Maya civilization
Around 300 B.C.,
the Maya adopted a hierarchical system of government with rule by
nobles and kings. This civilization developed into highly structured
kingdoms during the Classic period, A.D. 200-900. Their society consisted
of many independent states, each with a rural farming community and
large urban sites built around ceremonial centres. It started to decline
around A.D. 900 when - for reasons which are still largely a mystery - the
southern Maya abandoned their cities. When the northern Maya were
integrated into the Toltec society by
A.D. 1200, the Maya dynasty finally came to a close, although some
peripheral centres continued to thrive until the Spanish Conquest in the
early sixteenth century.
Maya history can be characterized as cycles of
rise and fall: city-states rose in prominence and fell into decline,
only to be replaced by others. It could also be described as one of
continuity and change, guided by a religion that remains the foundation
of their culture. For those who follow the ancient Maya traditions,
the belief in the influence of the cosmos on human lives and the necessity
of paying homage to the gods through rituals continues to find expression
in a modern hybrid Christian-Maya faith.
The Maya are probably the best-known of the classical civilizations
of Mesoamerica. Originating in the
Yucatán around 2600 B.C., they rose to prominence around A.D. 250
in present-day southern Mexico,
Guatemala, northern Belize and
western Honduras. Building on the inherited inventions and ideas of
earlier civilizations such as the Olmec,
the Maya developed astronomy, calendrical systems and hieroglyphic
writing. The Maya were noted as well for elaborate and highly decorated
ceremonial architecture, including temple-pyramids, palaces and
observatories, all built without metal tools. They were also skilled
farmers, clearing large sections of tropical rain forest and, where
groundwater was scarce, building sizeable underground reservoirs for
the storage of rainwater. The Maya were equally skilled as weavers
and potters, and cleared routes through jungles and swamps to foster
extensive trade networks with distant peoples.
Backgrounders:
Peoples, Geography and Languages
Cities of the ancient Maya
Maya Society
Cosmology and Religion
Writing and Hieroglyphics
Mathematics
The Maya Calendar
Astronomy
The Maya Today
Maya Civilization Timeline
A Mayan Glossary
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