Mayan-Cultural+History+of+Lowland+Maya

//**Lowland Maya Cultural History** //

//The Maya did not suddenly disappear from the lowlands as many authors and scriptwriters would have it. Today there are 3-4 million Maya, speaking many distinct Mayan languages descended from the same family of languages spoken by the ancient Maya. The descendants of the ancient Maya live across the same region they always occupied &emdash; modern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and parts of Salvador and Honduras. The mystery is not where they are, but why they abandoned the trappings of their advanced civilization in the Central Maya Lowlands. // //The Maya, like all native inhabitants of the Americas, originally migrated into the region via the Bering Straits when Siberia and Alaska formed a land bridge. The initial occupation of the New World is part of the continuing story of growing population. Asiatic peoples pushed their way into North America, spreading through Central and South America. In nuclear Mesoamerica, from the Valley of Mexico south into modern Salvador and Honduras, these foraging people concentrated in highland areas and about 4,000 bc reached such great numbers in some locations, that they began domesticating plants to supplement other food sources. At this time there was little or no occupation in the Maya Lowlands. // //Settlements of incipient Maya emerge late in the tropical lowland Maya forest. Around 2,000 bc farmers are evident but, archaeologically-speaking, they were nearly invisible until around 1,000 bc. These Maya settlers started in a simple way but evolved into a flamboyant society that peaked in the second half of the first millennium between the years ad 250-900. After the tenth century, the great cities of the Central Maya Lowlands were mostly abandoned. // //Archaeologists have divided the cultural sequence of the lowland Maya into periods that reflect the general developments. The chronology of the Maya is straightforward. Archaic foragers roamed the area in the earliest times, but it all really started in the Preclassic when people settled down and began to practice agriculture. The civilization flourished in the Classic Period when the majority of the largest temples and palaces were built. This whole civilizational process was transformed in the Postclassic. The transformation follows the so-called mysterious Classic Maya Collapse. Summarized in the following table is the essence of this time line. // //**C h r o n o l o g y** //
 * //Archaic // || //Before 2000 BC // || //Initial Foragers // ||
 * //Early Preclassic // || //2000 BC - 1000 BC // || //Pioneer Farming Settlements // ||
 * //Middle Preclassic // || //1000 BC - 300 BC // || //Expansion Across Lowlands // ||
 * //Late Preclassic // || //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">300 BC - 240 AD // || //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">N. Belize Centers Reach Height // ||
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">Early Classic // || //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">250 AD - 600 AD // || //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">Power Shifts to the Interior // ||
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">Late Classic // || //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">600 AD - 900 AD // || //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">Height of Maya Civilization // ||
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">Terminal Classic // || //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">900 AD - 1000 AD // || //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">Collapse of the Classic Maya // ||
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">Early Postclassic // || //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">1000 AD - 1250 AD // || //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">Re-focus of Populations // ||
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">Late Postclassic // || //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">1250 AD - 1521 AD // || //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">Competition among Centers // ||
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">Spanish Invasion // || //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">after 1521 AD // || //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">Disease and Depopulation // ||

//<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">**THE PRECLASSIC (±2000 bc - ad 250)** //

//<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">The Preclassic, also known in greater Mesoamerica as the Formative, has been divided into three logical time periods, the Early, Middle, and Late. The earliest Maya came into the Maya forest as farmers before 2,000 bc, but did not appear in the archaeological record for nearly a millennium. // //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">The Early Preclassic Period marks the beginnings of agriculture. The earliest evidence for burning and the cultivation of maize dates before 2000 bc in the Peten of Guatemala. Lake core sediments record the beginnings of human manipulation of the environment. These sediments show periodic &emdash; probably annual &emdash; burning, and the increase in grasses are indicative of human intrusions. However, corresponding archaeological sites are hard to pin down. Ceramics and household architecture are associated with this phase, now defined as roughly 2000 - 1000 bc. Much of what we know about life during this period comes from beyond the bounds of the Maya area. Early Maya evidence is found at the site of Cuello, in northern Belize. Dating of this site is still controversial, yet ceramics from Cuello are likely earlier than those previously known from the area. Late breaking news from recent research in the Belize River area suggests this early period may be pushed back even more. // //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">Early agriculturalists from northern Belize began to grow maize, fruits, cacao, and a selection of root crops. Yet only part of their diet was supplied by these domesticated products. There was still dependence on the bounty of the lands and waters. Hunting, fishing, and plant foraging provided an important part of the diet for the first Maya &emdash; a pattern that would persist in different ways throughout prehistory. Social organization was simple; a family-centered life prevailed in those times. // //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">The Middle Preclassic dates to the interval between 1000 bc and 300 bc. Settlements of the Middle Preclassic Period were numerous enough to be recognized archaeologically across most of the Maya area. This was the time that the Maya moved from the coast up the river valleys, ultimately penetrating the interior. House sites were wide spread, communities were small, and there was little in the way of public architecture. The more significant communities of the Middle Preclassic were found peripheral to the interior heartland of the Maya. The heartland was virtually the last to be occupied, yet was the area that developed so prominently later in the Classic Period. // //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">Coincident with the larger populations and settlements comes the definitive evidence of public architecture. Again, northern Belize is featured at this time and sites such as Cuello, Cerros, Nohmul, and Lamanai show major building activity. As more investigation progresses, we are finding occupation and construction in the Belize River Valley area, where scattered houses have been recorded on extensive surveys and public platforms have been identified in intensive excavations at local centers such as Cahal Pech and Pacbitún. Recently, buildings have been found that date to the Middle Preclassic deep in the tunnel excavations at El Pilar. This ushers in the foundation of ancient El Pilar. // //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">From 300 bc to ad 250 the lowland Maya population continued to grow and expand, resulting in greater competition for land. This led to increased Maya settlement density, larger communities, and the development of more intensive resource management strategies. Maya civilization began to evolve more complex and elaborate mechanisms for coordinating, organizing, and feeding the growing populations. This is revealed in their settlement distribution, architectural elaboration, and agricultural methods. Among the important institutions documented in this period was the establishment of the bureaucratic trappings of rulership in the form of Maya kingship. This institution would shape the social history of the lowlands on through the Postclassic Period. // //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">The Late Preclassic Period was one when occupation in the interior around Tikal was at its inception. At the same time the interior centers such as Tikal were being founded, the centers of northern Belize, particularly Nohmul, Lamanai, and Cerros, were at their peaks, commanding the loyalty of large domains of well established settlements. El Pilar, only 50 km from Tikal, was firmly rooted by this time. Major public constructions of platforms and pyramids, found throughout different sectors of the site, date from this period. //

//<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">**THE CLASSIC (ad 250 - 1000)** // //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">The Classic Period is defined by the appearance and use of dated monuments, or stela. The wide-spread use of dated stelae occurred toward the end of the third century ad. Stelae and altars recorded the political, social, and religious history of the Maya using the Long Count, a calendrical system based on multiples of a 360-day year with an origin point of 3114 bc. The seven centuries of the Classic Period exhibited tremendous civilizational developments that were fueled by the steady increase in population. The cores of the massive ruins that we see today&emdash;monumental stone-vaulted buildings and huge temple pyramids&emdash;were founded in this period. // //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">The Classic is often divided into two periods, the Early and the Late, separated by the "hiatus." The hiatus was a time when there was a marked decrease in building and the setting of dated monuments, particularly at Tikal. Recent studies have pointed to this as a phenomenon peculiar to the interior of the Central Maya Lowlands, probably brought on by Tikal's involvement in a series of destructive offensive and defensive military exploits. These conflicts were based on shifting alliances among the reigning regional power centers of the era. A few examples include Calakmul, Naranjo, Caracol, and Tikal. This interlude is variously recorded at these important centers, but ultimately the problems reflected by the hiatus were surmounted, making way for an acceleration of the civilizational processes in the Late Classic. // //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">All major centers of the region experienced major growth in the Late Classic Period, especially El Pilar. This growth must have been rooted in the sustainable management of the region's valuable resources found throughout the rolling ridge lands. For more than three millennia, the Maya were able to support and maintain their society's growth by forging a dynamic alliance with their environment. This alliance was a balancing act that, for 15 centuries, supported the development of the Maya civilization across 40,000 sq km or 15,440 sq miles of space. // //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">Toward the end of the Classic, the elaborate civilization of the Maya began to undergo changes. Notably, there was an increase in conflict, probably due to competition over scarce resources, culminating in a drastic reduction in population. This is most dramatically reflected in the complete disregard for site maintenance. After this time, there was no new construction at lowland monumental centers. Residential settlements were not so abruptly deserted, but they too were at last abandoned. The great Classic centers in the central lowlands collapsed first &emdash; Tikal was deserted in the ninth century. Building activity was prolonged at many eastern centers right to the end of the Terminal Classic as recorded at El Pilar. Around El Pilar, however, occupation even extended into the Postclassic. This was the time when the once magnificent rooms, such as the Zotz Na of El Pilar, were apparently converted to exotic dump sites for flutes and figurines, as mere reflections of the center's past glory. //

//<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">**THE POSTCLASSIC (ad 1000 - 1521)** // //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">The end of the Terminal Classic Period has been viewed as the final blow for the Maya civilization, and the Postclassic has traditionally been described as a militaristic, decadent, and degenerate phase in Maya history. But more enlightened views would see that the militarism was indicative of a tendency toward secularism and the resultant downplaying of the ceremonial rituals that dominated the Classic Period. Moreover, many of our interpretations of the Postclassic were projected from ethnohistoric accounts of the Spanish intrusions in the region, hardly an unbiased source. Little attention has been directed toward understanding the Postclassic through archaeology, although recent research on the period, particularly at Santa Rita in northern Belize, suggests continuity from the Classic Period. // //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">The focus of cultural development moved from the Central Maya Lowlands to the northern Yucatan Peninsula, where the Spanish first contacted the Maya culture. There was continuous, albeit distinct, occupation from the Classic through the Postclassic periods. Not only did the people of Lamanai continue to build and trade with their neighbors, but they also continued to live around the center until around 1675. The Spanish founded a mission at Lamanai in 1570 and another at Tipu/Negroman in the Upper Belize River Valley. These were abandoned by the Spanish during a revolt of the Maya in the 1630s. It was not until 1696 that the Spanish conquered the last of the independent Maya city-states, the Itza of Tayasal in the Petén, the descendants of the ancient Maya realm. The Central Maya Lowlands, which today include most of Belize and the Petén of Guatemala, are still home to Maya who can trace their ancestry back into prehistory as attested by the patronyms of local villagers: Bacab, Balam, Canchan, Cocom, Hobb, Mai, Panti, Pech, Pott, Shish, Teck and Tzul, to name a few. // I am attaching the website for which this page came from, it was such an awesome website that I want everyone to look at the site. The information from this page comes from http://www.marc.ucsb.edu/elpilar/mesaredoda/mesaredonda97/history.html that includes the chart and all information on this page.