead underneath the floors, with offerings appropriate to the social status of the syndicate. There the dead could act as protective ancestors. Maya lineages were patrilineal, so the worship of a outstanding male ancestor would be emphasised, much with a family enshrine. As Maya society developed, and the elite became more mighty, Maya royalty developed their family shrines into the capital pyramids that held the grave of their ancestors. [ 351 ] belief in supernatural forces pervaded Maya life and charm every aspect of it, from the simplest daily activities such as food planning, to trade, politics, and elect activities. Maya deities governed all aspects of the world, both visible and invisible. [ 356 ] The Maya priesthood was a close group, drawing its members from the established elite ; by the early Classic they were recording increasingly complex ritual information in their hieroglyph books, including astronomic observations, calendric cycles, history and mythology. The priests performed public ceremonies that incorporated feed, bloodbath, incense burn, music, ritual dance, and, on certain occasions, homo sacrifice. During the authoritative period, the Maya rule was the high priest, and the mastermind conduit between mortals and the gods. It is highly probable that, among commoners, shamanism continued in twin to state religion. By the Postclassic, religious vehemence had changed ; there was an increase in worship of the images of deities, and more patronize recourse to human sacrifice. [ 357 ] Archaeologists painstakingly reconstruct these ritual practices and beliefs using several techniques. One authoritative, though incomplete, resource is physical testify, such as dedicatory caches and other ritual deposits, shrines, and burials with their associated funerary offerings. [ 358 ] Maya art, computer architecture, and writing are another resource, and these can be combined with ethnographic sources, including records of Maya religious practices made by the spanish during the conquest. [ 356 ]

Human sacrifice

blood was viewed as a potent source of nutriment for the Maya deities, and the sacrifice of a surviving animal was a brawny blood oblation. By reference, the sacrifice of a human life was the ultimate propose of blood to the gods, and the most significant Maya rituals culminated in homo sacrifice. Generally only high condition prisoners of war were sacrificed, with lower status captives being used for labor. [ 359 ] crucial rituals such as the dedication of major building projects or the coronation of a new rule required a human offer. The sacrifice of an enemy king was the most prize, and such a sacrifice involved decapitation of the captive ruler, possibly in a ritual reenactment of the decapitation of the Maya corn idol by the death gods. [ 359 ] In AD 738, the vassal king Kʼakʼ Tiliw Chan Yopaat of Quiriguá captured his overlord, Uaxaclajuun Ubʼaah Kʼawiil of Copán and a few days former ceremonially decapitated him. [ 69 ] Sacrifice by decapitation is depicted in classical period Maya art, and sometimes took place after the victim was tortured, being variously beaten, scalped, burn or disembowelled. [ 360 ] Another myth associated with decapitation was that of the Hero Twins recounted in the Popol Vuh : playing a ball game against the gods of the hell, the heroes achieved victory, but one of each couple of twins was decapitated by their opponents. [ 361 ] [ 359 ] During the Postclassic period, the most common human body of human sacrifice was heart extraction, influenced by the rites of the Aztecs in the Valley of Mexico ; [ 359 ] this normally took home in the court of a temple, or upon the summit of the pyramid. [ 362 ] In one ritual, the cadaver would be skinned by adjunct priests, except for the hands and feet, and the officiate priest would then dress himself in the clamber of the sacrificial victim and perform a ritual dance symbolizing the metempsychosis of life. [ 362 ] Archaeological investigations indicate that heart sacrifice was practised angstrom early as the authoritative period. [ 363 ]

Deities

The Maya world was populated by a great variety of deities, supernatural entities and sacred forces. The Maya had such a broad rendition of the sacred that identifying distinct deities with specific functions is inaccurate. [ 365 ] The Maya rendition of deities was closely tied to the calendar, astronomy, and their cosmology. [ 366 ] The importance of a deity, its characteristics, and its associations varied according to the movement of celestial bodies. The priestly interpretation of astronomic records and books was therefore all-important, since the priest would understand which deity required ritual expiation, when the correct ceremonies should be performed, and what would be an appropriate offer. Each deity had four manifestations, associated with the cardinal directions, each identified with a different color. They besides had a double day-night/life-death aspect. [ 355 ] Itzamna was the godhead god, but he besides embodied the universe, and was simultaneously a sunlight god ; [ 355 ] Kʼinich Ahau, the day sun, was one of his aspects. Maya kings frequently identified themselves with Kʼinich Ahau. Itzamna besides had a night sunlight aspect, the Night Jaguar, representing the sun in its travel through the underworld. [ 367 ] The four Pawatuns supported the corners of the person region ; in the heavens, the Bacabs performed the lapp function. equally well as their four chief aspects, the Bakabs had dozens of other aspects that are not well understand. [ 368 ] The four Chaacs were storm gods, controlling thunder, lightning, and the rains. [ 369 ] The nine lords of the night each governed one of the hell region. [ 368 ] early significant deities included the moon goddess, the corn deity, and the Hero Twins. [ 370 ] The Popol Vuh was written in the Latin script in early colonial times, and was probably transcribed from a hieroglyph book by an strange Kʼicheʼ Maya lord. [ 371 ] It is one of the most outstanding works of autochthonal literature in the Americas. [ 311 ] The Popul Vuh recounts the fabulous initiation of the earth, the caption of the Hero Twins, and the history of the Postclassic Kʼicheʼ kingdom. [ 371 ] Deities recorded in the Popul Vuh include Hun Hunahpu, believed by some to be the Kʼicheʼ corn deity, [ 372 ] and a three of deities led by the Kʼicheʼ patron Tohil, and besides including the moon goddess Awilix, and the batch idol Jacawitz. [ 373 ] In coarse with other mesoamerican cultures, the Maya worshipped feathered snake deities. such worship was rare during the classic time period, [ 374 ] but by the Postclassic the feather snake had spread to both the Yucatán Peninsula and the Guatemalan Highlands. In Yucatán, the feather serpent deity was Kukulkan, [ 375 ] among the Kʼicheʼ it was Qʼuqʼumatz. [ 376 ] Kukulkan had his origins in the classic time period War Serpent, Waxaklahun Ubah Kan, and has besides been identified as the Postclassic version of the Vision Serpent of Classic Maya art. [ 377 ] Although the fad of Kukulkan had its origins in these earlier Maya traditions, the worship of Kukulkan was heavily influenced by the Quetzalcoatl cult of cardinal Mexico. [ 378 ] Likewise, Qʼuqʼumatz had a composite origin, combining the attributes of Mexican Quetzalcoatl with aspects of the classic period Itzamna. [ 379 ]

agriculture

The ancient Maya had diverse and sophisticate methods of food production. It was believed that shifting cultivation ( swidden ) farming provided most of their food, [ 380 ] but it is immediately thought that permanent wave raised fields, terracing, intensive garden, forest gardens, and managed fallows were besides crucial to supporting the bombastic populations of the classical time period in some areas. [ 381 ] indeed, evidence of these different agrarian systems persevere today : raised fields connected by canals can be seen on aerial photograph. [ 382 ] Contemporary rain forest species composition has significantly higher abundance of species of economic value to ancient Maya in areas that were dumbly populated in pre-columbian times, [ 383 ] and pollen records in lake sediments suggest that corn, cassava, sunflower seeds, cotton, and other crops have been cultivated in affiliation with deforestation in Mesoamerica since at least 2500 BC. [ 384 ] The basic staples of the Maya diet were maize, beans, and squashes. These were supplemented with a wide assortment of other plants either cultivated in gardens or gathered in the forest. At Joya de Cerén, a volcanic eruption preserved a criminal record of foodstuffs stored in Maya homes, among them were chilies and tomatoes. Cotton seeds were in the summons of being grate, possibly to produce cook anoint. In summation to basic foodstuffs, the Maya besides cultivated prestige crops such as cotton, cacao and vanilla. Cacao was particularly prized by the elect, who consumed chocolate beverages. [ 385 ] Cotton was spun, dyed, and woven into valuable textiles in order to be traded. [ 386 ] The Maya had few domestic animals ; dogs were domesticated by 3000 BC, and the Muscovy duck by the Late Postclassic. [ 387 ] Ocellated turkeys were unsuitable for tameness, but were rounded up in the angry and penned for fattening. All of these were used as food animals ; dogs were additionally used for hunting. It is potential that deer were besides penned and fattened. [ 388 ]

Maya sites

There are hundreds of Maya sites spread across five countries : Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico. [ 389 ] The six sites with particularly outstanding architecture or sculpture are Chichen Itza, Palenque, Uxmal, and Yaxchilan in Mexico, Tikal in Guatemala and Copán in Honduras. other authoritative, but unmanageable to reach, sites include Calakmul and El Mirador. The principal sites in the Puuc region, after Uxmal, are Kabah, Labna, and Sayil. In the east of the Yucatán Peninsula are Coba and the small web site of Tulum. [ 390 ] The Río Bec sites of the foundation of the peninsula include Becan, Chicanná, Kohunlich, and Xpuhil. The most noteworthy sites in Chiapas, early than Palenque and Yaxchilan, are Bonampak and Toniná. In the Guatemalan Highlands are Iximche, Kaminaljuyu, Mixco Viejo, and Qʼumarkaj ( besides known as Utatlán ). [ 391 ] In the northerly Petén lowlands of Guatemala there are many sites, though apart from Tikal access is by and large unmanageable. Some of the Petén sites are Dos Pilas, Seibal, and Uaxactún. [ 392 ] Important sites in Belize include Altun Ha, Caracol, and Xunantunich. [ 393 ]

museum collections

The Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología, in Guatemala City There are many museums across the world with Maya artefacts in their collections. The foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies lists over 250 museums in its Maya Museum database, [ 394 ] and the European Association of Mayanists lists equitable under 50 museums in Europe alone. [ 395 ]

See besides

References

bibliography

farther read

Read more: David Prowse