History of the Maya civilization

The history of Maya civilization is divided into three principal periods: the Preclassic, Classic and Postclassic periods;Estrada-Belli 2011, pp. 1, 3. these were preceded by the Archaic Period, which saw the first settled villages and early developments in agriculture.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 98. Estrada-Belli 2011, p. 38. Modern scholars regard these periods as arbitrary divisions of chronology of the Maya civilization, rather than indicative of cultural evolution or decadence.Estrada-Belli 2011, p. 1. Definitions of the start and end dates of period spans can vary by as much as a century, depending on the author.Demarest 2004, p. 17. The Preclassic lasted from approximately 2000 BCE to approximately 250 CE; this was followed by the Classic, from 250 CE to roughly 950 CE, then by the Postclassic, from 950 CE to the middle of the 16th century.Estrada-Belli 2011, p. 3. Each period is further subdivided:
Maya chronology
Period 	Division 	Division 	Dates
Archaic 	Archaic 	Archaic 	8000–2000 BCESharer and Traxler 2006, p. 98.
Preclassic 	Early Preclassic 	Early Preclassic 	2000–1000 BCE
Preclassic 	Middle Preclassic	Early Middle Preclassic	1000–600 BCE
Preclassic 	Middle Preclassic	Late Middle Preclassic 	600–350 BCE
Preclassic 	Late Preclassic 	Early Late Preclassic 	350–1 BCE
Preclassic 	Late Preclassic 	Late Late Preclassic 	1 BCE – 159 CE
Preclassic 	Late Preclassic 	Terminal Preclassic 	159–250 CE
Classic 	Early Classic 	Early Classic 	AD 250–550
Classic 	Late Classic 	Late Classic 	550–830 CE
Classic 	Terminal Classic 	Terminal Classic 	830–950 CE
Postclassic 	Early Postclassic	Early Postclassic 	950–1200 CE
Postclassic 	Late Postclassic 	Late Postclassic 	1200–1539 CE
Contact period	Contact period 	Contact period 	1511–1697 CEMasson 2012, p. 18238. Pugh and Cecil 2012, p. 315.
==Preclassic period (c. 2000 BCE – 250 CE)==
thumb|right|Structure 5 at Takalik Abaj was built during the Middle Preclassic.Schieber de Lavarreda and Orrego Corzo 2010, p. 1.
The Maya developed their first civilization in the Preclassic period.Estrada-Belli 2011, p. 28. Scholars continue to discuss when this era of Maya civilization began. Discoveries of Maya occupation at Cuello, Belize have been carbon dated to around 2600 BCE.Hammond et al 1976, pp. 579–581. Settlements were established around 1800 BC in the Soconusco region of the Pacific coast, and they were already cultivating the staple crops of the Maya diet, including maize, beans, squash, and chili pepper. This period, known as the Early Preclassic,Drew 1999, p.6. was characterized by sedentary communities and the introduction of pottery and fired clay figurines.Coe 1999, p. 47.
During the Middle Preclassic Period, small villages began to grow to form cities.Olmedo Vera 1997, p.26. By 500 BCE these cities possessed large temple structures decorated with stucco masks representing gods.Martin and Grube 2000, p.8. Nakbe in the Petén Department of Guatemala is the earliest well-documented city in the Maya lowlands,Sharer and Traxler 2006, p.214. where large structures have been dated to around 750 BCE. Nakbe already featured the monumental masonry architecture, sculpted monuments and causeways that characterised later cities in the Maya lowlands. The northern lowlands of Yucatán were widely settled by the Middle Preclassic.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 276. By approximately 400 BCE, near the end of the Middle Preclassic period, early Maya rulers were raising stelae that celebrated their achievements and validated their right to rule.Sharer and Traxler 2006, pp. 182, 197.
Murals excavated in 2005 have pushed back the origin of Maya writing by several centuries, with a developed script already being used at San Bartolo in Petén by the 3rd century BCE, and it is now evident that the Maya participated in the wider development of Mesoamerican writing in the Preclassic.Saturno, Stuart and Beltrán 2006, pp. 1281–1283. In the Late Preclassic Period, the enormous city of El Mirador grew to cover approximately .Olmedo Vera 1997, p.28. It possessed paved avenues, massive triadic pyramid complexes dated to around 150 BCE, and stelae and altars that were erected in its plazas. El Mirador is considered to be one of the first capital cities of the Maya civilization. The swamps of the Mirador Basin appear to have been the primary attraction for the first inhabitants of the area as evidenced by the unusual cluster of large cities around them.Hansen et al 2006, p.740. The city of Tikal, later to be one of the most important of the Classic Period Maya cities, was already a significant city by around 350 BCE, although it did not match El Mirador.Martin and Grube 2000, pp. 25–26. The Late Preclassic cultural florescence collapsed in the 1st century CE and many of the great Maya cities of the epoch were abandoned; the cause of this collapse is as yet unknown.
In the highlands, Kaminaljuyu emerged as a principal centre in the Late Preclassic, linking the Pacific coastal trade routes with the Motagua River route, as well as demonstrating increased contact with other sites along the Pacific coast.Love 2007, pp. 293, 297. Popenoe de Hatch and Schieber de Lavarreda 2001, p. 991. Kaminaljuyu was situated at a crossroads and controlled the trade routes westwards to the Gulf coast, north into the highlands, and along the Pacific coastal plain to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and El Salvador. This gave it control over the distribution networks for important goods such as jade, obsidian and cinnabar.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 232. Within this extended trade route, Takalik Abaj and Kaminaljuyu appear to have been the two principal foci.Popenoe de Hatch and Schieber de Lavarreda 2001, p. 991. The early Maya style of sculpture spread throughout this network.Orrego Corzo and Schieber de Lavarreda 2001, p. 788. Takalik Abaj and Chocolá were two of the most important cities on the Pacific coastal plain during the Late Preclassic,Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 236. and Komchen grew to become an important site in northern Yucatán during the Preclassic.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 275.
==Classic period (c. 250–900 CE)==
The Classic period is largely defined as the period during which the lowland Maya raised dated monuments using the Long Count calendar.Coe 1999, p. 81. This period marked the peak of large-scale construction and urbanism, the recording of monumental inscriptions, and demonstrated significant intellectual and artistic development, particularly in the southern lowland regions. The Classic period Maya political landscape has been likened to that of Renaissance Italy or Classical Greece, with multiple city-states engaged in a complex network of alliances and enmities.Martin and Grube 2000, p. 21.
During the Classic Period, the Maya civilization achieved its greatest florescence. The Maya developed an agriculturally intensive, city-centred civilization consisting of numerous independent city-states – some subservient to others.Acemoglu and Robinson 2012, pp. 143–149. During the Early Classic, cities throughout the Maya region were influenced by the great metropolis of Teotihuacan in the distant Valley of Mexico.Martin and Grube 2000, p.9. In AD 378, Teotihuacan decisively intervened at Tikal and other nearby cities, deposed its ruler and installed a new Teotihuacan-backed dynasty.Demarest 2004, p. 218. Estrada-Belli 2011, pp. 123–126. This intervention was led by Siyaj K'ak' ("Born of Fire"), who arrived at Tikal on 8.17.1.4.12 (c. 31 January 378). The king of Tikal, Chak Tok Ich'aak I, died on the same day, suggesting a violent takeover.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 322. Martin and Grube 2000, p. 29. A year later, Siyaj K'ak' oversaw the installation of a new king, Yax Nuun Ayiin I.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 324. The new king's father was Spearthrower Owl, who possessed a central Mexican name, and may have been the king of either Teotihuacan, or Kaminaljuyu.Martin and Grube 2000, p. 30. Sharer and Traxler 2006, pp. 322, 324. The installation of the new dynasty led to a period of political dominance when Tikal became the most powerful city in the central lowlands.
At its height during the Late Classic, the Tikal city polity had expanded to have a population of well over 100,000.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p.1. Tikal's great rival was Calakmul, another powerful city polity in the Petén Basin.Olmedo Vera 1997, p.36. 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 peaceful relations with other members of the same network.Foster 2002, p. 133. Tikal and Calakmul engaged in the manoeuvering of their alliance networks against each other; at various points during the Classic period, one or other of these powers would gain a strategic victory over its great rival, resulting in respective periods of florescence and decline.Demarest 2004, pp. 224–226.
In 629, B'alaj Chan K'awiil, a son of the Tikal king K'inich Muwaan Jol II, was sent to found a new city to the west, at Dos Pilas, in the Petexbatún region, apparently as an outpost to extend Tikal's power beyond the reach of Calakmul. The young prince was just four years old at the time.Sharer and Traxler 2006, pp. 383, 387. With the establishment of the new kingdom, Dos Pilas advertised its origin by adopting the emblem glyph of Tikal as its own.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 383. For the next two decades he fought loyally for his brother and overlord at Tikal. In AD 648, king Yuknoom Ch'een II ("Yuknoom the Great") of Calakmul attacked and defeated Dos Pilas, capturing Balaj Chan K’awiil. At about the same time, the king of Tikal was killed. Yuknoom Che'en II then reinstated Balaj Chan K'awiil upon the throne of Dos Pilas as his vassal.Salisbury, Koumenalis & Barbara Moffett 2002. Martin & Grube 2000, p. 108. Sharer & Traxler 2006, p.387. In an extraordinary act of treachery for someone claiming to be of the Tikal royal family, he thereafter served as a loyal ally of Calakmul, Tikal's sworn enemy.Martin and Grube 2000, pp. 54–55.
In the southeast, Copán was the most important city. Its Classic-period dynasty was founded in 426 by K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo'. The new king had strong ties with central Petén and Teotihuacan, and it is likely that he was originally from Tikal.Martin and Grube 2000, pp 192–193. Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 342. Copán reached the height of its cultural and artistic development during the rule of Uaxaclajuun Ub'aah K'awiil, who reigned from 695 to 738.Martin and Grube 2000, pp. 200, 203. His reign ended catastrophically in April 738, when he was captured by his vassal, king K'ak' Tiliw Chan Yopaat of Quiriguá.Martin and Grube 2000, pp. 203, 205. The captured lord of Copán was taken back to Quiriguá and, in early May 738, he was decapitated in a public ritual.Miller 1999, pp. 134–135. Looper 2003, p. 76. It is likely that this coup was backed by Calakmul, in order to weaken a powerful ally of Tikal.Looper 1999, pp. 81, 271. Palenque and Yaxchilan were the most powerful cities in the Usumacinta region. In the highlands, Kaminaljuyu in the Valley of Guatemala was already a sprawling city by AD 300.Demarest 2004, p. 75. In the north of the Maya area, Coba was the most important capital.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 554.
Capital cities of Maya kingdoms could vary considerably in size, apparently related to how many vassal cities were tied to the capital.Martin and Grube 2000, p.19. Overlords of city-states that held sway over a greater number of subordinate lords could command greater quantities of tribute in the form of goods and labour.Martin and Grube 2000, p.21. The most notable forms of tribute pictured on Maya ceramics are cacao, textiles and feathers. The social basis of the Classic Maya civilization was an extended political and economic network that reached throughout the Maya area and beyond into the greater Mesoamerican region.Carmack 2003, p. 76. The dominant Classic period polities were located in the central lowlands; during this period the southern highlands and northern lowlands can be considered culturally, economically, and politically peripheral to this core area. Those loci that existed between the core and the periphery acted as centres of trade and commerce.Carmack 2003, pp. 76–77.
The most notable monuments are the pyramid-temples and palaces they built in the centres of their greatest cities.Demarest 2004, p. 89. At this time, the use of hieroglyphic script on monuments became widespread, and left a large body of information including dated dynastic records, alliances, and other interactions between Maya polities.Demarest 2004, pp. 89–90. The sculpting of stone stelae spread throughout the Maya area during the Classic period,Miller 1999, p. 9. and pairings of sculpted stelae and low circular altars are considered a hallmark of Classic Maya civilization.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 235. Miller 1999, p. 9. During the Classic period almost every Maya kingdom in the southern lowlands raised stelae in its ceremonial centre.Stuart 1996, p. 149. The epigrapher David Stuart first proposed that the Maya regarded their stelae as te tun, "stone trees", although he later revised his reading to lakamtun, meaning "banner stone".Miller 1999, pp. 78, 80. According to Stuart this may refer to the stelae as stone versions of vertical standards that once stood in prominent places in Maya city centres, as depicted in ancient Maya graffiti.Stuart 1996, p. 154. The core purpose of a stela was to glorify the king.Borowicz 2003, p. 217.
The Maya civilization participated in long-distance trade, and important trade routes ran from the Motagua River to the Caribbean Sea, then north up the coast to Yucatán. Another route ran from Verapaz along the Pasión River to the trading port at Cancuen; from there trade routes ran east to Belize, northwards to central and northern Petén, and onwards to the Gulf of Mexico and the west coast of the Yucatán Peninsula.Demarest 2004, p. 163. Important elite-status trade goods included jade, fine ceramics, and quetzal feathers.Demarest 2004, p. 148. More basic trade goods may have included obsidian, salt and cacao.Demarest 2004, p. 149.
===Classic Maya collapse===
During the 9th century CE, the central Maya region suffered major political collapse, marked by the abandonment of cities, the ending of dynasties and a northward shift in activity. This decline was coupled with a cessation of monumental inscriptions and large-scale architectural construction. No universally accepted theory explains this collapse, but it is likely to have resulted from a combination of causes, including endemic internecine warfare, overpopulation resulting in severe environmental degradation, and drought.Coe 1999, pp. 151–155. During this period, known as the Terminal Classic, the northern cities of Chichen Itza and Uxmal show increased activity. Major cities in the northern Yucatán Peninsula continued to be inhabited long after the cities of the southern lowlands ceased to raise monuments.Becker 2004, p.134.
There is evidence that the Maya population exceeded the carrying capacity of the environment, resulting in depleted agricultural resources, deforestation, and overhunting of megafauna. A 200-year long drought appears to have occurred around the same time.Beeland 2007. Classic Maya social organisation was based upon the ritual authority of the ruler, rather than central control of trade and food distribution. This model of rulership was poorly structured to respond to changes, with the ruler's freedom of action being limited to traditional responses. The rulers reacted in their culturally-bound manner, by intensifying such activities as construction, ritual, and warfare. This was counterproductive and only served to exacerbate systemic problems.Demarest 2004, p. 246.
By the 9th and 10th centuries, this resulted in collapse of the system of rulership based around the divine power of the ruling lord. In the northern Yucatán, individual rule was replaced by a ruling council formed from elite lineages. In the southern Yucatán and central Petén, kingdoms generally declined; in western Petén and some other areas, the changes were catastrophic and resulted in the rapid depopulation of cities.Demarest 2004, p. 248. Within a couple of generations, large swathes of the central Maya area were all but abandoned.Martin and Grube 2000, p. 226. Relatively rapid collapse affected portions of the southern Maya area that included the southern Yucatán Peninsula, northern Chiapas and Guatemala, and the area around Copán in Honduras. The largest cities had populations numbering 50,000 to 120,000 and were linked to networks of subsidiary sites. Both the capitals and their secondary centres were generally abandoned within a period of 50 to 100 years.Masson 2012, p. 18237.
By the late 8th century, endemic warfare had engulfed the Petexbatún region of Petén, resulting in the abandonment of Dos Pilas and Aguateca.Coe 1999, p. 152. One by one, many once-great cities stopped sculpting dated monuments and were abandoned; the last monuments at Palenque, Piedras Negras and Yaxchilan were dated to between 795 and 810, over the following decades, Calakmul, Naranjo, Copán, Caracol and Tikal all fell into obscurity. The last Long Count date was inscribed at Toniná in 909. Stelae were no longer raised, and squatters moved into abandoned royal palaces. Mesoamerican trade routes shifted and bypassed Petén.Foster 2002, p. 60.
==Postclassic period (c. 950–1539 CE)==
The great cities that dominated Petén had fallen into ruin by the beginning of the 10th century CE with the onset of the Classic Maya collapse.Sharer and Traxler 2006, pp. 499–500. Although much reduced, a significant Maya presence remained into the Postclassic period after the abandonment of the major Classic period cities; the population was particularly concentrated near permanent water sources.Sharer and Traxler 2006, pp. 613, 616. Unlike during previous cycles of contraction in the Maya region, abandoned lands were not quickly resettled in the Postclassic. Activity shifted to the northern lowlands and the Maya Highlands; this may have involved migration from the southern lowlands, since many Postclassic Maya groups had migration myths.Foias 2014, p. 15. Chichen Itza rose to prominence in the north in the 8th century CE, coincident with the abandonments occurring in the south, which underlines the economic and political factors involved in the collapse. Chichen Itza became what was probably the largest, most powerful and most cosmopolitan of all Maya cities.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p.559. Chichen Itza and its Puuc neighbours declined dramatically in the 11th century, and this may represent the final episode of the Classic period collapse. After the decline of Chichen Itza, the Maya region lacked a dominant power until the rise of the city of Mayapan in the 12th century. New cities arose near the Caribbean and Gulf coasts, and new trade networks were formed.
The Postclassic Period was marked by a series of changes that distinguished its cities from those of the preceding Classic Period.Arroyo 2001, p.38. The once-great city of Kaminaljuyu in the Valley of Guatemala was abandoned after a period of continuous occupation that spanned almost two thousand years.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p.618. This was symptomatic of changes that were sweeping across the highlands and neighbouring Pacific coast, with long-occupied cities in exposed locations relocated, apparently due to a proliferation of warfare. Cities came to occupy more-easily defended hilltop locations surrounded by deep ravines, with ditch-and-wall defences sometimes supplementing the protection provided by the natural terrain. Walled defences have been identified at a number of sites in the north, including Chacchob, Chichen Itza, Cuca, Ek Balam, Mayapan, Muna, Tulum, Uxmal, and Yaxuna.Foias 2014, p. 17. One of the most important cities in the Guatemalan Highlands at this time was Q'umarkaj, also known as Utatlán, the capital of the aggressive K'iche' Maya kingdom. The government of Maya states, from the Yucatán to the Guatemalan highlands, was often organised as joint rule by a council. However, in practice one member of the council could act as a supreme ruler, with the other members serving him as advisors.Foias 2014, pp. 100–102.
thumb|left|Mayapan was an important Postclassic city in the northern Yucatán Peninsula
Mayapan was abandoned around 1448, after a period of political, social and environmental turbulence that in many ways echoes the Classic period collapse in the southern Maya region. The abandonment of the city was followed by a period of prolonged warfare in the Yucatán Peninsula, which only ended shortly before Spanish contact in 1511. Even without a dominant regional capital, the early Spanish explorers reported wealthy coastal cities and thriving marketplaces.Masson 2012, p. 18238.
During the Late Postclassic, the Yucatán Peninsula was divided into a number of independent provinces that shared a common culture but varied in their internal sociopolitical organisation.Andrews 1984, p. 589. Two of the most important provinces were Mani and Sotuta, which were mutually hostile.Caso Barrera 2002, p. 17. At the time of Spanish contact, polities in the northern Yucatán peninsula included Mani, Cehpech, Chakan, Ah Kin Chel, Cupul, Chikinchel. Ecab, Uaymil, Chetumal, Cochuah, Tases, Hocaba, Sotuta, Chanputun (modern Champotón), and Acalan.Andrews 1984, pp. 589, 591. A number of polities and groups inhabited the southern portion of the peninsula incorporating the Petén Basin, Belize, and surrounding areas,Estrada-Belli 2011, p. 52. Rice and Rice 2009, p. 17. Feldman 2000, p. xxi. including the Kejache, the Itza,Jones 2000, p. 353. the Kowoj,Rice and Rice 2009, p. 10. Rice 2009, p. 17. the Yalain,Cecil, Rice and Rice 1999, p. 788. the Chinamita, and the Icaiche, the Manche Ch'ol, and the Mopan.Rice 2009, p. 17. Feldman 2000, p. xxi. The Cholan Maya-speaking Lakandon (not to be confused with the modern inhabitants of Chiapas by that name) controlled territory along the tributaries of the Usumacinta River spanning eastern Chiapas and southwestern Petén.
On the eve of the Spanish conquest, the highlands of Guatemala were dominated by several powerful Maya states.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 717. In the centuries preceding the arrival of the Spanish, the K'iche' had carved out a small empire covering a large part of the western Guatemalan Highlands and the neighbouring Pacific coastal plain. However, in the late 15th century the Kaqchikel rebelled against their former K'iche' allies and founded a new kingdom to the southeast, with Iximche as its capital. In the decades before the Spanish invasion the Kaqchikel kingdom had been steadily eroding the kingdom of the K'iche'.Restall and Asselbergs 2007, p. 5. Other highland groups included the Tz'utujil around Lake Atitlán, the Mam in the western highlands and the Poqomam in the eastern highlands.Restall and Asselbergs 2007, p. 6. The central highlands of Chiapas were occupied by a number of Maya peoples,Lovell 2000, p. 398. including the Tzotzil, who were divided into a number of provinces,Lenkersdorf 2004, p. 72. and the Tojolabal.Lenkersdorf 2004, p. 78.
==Contact period and Spanish conquest (1511–1697 CE)==
In 1511, a Spanish caravel was wrecked in the Caribbean, and about a dozen 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 coast, and engaged in a number of battles with the Maya inhabitants.Sharer and Traxler 2006, pp. 759–760. 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;Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 763. Lovell 2005, p. 58. Matthew 2012, pp. 78–79. they arrived in Soconusco in 1523.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 763. The K'iche' capital, Q'umarkaj, fell to Alvarado in 1524.Sharer and Traxler 2006, pp. 764–765. Recinos 1986, pp. 68, 74. Shortly afterwards, the Spanish were invited as allies into Iximche, the capital city of the Kaqchikel Maya.Schele and Mathews 1999, p.297. Guillemín 1965, p.9. Good relations did not last, due to excessive Spanish demands for gold as tribute, and the city was abandoned a few months later.Schele and Mathews 1999, p.298. This was followed by the fall of Zaculeu, the Mam Maya capital, in 1525.Recinos 1986, p.110. del Águila Flores 2007, p.38. Francisco de Montejo and his son, Francisco de Montejo the Younger, launched a lengthy series of campaigns against the polities of the Yucatán Peninsula in 1527, and finally completed the conquest of the northern portion of the peninsula in 1546.Sharer and Traxler 2006, pp. 766–772. This left only the Maya kingdoms of the Petén Basin independent.Sharer and Traxler 2006, pp. 772–773. In 1697, Martín de Ursúa launched an assault upon the Itza capital Nojpetén and the last remaining independent Maya city fell to the Spanish.Jones 1998, p. xix.
==Persistence of Maya culture==
The Spanish conquest stripped away most of the defining features of Maya civilization. However, many Maya villages remained remote from Spanish colonial authority, and for the most part continued to manage their own affairs. Maya communities and the nuclear family maintained their traditional day-to-day life.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 9. The basic Mesoamerican diet of maize and beans continued, although agricultural output was improved by the introduction of steel tools. Traditional crafts such as weaving, ceramics, and basketry continued to be produced. Community markets and trade in local products continued long after the conquest. At times the colonial administration encouraged the traditional economy in order to extract tribute in the form of ceramics or cotton textiles, although these were usually made to European specifications. Maya beliefs and language proved resistant to change, in spite of the vigorous efforts of Catholic missionaries.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 10. The 260-day tzolk'in ritual calendar continues in use in modern Maya communities in the highlands of Guatemala and Chiapas,Zorich 2012, p. 29. Thompson 1932, p. 449. and millions of Mayan-language speakers inhabit the territory in which their ancestors developed their civilization.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 11.
==Investigation of the Maya civilization==
From the 16th century onwards, Spanish soldiers, clergy and administrators were familiar with pre-Columbian Maya history and beliefs. The agents of the Catholic Church wrote detailed accounts of the Maya, in support of their efforts at evangelisation, and absorption of the Maya into the Spanish Empire.Demarest 2004, p. 31. The writings of 16th-century Bishop Diego de Landa, who had infamously burned a large number of Maya books, contain many details of Maya culture, including their beliefs and religious practices, calendar, aspects of their hieroglyphic writing, and oral history.Demarest 2004, p. 32. This was followed by various Spanish priests and colonial officials who left descriptions of ruins they visited in Yucatán and Central America. These early visitors were well aware of the association between the ruins and the Maya inhabitants of the region.Demarest 2004, pp. 32–33.
In 1839 American traveller and writer John Lloyd Stephens, familiar with earlier Spanish investigations, set out to visit Uxmal, Copán, Palenque, and other sites with English architect and draftsman Frederick Catherwood.Koch 2013, pp. 1, 105. Their illustrated accounts of the ruins sparked strong popular interest in the region and the people, and brought the Maya to the attention of the world. Their account was picked up by 19th century antiquarians such as Augustus Le Plongeon and Désiré Charnay, who attributed the ruins to Old World civilizations, or sunken continents.Demarest 2004, p. 34. The later 19th century saw the recording and recovery of ethnohistoric accounts of the Maya, and the first steps in deciphering Maya hieroglyphs.Demarest 2004, pp. 33–34.
The final two decades of the 19th century saw the birth of modern scientific archaeology in the Maya region, with the meticulous work of Alfred Maudslay and Teoberto Maler.Demarest 2004, pp. 37–38. Sites such as Altar de Sacrificios, Coba, Seibal, and Tikal were cleared and documented.Demarest 2004, p. 38. By the early 20th century, the Peabody Museum was sponsoring excavations at Copán and in the Yucatán Peninsula, and artefacts were being smuggled out of the region to the museum's collection. In the first two decades of the 20th century, advances were made in the deciphering of the Maya calendar, and identification of deities, dates, and religious concepts.Demarest 2004, p. 39. Sylvanus Morley began a project to document every known Maya monument and hieroglyphic inscription, in some cases recording the texts of monuments that have since been destroyed.Demarest 2004, pp. 39–40. The Carnegie Institution for Science sponsored excavations at Copán, Chichen Itza and Uaxactun, and the modern foundations of Maya studies were laid.Demarest 2004, p. 41. From the 1930s onwards, the pace of archaeological exploration increased dramatically, with large-scale excavations across the entire Maya region.Demarest 2004, p. 42.
However, in many locations, Maya ruins have been overgrown by the jungle, becoming dense enough to hide structures just a few meters away. To find unidentified ruins, researchers have turned to satellite imagery, in order to look at the visible and near-infrared spectra. Due to their limestone construction, the monuments affected the chemical makeup of the soil as they deteriorated; some moisture-loving plants are entirely absent, while others were killed off or discoloured.NASA Earth Observatory.
In the 1960s, the distinguished Mayanist J. Eric S. Thompson promoted the ideas that Maya cities were essentially vacant ceremonial centres serving a dispersed population in the forest, and that the Maya civilization was governed by peaceful astronomer-priests.Demarest 2004, p. 44. These ideas arose from the limited understanding of Maya script at the time; they began to collapse with major advances in the decipherment of the script in the late 20th century, pioneered by Heinrich Berlin, Tatiana Proskouriakoff, and Yuri Knorozov.Demarest 2004, p. 45. As breakthroughs in the understanding of Maya script were made from the 1950s onwards, the texts revealed the warlike activities of the Classic Maya kings, and the view of the Maya as peaceful could no longer be supported.Foster 2002, p. 8. Detailed settlement surveys of Maya cities revealed the evidence of large populations, putting an end to the vacant ceremonial centre model.Demarest 2004, pp. 49–51.
==Notes==
==References==
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