Maya Civilization · 2020. 1. 29. · Maya Civilization Charles and Linda George Maya Civilization LUCENT BOOKS The World History series examines the eras, events, civilizations,

Maya Civilization

Charles and Linda George

Maya C

ivilizationLU

CEN

T BO

OK

S

The World History series examines the eras, events, civilizations, and movements that have shaped human history, providing readers with insight into the past and its many legacies. Vivid writing, full-color photographs and extensive use of fully cited primary and secondary source quotations provide a sense of immediacy. Sidebars, time lines, indexes, and annotated bibliographies, which appear in every volume, offer a wealth of additional information as well as provide launching points for further discussion and study.

9781420502404_WH-MAYA CIVILIZATION.indd 1 6/3/10 5:36 PM

MayaCivilization


© 2010 Gale, Cengage Learning

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright hereinmay be reproduced, transmitted, stored, or used in any form or by any meansgraphic, electronic, or mechanical, including but not limited to photocopying,recording, scanning, digitizing, taping, Web distribution, information networks,or information storage and retrieval systems, except as permitted underSection 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the priorwritten permission of the publisher.

Every effort has been made to trace the owners of copyrighted material.

Lucent Books27500 Drake Rd.Farmington Hills, MI 48331

ISBN-13: 978-1-4205-0240-4ISBN-10: 1-4205-0240-9

George, Charles, 1949-Maya civilization / by Charles and Linda George.

p. cm. -- (World history)Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 978-1-4205-0240-4 (hardcover)1. Mayas--History--Juvenile literature. 2. Mayas--Social life and cus-toms--Juvenile literature. 3. Mexico--Civilization--Juvenile literature.4. Central America--Civilization--Juvenile literature. I. George, Linda.II. Title.F1435.G43 2010305.897'42--dc22

2009053266

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Printed in the United States of America1 2 3 4 5 6 7 14 13 12 11 10

ContentsForeword 4Important Dates at the Time of theMaya Civilization 6

Introduction:The Maya: A Lost Civilization? 8

Chapter One:The Rise of the Maya 12

Chapter Two:Maya Nobility of the Classic Period 27

Chapter Three:Commoners of the Classic Period 38

Chapter Four:Greatest Achievements 51

Chapter Five:The Spirit Realm 67

Epilogue:Postclassic and Modern Maya 80

Notes 86For More Information 88Index 92Picture Credits 95About the Author 96

Foreword

Each year, on the first day of school,nearly every history teacher facesthe task of explaining why his or

her students should study history. Manyreasons have been given. One is that les-sons exist in the past from which contem-porary society can benefit and learn.Another is that exploration of the past al-lows us to see the origins of our customs,ideas, and institutions. Concepts such asdemocracy, ethnic conflict, or even thingsas trivial as fashion or mores, have his-torical roots.

Reasons such as these impress few stu-dents, however. If anything, these expla-nations seem remote and dull to youngminds. Yet history is anything but dull.And therein lies what is perhaps the mostcompelling reason for studying history:History is filled with great stories. Theclassic themes of literature and drama—love and sacrifice, hatred and revenge,injustice and betrayal, adversity andtriumph—fill the pages of history books,feeding the imagination as well as any ofthe great works of fiction do.

The story of the Children’s Crusade,for example, is one of the most tragic inhistory. In 1212 Crusader fever hit Eu-rope. A call went out from the pope thatall good Christians should journey toJerusalem to drive out the hated Mus-lims and return the city to Christian con-trol. Heeding the call, thousands of

children made the journey. Parentsbravely allowed many children to go,and entire communities were inspiredby the faith of these small Crusaders.Unfortunately, many boarded ships thatwere captained by slave traders, who en-thusiastically sold the children into slav-ery as soon as they arrived at theirdestination. Thousands died from dis-ease, exposure, and starvation on thelong march across Europe to theMediterranean Sea. Others perished atsea.

Another story, from a modern andmore familiar place, offers a soul-wrenching view of personal humilia-tion but also the ability to rise aboveit. Hatsuye Egami was one of 110,000Japanese Americans sent to internmentcamps during World War II. “Since yes-terday we Japanese have ceased to behuman beings,” he wrote in his diary.“We are numbers. We are no longerEgamis, but the number 23324. A tagwith that number is on every trunk,suitcase and bag. Tags, also, on ourbreasts.” Despite such dehumanizingtreatment, most internees workedhard to control their bitterness. Theycreated workable communities insidethe camps and demonstrated again andagain their loyalty as Americans.

These are but two of the many sto-ries from history that can be found in

4 � Maya Civilization

the pages of the Lucent Books WorldHistory series. All World History titlesrely on sound research and verifiableevidence, and all give students a clearsense of time, place, and chronologythrough maps and timelines as well astext.

All titles include awide rangeof author-itative perspectives that demonstrate thecomplexity of historical interpretation andsharpen the reader’s critical thinking skills.Formally documented quotations and an-notated bibliographies enable students tolocate and evaluate sources, often instan-taneously via the Internet, and serve as

valuable tools for further research and de-bate.

Finally, Lucent’s World History titlespresent rousing good stories, featuringvivid primary source quotations drawnfrom unique, sometimes obscure sourcessuch as diaries, public records, and con-temporary chronicles. In this way, thevoices of participants and witnesses aswell as important biographers and histo-rians bring the study of history to life.Aswe are caught up in the lives of others, weare reminded that we too are charactersin the ongoing human saga, and we arebetter prepared for our own roles.

Foreword � 5

The Maya: ALost Civilization?


TheMysterious Maya. The Lost Civi-lization of the Maya. The Magnifi-cent Maya. In years past each of

these descriptors could have been the ti-tle of a scholarly book about this ancientNative American civilization of south-ern Mexico and Central America, andeach would have been correctly named.Today, however, much of the mysterysurrounding this pre-Columbian civi-lization is being revealed, and most sci-entists agree that the culture of the Mayais no longer “lost.”

Centuries before European explorerscame to the New World, the Maya werebuilding huge cities, studying the stars,and creating a complex written lan-guage in the jungles and coastal plainsof Mesoamerica—a cultural region in-cluding Mexico and parts of CentralAmerica. By the time Spanish conquis-tadores arrived in the 1500s, Mayacities had long been abandoned andwere in a state of ruin.

Even though the classic Maya civi-lization no longer exists, the Maya arehardly a vanished culture. Today morethan 7 million Maya people live in theMexican states of Yucatán, Campeche,Quintana Roo, Tabasco, and Chiapas aswell as in the Central American nationsof Belize, Guatemala, and the westernportions of Honduras and El Salvador.They are, in fact, the largest single blockof Native Americans currently living inNorth or Central America.

Most people, however, still associatethe term Maya with those people cen-turies ago who built an advanced civi-lization unequaled by any other nativepeoples of the Western Hemisphere.Evidence of that civilization—sculptureand pottery unearthed in ancient cities,an amazingly accurate calendar, and acomplex system of hieroglyphic writ-ing—has been compared with the clas-sic civilizations of Egypt, Greece, andRome. This highly advanced American

Introduction

The Maya: A Lost Civilization? � 9

culture belonged to the people we callthe Maya. We do not know what theycalled themselves. Today some Mayacall themselves the Halach Winik, “theAuthentic People.” They speak dozensof dialects of the Mayan language—Quiché and Yucatec being the mostwidely spoken. Scholars use the termMayan to describe only the language.For all other references to the culture,the people, or to their achievements,they useMaya.

Early Humans and the LandWhat happened to the Maya? How didthey build such a vast empire only tohave it crumble into ruins? For answers,scientists have long sought informationwherever they could. For more than acentury scholars dug through ruinedMaya cities looking for bits of pottery,burial sites, murals depicting everydayactivities, and remnants of tools. Mayahieroglyphs were intriguing, but no oneknew how to decode them. For scholars,

An artist’s rendition of how the Maya city of Labna looked centuries before Europeanexplorers arrived in the NewWorld. Archaeologists are now learning that the Maya builthuge cities, studied the stars, and created a complex written language during their existence.


Archaeologists are learning much about Maya culture by decoding hieroglyphs that theMaya carved onto their buildings and monuments.

The Maya: A Lost Civilization? � 11

it was like trying to understand theGreek civilization without being able toread what the philosophers Plato, Aris-totle, and Socrates, or the historianHerodotus, had written. No matter howmany artifacts scientists uncovered,they could never be enough to paint acomplete picture of the Maya.

Archaeological evidence tells only partof the story. Written records yield muchmore specific information, such asnames, dates, and major events. TheMaya carved many such written recordsonto their buildings and monuments.They also created thousands of codices—books made from rectangular pieces ofbark covered with a type of plaster, tiedtogether, and folded accordion style.Written on those “pages” was perhapsthe wisdom of centuries of Maya civiliza-tion. Unfortunately, much of what Mayascribes wrote in those books no longerexists. The vast majority of the codiceswere destroyed at the time of the Span-ish Conquest—burned to cinders in a fitof religious zeal—by priests who be-

lieved those books, and the strangemarkings and symbols they contained,were the work of the devil. The primaryarchitect of that destruction was FriarDiego de Landa, who, on July 12, 1562,ordered the burning of five thousandMaya idols and dozens of codices.

Today, thanks to recent breakthroughsin decoding Maya hieroglyphs, archaeol-ogists are finding answers to questionsthat have intrigued them for decades.They are learning, for example, that in-fluence from Teotihuacan, the sprawlingmetropolis of more than one hundredthousand people in the valley of Mexico,helped spur the blossoming of Maya cul-ture during the Classic Period.

Some recent discoveries have dis-proved earlier theories about the Maya,causing scholars to rewrite Maya his-tory. Space-age technology—such assatellite imagery, 3-D computer map-ping, and meticulous chemical soilanalysis—are providing even moreclues. Piece by piece the story of the an-cient Maya is emerging.


No area of archaeological studyhas undergone a more radicalchange during the past few

decades than the study of the ancientMaya civilization. Major discoveriesseem to be made weekly at Maya sitesacross Mesoamerica. Other scientific in-vestigations—primarily delving intohow climate change may have affectedthe course of Maya history—are alsoshedding light on unanswered ques-tions scientists and scholars have beenposing for more than a century—aboutthe origin, history, lifestyle, and declineof the Maya.

Breakthroughs in the decoding ofMaya hieroglyphics are revealing thenames of the kings and queens of indi-vidual city-states as well as dates andrecords of their political activities, al-liances, achievements, wars, and rituals.The hieroglyphs also show the profoundinfluence of other advanced civilizationson the Maya’s development.

Since the 1960s evidence has emergedthat has helped scholars gain a morethorough understanding of who theMaya actually were. According toNikolai Grube, a professor of Mayastudies in Bonn, Germany:

There are scarcely any other areasof archaeology where interpreta-tions and ideas have changed socompletely as in the field of Mayastudies. . . . Although up to just afew decades ago it was still be-lieved that the Maya had beenpeace-loving maize farmers whoobeyed their priests’ exhortationsto observe the stars and honortime, it has now been proven thatthey were ruled over by kings andprinces who were just as power-hungry and vain as potentateselsewhere in the world. . . . The ex-tensive Preclassic cities in north-ern Guatemala were unknown

The Rise of the Maya

Chapter One

until just a few years ago. New ex-cavations there have caused us todate the beginning of urban civi-lization back by about half a mil-lennium.1

Early ExplorationEarly IdeasSpanish priests and travelers during thesixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenthcenturies marveled at the ruins of gi-gantic pyramids they saw in Yucatáncities such as Uxmal, Tulum, Palenque,and Chichén Itzá. They wondered whohad designed and constructed theseamazing structures. Because of therather primitive nature of the Mayawho were still living near these ancientcenters, it was thought that some other

civilization must have built them. Someearly visitors theorized that one of the losttribes of Israel may have settled there.Others felt it must have been ancestorsof some European or Asian culture—perhaps the Welsh, Vikings, Phoenicians,or Tartars.

Not until the 1800s did interest inMaya ruins begin to grow and be associ-ated with the Maya themselves. In 1822a London firm published the story of aSpanish soldier, Antonio Del Río, whohad visited and excavated in the Mayacity of Palenque during the late eigh-teenth century. His stirring accountspurred further expeditions. In 1839American diplomat, explorer, andlawyer John Lloyd Stephens (1805–1852)and British artist and architect FrederickCatherwood (1799–1854) traveled to the

Spanish explorers were amazed at the ruins of the Maya pyramids they discovered inplaces such as Uxmal, Mexico (pictured).


Stephens and Catherwood

John Lloyd Stephens, an American lawyer, was sent to Central America on a diplo-matic mission for U.S. president Martin Van Buren. He departed for Honduras on

October 3, 1839, accompanied by Frederick Catherwood. Once his diplomatic dutieswere completed, Stephens and Catherwood crossed into what is now Belize to ex-plore the Maya ruins of Copán.

From Copán they made several arduous journeys to other Maya sites, visitingforty-four in all, according to Stephens, and eventually ended up at Palenque. Theytraveled hundreds of miles over trails bordered by volcanoes, through thick jungles,and over steep mountain ranges. They crossed rivers using precarious bridges madeof tree trunks lashed together or braided lianas (vines). They slept in the ruins. WhileStephens recorded their adventures, Catherwood drew exquisitely detailed imagesof what he saw using a camera lucida. A camera lucida used a prism to project theimage of an object onto a piece of drawing paper. Catherwood later colored his lith-ographs with pastels.

Frederick Catherwood drew several illustrations for John Lloyd Stephens’s bookVoyage to theYucatan about the Maya ruins. This image, titled “Castle at TulumOvertaken by Vegetation,”was one that Catherwood drew while he and Stephens explored more than forty-four Maya sites.

The Rise of the Maya � 15

Yucatán and then to Guatemala. Theyvisited various sites—some on the scrubplains of Yucatán and some deep in Cen-tral American jungles, recording theirexperiences in journals. Accompanyingtheir dramatic written accounts were da-guerreotypes (an early type of photo-graph) and intricate line drawings,graphically illustrating what they hadseen.

With the publication of Stephens’sIncidents of Travel in Central America,Chiapas, and Yucatán in 1841, interest inthe Maya spread. Yet due to the remote-ness of most of the ruins and their over-grown conditions—as well as the heat,insects, and snakes of the tropics—onlya handful of individuals and organiza-tions were willing to devote themselvesto Maya study.

Another factor at play during themid-1800s was the perception amongmost Europeans and Americans thatsuch “civilizations” were beyond thecapabilities of Native American cul-tures. In his 1948 book about Stephens,American archaeologist Victor Wolf-gang von Hagen explains the prevail-ing attitude:

The acceptance of an “Indian civi-lization” demanded, to an Ameri-can living in 1839, an entirereorientation, for to him an Indianwas one of those barbaric, half-naked tepee-dwellers againstwhom wars were constantlywaged. A rude, subhuman peoplewho hunted with the stealth of ani-mals, they were artisans of buffalo

robes, arrowheads, and spears, andlittle else. Nor did one ever think ofcalling the other indigenous inhabi-tants of the continent “civilized.” Inthe universally accepted opinion,they were like their North Ameri-can counterparts—savages. No onedreamed that throughout the table-lands of Mexico, in the tangled,scrub-jungles of Yucatán, therestood, covered by jungle verdure,ruins of temples, acropolises, andstone causeways of a civilization asgreat in extent as Egypt’s. . . .“Aztec,” “Maya,” “Toltec,” and“Inca” were in no dictionary, and infew histories. These civilizationswere not only dead, for dead im-plied having once lived, but, evento the world immersed in searchingout the antique, absolutely un-known.2

Despite this culturally egocentric at-titude, governments, museums, and in-dividuals saw the opportunity to gainprestige by studying these ruins andperhaps bringing artifacts back for theirnational museums. Another English-man, Alfred Percival Maudslay (1850–1931), following in the footsteps ofStephens and Catherwood, arrived inGuatemala in 1881 to begin whatwould become a twenty-year study ofMaya ruins.

Maudslay’s PioneeringEffortsMaudslay pioneered archaeologicalmethods that have been used for more

than a century—clearing vegetation toreveal structures, measuring and draw-ing maps of cities, making plaster castsof carvings to be studied later, and pho-tographing hieroglyphs to better enabletheir analysis. His trek began at the Maya“lost cities” of Quiriguá, located in east-ern Guatemala, and Copán, located justto the south in far western Honduras. Heeventually extended his study to Tikal,becoming only the second foreigner toreach that remote northern Guatemalansite.

Maudslay recorded his experienceswith dry-plate photographs—an im-

provement over the earlier daguerreo-types—and in scientific notebooks. In hiswritings, however, he chose to focus noton the exciting sense of discovery hesurely must have felt but rather on thehard work he saw before him. Maudslaywrote upon arriving at Quiriguá:

Overhead and all around was adense tropical forest; the under-growth was so dense that we haddifficulty in finding any of themonuments and even when withintouch of them, so thickly were theycovered with creepers, ferns and


The Compelling Natureof Maya Studies

Professor Nikolai Grube, of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität of Bonn, Germany,explains, in the introduction toMaya, Divine Kings of the Rain Forest, why he finds thestudy of the Maya so compelling:

Where else in the world are complete sites of an ancient culture hidden deep inthe jungle; where else are complete regions just blank areas on the archaeolog-

ical map? Where else do we know so little about the economic foundations of an an-cient civilization? And where else in the world have all the great cities of a culturesunk without a trace, abandoned by their inhabitants for no apparent reason? . . .

We now have a picture of the rise and development of Maya culture that makesformer representations look like rough sketches. Whereas the focus of older worksfocused on the exoticism of the Maya, on their differentness and uniqueness, mod-ern publications . . . show the Maya to have been people whose problems, inten-tions, and motives were not so different from those of other people all over theworld.

Nikolai Grube, ed., introduction toMaya: Divine Kings of the Rain Forest. Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany:h.f.ullmann, 2006–2007, pp. 12–13.

moss that it was not easy to distin-guish them from dead tree trunks.However, we pulled off the creep-ers and then scrubbed away themoss with some rough brushes wemade out of the midribs of thepalm leaflets and, as the sculp-tures began to show up, I sacri-ficed one of my ivory-backed hairbrushes out of my dressing bag toclear out the more delicate carvingof the hieroglyphics.3

He later wrote of the “unexpectedmagnificence of the monuments” ofCopán; yet upon arriving at Tikal onEaster Sunday 1881, Maudslay again fo-cused his written account on how com-pletely overgrown the ruins appeared:“On the whole I must own to beingmuch disappointed. The forest was overeverything. The work of clearing wouldbe much more than I could do and thereappeared to be very little hope of takingsatisfactory photographs.”4

In 1881 Alfred Maudslay became only the second foreigner to explore the Maya ruins ofTikal (pictured here).

Maudslay and his porters eventuallycleared much of the brush covering thecentral pyramids of Tikal. His photo-graphs, published in 1902 in BiologíaCentrali-Americana, a five-volume workabout his discoveries in Guatemala,provided a first look to the world atthese magnificent structures. His clearphotographs revealed details that Cather-wood’s pen-and-ink sketches and da-guerreotypes could not. Scholars whowere unable to make the arduous jour-ney to Central America could nowstudy Maudslay’s photographs andlearn more about Maya hieroglyphs.

Large-scale excavations and restora-tions, mostly funded by American uni-versities, began about the same time asMaudslay’s work but on a much granderscale. The Peabody Museum of Harvard,the University of Pennsylvania, theCarnegie Institute of Washington, TulaneUniversity, and the Institute of Anthro-pology and History in Mexico each sentteams of archaeologists. Many of theirprojects continued well into the twenti-eth century, greatly adding to the world’sknowledge of the mysterious Maya.

The Prehistoric MayaScholars have divided the chronology ofMesoamerican civilizations into specificperiods of time, depending on levels oftechnology, architecture, and social struc-ture. These classifications—Paleo-Indian,Archaic, Preclassic, Classic, and Postclas-sic—are further divided into subcate-gories. As new discoveries are made,however, scientists sometimes have to re-think their table of organization.

Evidence of humans—spear points,obsidian blades, residue of campfires,and shell middens (piles of trash)—hasbeen dated to around 10,500 B.C. incaves in the highlands of Guatemala,specifically at a site called Los Tapiales.These early inhabitants lived duringwhat scientists call the Paleo-Indian Pe-riod, extending from fourteen thousandyears ago to around 7000 B.C.

During the subsequent era—the Ar-chaic Period (7000–2000 B.C.)—groupsof hunter-gatherers gradually settled insmall villages. Each village probablyconsisted of members of an extendedfamily and were led by the patriarch—the eldest male. These early villagersbegan cultivating wild plants to supple-ment their food supply, thus beginningthe practice of agriculture. They alsoarranged their villages in a particularpattern that continues in use today.

Maya Settlement PatternsAsettlement pattern is how a culture laysout its settlements—how it arranges itshomesteads, villages, and cities. The ba-sic settlement pattern of the Maya was theplazuela, or “plaza group.” It originatedduring theArchaic Period and developedgradually throughout the various stagesof Maya history. In a plazuela severalhouses are typically placed facing eachother, with a communal area in the cen-ter. This arrangement was evident in alllevels of Maya society, from the ArchaicPeriod to modern times, and from thesimplest farm home to the largest city.

Arthur Demarest, a professor of an-thropology at Vanderbilt University, de-



scribes how the Maya eventually ex-panded the basic plazuela arrangementinto larger communities:

Usually, several houses of closelyrelated families are placed facingeach other around open courtyardliving areas. In turn, several ofthese “plaza groups” are oftenplaced together to form tiny ham-lets of related extended families. . . .In the ancient Maya lowland sitesin pre-Columbian times, such . . .

associated structures often wereplaced in somewhat more regularrectangular arrangements of two,three, or four platforms with hutsfacing each other around an opencourtyard or plaza. The latterserved as a living and workingarea for the family, as did plat-forms or level areas behind andnear the plaza group.5

The same basic pattern is found inthe ruins of Maya cities—with temples,

These thatched huts at Tikal, built in modern times to protect Maya stelae from theweather, may be somewhat similar to the huts and outbuildings built by the ancient Mayain their plazuela settlement groups.

palaces, and ball courts surrounding acentral plaza.

A shared kitchen garden, still a com-mon feature in rural Mexico andGuatemala, lay outside homes andother outbuildings in a typical ruralplazuela. Chemical analysis of soilaround ancient house mounds—raisedearthen platforms left behind whenhuts that stood upon them decayed—verifies that the areas had been undercultivation. As in modern times, thesekitchen gardens were used for growingplants such as squash, beans, and chilipeppers to be eaten or sold at market aswell as herbs for seasoning and for me-dicinal purposes.

The Preclassic PeriodThe Archaic Period was followed by thePreclassic Period, extending from 2000B.C. to A.D. 300. Some scholars call thisthe Formative Period because it in-cludes the centuries during which theMaya first began to exhibit culturalcharacteristics distinct from othergroups. These include the rise of city-states—individual cities, ruled by aking or queen, whose power extendedto the countryside and villages imme-diately surrounding the city. Unlike theAztecs of central Mexico and the Incasof South America, the Maya never uni-fied into a single empire. Instead theyevolved into a less centralized feudalsociety. During the Preclassic Period theMaya also developed large-scale cere-monial architecture and the beginningsof hieroglyphics. The Preclassic is fur-ther divided into the Early Preclassic

Period (from 2000 to 1000 B.C.), the Mid-dle Preclassic Period (1000 to 400 B.C.),and the Late Preclassic Period (400 B.C.to A.D. 300).

The Early Preclassic PeriodThe Maya of the Early Preclassic Periodexhibited many distinct characteristics.Larger multifamily villages, led by achief, were established. Agriculture wasexpanded to include more crops andimproved farming techniques. More so-phisticated art was evident in the man-ufacture and use of ceramics and in thedevelopment of iconographic artisticexpression—the painting and carvingof images of people and symbols repre-senting ideas or events. The Maya of theEarly Preclassic Period also exhibitedthe beginnings of a more complex, hier-archical society. During this era culturesacross Mesoamerica first developed therudiments of writing systems and an in-terest in measuring time and in study-ing astronomy.

Evidence uncovered at Cuello, anEarly Preclassic site in northern Belize,indicates that these early Maya all livedin pole-and-thatch huts constructed onlow earthen platforms. Archaeologistshave discovered clusters of these plat-forms, along with artifacts left behindby their inhabitants. Evidence alsoshows the expanded cultivation ofcrops such as maize, beans, squash, andmanioc.

The manufacture of ceramics is fur-ther evidence that the early Maya weresettling into more permanent homebases. Particular examples of this art



form have been found at Cuello as wellas along Guatemala’s Pacific coastallowlands at Monte Alto, Tilapa, LaBlanca, Ocós, El Mesak, and Ujuxte. Atsome Early Preclassic sites along thePacific coast of the Mexican state ofChiapas—at sites such as Izapa and Ojo

de Agua—ceramics and stone carvingshave a marked resemblance to art fromthe Olmec culture that developed aboutthe same time on the southern GulfCoast of Mexico. These similarities in-dicate that the two cultures must havemade contact.

A botanist uses Maya artifacts in Belize to test ancient food storage techniques. Ceramicslike those pictured here are further evidence that the early Maya settled into morepermanent home bases during the Early Preclassic Period.

The Middle PreclassicPeriodDuring the Middle Preclassic Period,from 1000 to 400 B.C., a more hierarchicalclass structure continued to develop.The old tribal society became more simi-lar to the feudal society of medieval Eu-rope or the city-states of ancient Greece,with leadership in the hands of a singleking or queen and an elite upper class tosupport that ruler. Members of the de-veloping Maya upper class were eitherreligious, military, or political leaders.Such leaders usually demanded the con-struction of public structures. Many ofthese structures were used for govern-mental or religious ceremonies, but oth-ers were monuments and ornate tombsto honor the leaders themselves. Exam-ples of such public architecture can beseen in the Pacific coastal lowlands ofGuatemala, at Abaj Takalik and Cocola,

as well as at Kaminaljuyú, in that na-tion’s central highlands.

During the final centuries of the Mid-dle Preclassic Period, the Maya spreadfarther inland from the Pacific coastal ar-eas. During these years they establishedceremonial centers at Piedras Negras,Seibal, Cival, Dos Pilas, and El Perú, ex-panding steadily toward the north andeast. They carried with them the trendtoward larger ceremonial centers andmore extensive public architecture.

Archaeologists have discovered twoof the largest ceremonial centers everbuilt by the Maya at Nakbe and El Mi-rador in the Petén region of northernGuatemala. El Mirador, for example, fea-tures two of the largest Maya pyra-mids—La Danta and El Tigre—whichcompare in size with the Great Pyramidin Egypt. Archaeologists believe thesestructures were used as raised platforms


The Olmec

The Olmec culture developed in the forested lowlands of the gulf coastal regionof southeastern Mexico, southeast of present-day Veracruz. It flourished from

1200 to 400 B.C. and was long thought to have been themadre cultura, or “mother cul-ture,” of Mesoamerica. The Olmec people were thought to have created the first cities,the first monumental structures, and a remarkably accurate calendar; they also de-veloped a particular type of ball game that became a common feature of manyMesoamerican cultures. Recent discoveries along the Pacific coast of southern Mex-ico and Guatemala, however, have been tentatively classified as early Maya and mayprove to have been built as early as, or perhaps before, anything built by the Olmec.


for religious ceremonies. No tombs havebeen discovered beneath them.

The Late Preclassic PeriodIn the Late Preclassic Period, from 400B.C. to about A.D. 300, the Maya furtherdeveloped their writing system, theircalendar, their interest in astronomy, andtheir level of artistic expression. These in-tellectual developments are demon-strated in temples with stuccoed andpainted facades, such as those found atEl Mirador, and in dramatic murals suchas those discovered at San Bartolo in ex-treme northeastern Guatemala.

The Late Preclassic is the period ofMaya history that has undergone themost rethinking due to recent discover-ies in the jungles of northern Guate-mala and the coastal regions ofGuatemala and El Salvador. These dis-coveries have proven that the Maya civ-ilization of the Late Preclassic Periodalready displayed characteristics, be-liefs, and practices that formerly wereonly associated with the Classic Period.

The Classic PeriodOver the next six centuries—from A.D.300 to 900—the Maya enjoyed theirgolden age during the Classic Period.Maya city-states evolved from purelyceremonial centers into full cities sur-rounding the ceremonial centers, somewith populations in the tens of thou-sands. Each was ruled by a successionof single kings or queens, with a muchmore organized nobility to support theruler and oversee the day-to-day oper-ations of the city-state. Evidence is also

emerging that some of the kings ofMaya city-states during the Classic Pe-riod may have been outsiders—noblesfrom Teotihuacan, for example. Duringthe Classic Period, the Maya civiliza-tion reached its peak of population andthe pinnacle of its intellectual achieve-ment, yet it never unified into a central-ized empire.

Each Maya city-state featured a huge,ornately decorated ceremonial centerwith steep-sided pyramids topped withtemples and palaces. Many of these pyr-amids were built atop the richly deco-rated tombs of their rulers and werecontinually being rebuilt, layer uponlayer. Beyond the ceremonial center wereoutlying structures that housed artisans,craftsmen, and bureaucrats. Farther out,and in the surrounding countryside,were farmers and laborers who sup-ported the elite. Most of these city-stateswere located in the Petén region ofnorthern Guatemala and in the southernYucatán lowlands.

The Maya civilization of the ClassicPeriod shared characteristics that origi-nated during earlier periods of Maya his-tory. These included an interest inastronomy, the recording of the passageof time in a calendar, artistic expression,a system of writing, and the constructionof public monuments. All of these cametogether in the stone stela, an architec-tural feature that set apart the Maya citiesthat were built during this period. A stelais a stone column erected in a public lo-cation to commemorate a particularevent or person—usually the birth, mar-riage, accession to the throne, military


A common architectural feature found in Maya cities during the Classic Period is thestela, which was often erected to commemorate a particular event or person. This steladepicts a Maya king in full regalia.


victory, or death of a king or queen. Clas-sic Maya cities have many stelae, whereascities constructed earlier—during the Pre-classic Period—do not.

Maya stelae are almost the only re-maining written record of Classic Mayahistory. Because so many of the civiliza-tion’s books, or codices, that hadrecorded historical events were lost tothe fires of fanatic Spanish priests, thestelae are virtually all that are left to tellthat history. Likewise, the carvings onthe surfaces of many stelae have erodedaway over the centuries, making thosethat survive even more precious.

Each stela featured the face of amythological figure or an actual ruler onone side, with hieroglyphic carvings ofdates, names, and events on the other.They were erected in central areas, infront of temples and palaces, so the pub-lic could view them. The earliest datedstela sits in the central plaza of Tikal, withthe equivalent of the date A.D. 292 carvedonto its side. The latest stands at Tonina,in southern Mexico, and is dated A.D. 909.

Deciphering the stelae that dot thecentral areas of Classic Maya cities hasrevealed specific information about thosecities and the leaders who ruled them.They provide clues about the relationsbetween individual Maya city-states, in-cluding their alliances and wars. The ste-lae have also helped fill gaps in scholars’understanding of Maya society duringthe Classic Period. One particular stela—Tikal’s Stela 31—has now been decodedand validates a long-held theory. Thestela provides written evidence that aninvasion by an outside force significantly

altered the development of Classic Mayacivilization.

The Arrival of Fire Is BornAccording to the hieroglyphic record ofStela 31, the invasion occurred on Janu-ary 8, 378. A large, well-armed force dis-patched from the mighty city ofTeotihuacan in central Mexico and ar-rived at the Maya city of Waka (nowcalled El Perú) in present-day northernGuatemala. At the head of this invadingarmy was a warlord named Siyaj K’ak’—”Fire Is Born.” Dressed in extravagantfeathered headdresses and carryingjavelins and mirrored shields, Fire IsBorn’s army impressed the local ruler,Sun-faced Jaguar. Sun-faced Jaguar wel-comed the envoy into his city andformed an alliance between his city andTeotihuacan.

Fire Is Born’s ultimate goal, however,according to Stela 31, was the conquestof Tikal, a major Maya city-state some50 miles (80km) to the east. His mission,it seems, was to bring the region ofnorth-central Guatemala under Teoti-huacan’s control, either through persua-sion or force. To that end, he recruitedadditional warriors from Waka andmarched on to Tikal less than a weeklater. After defeating that city’s army onJanuary 16, his forces killed Tikal’s king,Chak Tok Ich’aak—Great Jaguar Paw—and destroyed most of that city’s stonestelae, replacing them with their own,celebrating their victory. According toStela 31, which was erected a genera-tion later, Fire Is Born was proclaimed“Lord of the West,” and later presided

over the enthronement of a new foreignruler, perhaps a son of the ruler ofTeotihuacan, Spear-thrower Owl.

Until the arrival of Fire Is Born, theMaya remained politically fragmented,each city-state charting its own path.After A.D. 378 Maya culture blossomed,alliances were formed between city-states, and great advances in scienceand technology took place. Accordingto author Guy Gugliotta in an article forNational Geographic:

Though fragmentary, the evidencethat has emerged over the pastdecade suggests that this mysteri-

ous outsider remade the politicalleadership of the Maya world. Mix-ing diplomacy and force, he forgedalliances, installed new dynasties,and spread the influence of the dis-tant city-state he represented, thegreat metropolis of Teotihuacannear present-day Mexico City.6

Over the following decades Fire IsBorn’s name appeared on monumentsall across the Maya’s territory. In hiswake the Maya of the Classic Periodachieved a level of civilization unsur-passed in the Americas that enduredfor more than five hundred years.


Maya Nobility of the Classic Period � 27

Chapter Two

Maya Nobility ofthe Classic Period

The Classic Period of Maya historyended centuries before the arrivalof the Spanish. Therefore, most of

what scholars know today about theupper classes of Maya society comesfrom archaeological evidence found intheir cities. This evidence includes thetombs of Maya kings, the carvedrecords of the stelae, and detailed im-ages and hieroglyphs on ceramic ves-sels and murals. In the ruins of theMaya city of Bonampak, located in thewestern edge of the Mexican state ofChiapas, ornate murals inside the tombof a Maya king paint a vivid picture oflife at court during the Classic Period.These include detailed images of howthe nobility of Classic Maya city-stateslooked—what physical features andadornments they considered stylish.

In these images Maya society is por-trayed as having strict social classes,with a king and queen at the top; priests,nobles, warriors, and artisans slightly

lower in rank; and common people be-low that. Some Maya kings ruled overonly the city-state in which they lived.Others, through alliances, outside influ-ence, intermarriages, and conquest, cre-ated dynasties that controlled severalcity-states from a central location.

Maya society had two classes of peo-ple: the elite and the commoners. Theelite were called ah mehenob, or “highermen,” in Yucatec, a Mayan language inuse at the time of the Spanish Conquestthat is still spoken in the region. Com-moners were called yalba uinicob, or“lower men.” The ah mehenob were fur-ther divided into subclasses. The rulingclass—kings and queens—though fewin number, occupied the highest level ofsociety. According to hieroglyphs, thehighest rank in Maya society was theahau, or “lord” (sometimes spelledajaw). This title was used by the rulerand others within the nobility. Beginningin the fourth century A.D., however,

Maya rulers referred to themselves ask’uhal ahau, or “divine lord.” After thearrival of Fire Is Born in A.D. 378, rulersin the Petén region included the termkaloomte in their titles—”Lord of theWest”—emulating that conqueror’s ti-tle and emphasizing their connectionwith Teotihuacan.

The Lifestyles of MayaRoyal FamiliesThe king and queen of a Maya city-statewere revered as gods. As such, theywere not expected to work like com-mon people. They spent their time pre-siding over elite councils, makingdecisions that affected their city-state.They lived in lavish palaces within thecity state’s ceremonial center, attendedby numerous servants. According tomurals found in many Classic Mayacities, each king wore a feathered head-dress, a cape made from the brilliantlycolored feathers of quetzal birds, intri-cate jade and shell jewelry, and some-times an elaborate mask to make himappear godlike.

Much is known about Maya kingsand queens because hundreds of carvedstelae commemorate their achievementsand still stand in the central plazas ofClassic Maya ceremonial centers. TheMaya called these multiton stone monu-ments lakamtuun, or “big/bannerstones” and erected them wheneveranything happened of historical note.In their book Chronicle of Maya Kingsand Queens, Nikolai Grube and SimonMartin describe what was usually carvedon stelae: “Carved with the king’s im-

age, often shown standing on a boundcaptive or iconic location, their inscrip-tions go on to chronicle the major his-torical events that have occurred sincethe last stone was set up.”7


Archaeologists know quite a bit about Mayakings and queens because of the hundreds ofcarved stelae that still stand, as well as othercarvings, like this one, that commemoratetheir achievements.


Scholars often can read the stelae,murals, and pottery and know whenmembers of the nobility were born, whotheir parents were, where they came

from, whom they married, what theyachieved during their lifetimes, andhow and where they were buried. Mostkings and queens were buried in elaborate

The King’s Headdress

Nikolai Grube, a professor of Maya studies, explains the significance of the headdresses wornby Maya kings:

Although the king’s clothing differed from that of the commoners and the nobilityin lavishness and the number of attributes, it was the headdress that distinguished

him from all others. There were several different kinds of headdresses, but all containedthe long, green-gold tail feathers of the quetzal bird. . . . They formed the basis for masksof gods and animals and other objects of the greatest symbolic value that were intendedto express that the wearer was under the protection of the gods. . . .

Because they were believed to have a soul, the headdress and other attributes ofpower [of a king who had died] had to be looked after and cared for like livingthings; in particular, they had to be provided with nourishment in the form of offer-ings such as blood and incense.

Nikolai Grube, ed.,Maya: Divine Kings of the Rain Forest. Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany: h.f.ullmann,2006–2007, pp. 96–97.

Although Maya kings woreseveral different kinds ofheaddresses, all of themcontained long, green-goldtail feathers of the quetzalbird. This image, carved onthe wall of a Maya tomb,shows a typical headdress.

tombs that featured colorful murals de-picting their lives. Because much ofMaya hieroglyphic writing has beentranslated, these individuals now havenames and life stories.

Royal succession was primarily pa-trilineal, meaning it followed the ances-tral line on the father’s side. As is oftenthe case in kingdoms, eldest sons usu-ally became heirs to their father’sthrone. Princes were called ch’ok, mean-ing “noble youth,” and the heir appar-ent was called b’aah ch’ok, the “headyouth.” Queens did rule some Mayacity-states of the Classic Period, butonly when no male heir could becomeking and the dynasty might otherwisehave fallen.

Communicating withthe GodsScholars know that Maya kings andqueens, once in power, had their livesvirtually dictated by the rituals de-manded by the complex Maya calendar.Their primary duty was to conduct pub-lic religious ceremonies—either alone orserving alongside priests—as mediatorsbetween their people and the gods. Dur-ing those ceremonies they performedritual dances or participated in a partic-ular ball game. They also sought vi-sions—messages from the heavens.

Archaeologists believe the Meso-american ball game may have origi-nated as early as the fifth century B.C.and that its popularity spread as far asthe modern-day southwestern UnitedStates. Stone ball courts are present invirtually every Maya city. Most courts

are I-shaped, with a long, narrow play-ing field flanked by sloped or verticalwalls, often with stone rings placedhigh on the opposing walls. The game,played in some ways like soccer, was akey element of the Maya creation story.Maya kings regularly played the gameto reenact the adventures of the mythi-cal figures called the Hero Twins,whose actions were believed to be es-sential to pave the way for the creationof humanity as well as to establish therelationship between the gods and hu-mans.

Part of that relationship was commu-nicating with their gods, and onlyrulers were considered worthy to re-ceive such messages. To induce thetrances they believed were necessary toreceive these visions, Maya kings andqueens put themselves through ordealsof pain and deprivation—going with-out food or sleep, smoking tobacco, andinflicting wounds on themselves to al-low their blood to flow. Blood, theessence of life, was sacred to the Maya,and royal blood was considered the ul-timate offering to the gods. In additionto providing a blood sacrifice, the bloodloss weakened the individual andhelped induce the trancelike state nec-essary for a vision quest.

During public ceremonies Mayakings drained blood from their ear-lobes, tongues, and genitalia usingstingray spines, bone needles, or obsid-ian spikes. Queens are depicted pullingbarbed cords through their tongues. Inboth cases royal blood dripped onto pa-per strips, which then were burned. It



A figure of a Maya nobleman on display at a museum. Nobles served as priests, scribes,diplomats, engineers, local administrators, and government bureaucrats.

was believed that smoke from thebloody paper mingled with smokefrom incense burners and rose to feedthe gods.

PriestsSome archaeologists believe religiousceremonies were performed exclu-sively by Maya kings and queens. Oth-ers, however, believe that a group ofspecially trained people—priests—must have performed those duties. Noarchaeological evidence proves conclu-sively that a separate class of nobles ex-isted that served as priests during theClassic Period, but some believe it musthave because a powerful Maya priest-hood existed at the time of the SpanishConquest. These scholars insist it is log-ical to assume that such a specialty alsoexisted earlier in Maya history.

At the time of the conquest, the highpriest in each city-state, the AhaucanMay, was the keeper of the calendar andthe sacred chronicles—records of Mayahistory and astrological charts. Thepriest’s knowledge of astronomy andmathematics allowed him to predictevents such as the arrival of comets andeclipses of the sun or moon. They werealso responsible for teaching and pass-ing on the history of their people, includ-ing knowledge of Maya hieroglyphicwriting.

Below the high priests were assis-tants—the ahkinob, or “they of thesun”—who conducted most day-to-daytasks. The ahkinob kept temple firesburning, made sure incense burnersstayed lit, and made daily offerings to

the gods. These lower priests also wereresponsible for advising those whocame to consult a priest about astrolog-ical matters—what day would be bestfor a wedding or what to name a child,for example. Priests lived in or near thetemples and wore ornate robes andsometimes masks and headdresses.

Other NoblesBeneath the upper ahau class were othernobles, many of whom served as gov-ernment bureaucrats, trade representa-tives, diplomats, local administrators, orengineers—those who designed and su-pervised the building of temples,palaces, causeways, irrigation systems,and other public structures. The mem-bers of this level of Maya nobility werewealthy landowners called uytzam chi-namital. They shared the easy lifestyle ofthe king. Their homes—fine stone build-ings with roofs of stone—were clusterednear ceremonial centers. They, too, worefine robes and jewelry, and many wereburied in decorated tombs.

Another important member of Clas-sic Maya nobility was the aj tz’ib, thescribe (“he, the writer, who draws”).Unlike the priest, who recorded histori-cal events hieroglyphically, the scribe’srole was more closely related to that ofan accountant, keeping track of taxesand tributes and making sure everyonepaid what they owed the king. Com-moners were required to pay taxes(usually food, cloth, feathers, or otheritems of value), and representativesfrom conquered lands were required topay tribute to the king with valuable



items such as jade, obsidian, feathers, orcacao beans. Martin and Grube explainthe importance of scribes—comparingtheir list of expected tribute with whatwas actually presented to the king—asportrayed in murals and on painted ce-ramics:

Tribute scenes show the kingseated on a sumptuous throne cov-ered with jaguar skin. Vassals kneelbefore him holding out bundles offine materials, feathers and bags ofcacao beans. . . . [The aj tz’ib] com-

pared the goods being handedover with their list of tributes.Such scenes give a rare insight intothe economics of the Maya statesand show that one of the king’smost important activities was thatof increasing his personal wealthas well as that of the society as awhole.8

Images of BeautyFor the Maya nobility, public displaysof wealth and physical ornamentation

Initiation Ceremonies forYoung Maya Nobles

In their book Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens, SimonMartin and Nikolai Grubedescribe how a young heir had to prove his worth:

Childhood was marked by a series of initiation rites, one of the more important be-ing a bloodletting usually performed at the age of five or six. . . . Although [their

lineage] was their main claim to legitimacy, [older] candidates still had to prove them-selves in war. A bout of captive-taking often preceded elevation to office. . . .

Kingly investitures [ceremonies celebrating the crowning of a new king] wereelaborate affairs made up of a series of separate acts. There was an enthronement,the heir’s seating on a cushion of jaguar skin, sometimes atop an elevated scaffoldbedecked with celestial symbolism and accompanied by human sacrifice. A scarfbearing a jade image of huunal, the “Jester God” . . . an ancient patron of royal au-thority, would be tied to his forehead. An elaborate headdress of jade and shell mo-saic, trailing green iridescent plumes of the quetzal bird, would follow. . . . The namecarried in childhood was now joined by k’uhul k’aba’ “divine name,” usually takenfrom a predecessor, sometimes a grandparent.

Simon Martin and Nikolai Grube, Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens: Deciphering the Dynasties of the An-cient Maya. London: Thames & Hudson, 2000, p. 14.

demonstrated their status. Hairstyles,clothing, jewelry, tattoos, and inten-tional scars were part of their publicimage. One of the most visible demon-

strations was how they styled theirhair. In ancient times Mayan noblemenwore their hair long, either braidedaround the head with a pigtail hanging


AMaya artisan with tattoos on his shoulder and legs records events on a stela. Tattooingand body painting were quite common among both Maya men and women, and peoplewithout such markings were often looked down upon.

down the back, carefully braided in or-nate designs across the scalp, orarranged into an intricate design atopthe head. If they had a pigtail, it almostalways had an obsidian disc hangingfrom its tip. At times, a man might cutthe hair on top of his head short, orsinge it off, as part of the overall de-sign. Facial hair was discouraged, andmany pulled it out with copper tweez-ers. Women’s hairstyles could be quiteelaborate. They formed their hair intosculptural designs—mostly on top oftheir heads—and fixed it in place withtree sap, honey, or other substancesthat dried in place. Some women’shairstyles stood more than 1 foot (.3m)above their heads.

The practices of tattooing, intentionalscarring, and body painting were quitecommon among both men and womenof the Maya elite classes, and the colorsand designs employed by individualswere indications of social position. Tat-too designs were pricked into the skinwith a sharp bone, and pigment wasthen rubbed into the wounds. This wasan extremely painful experience, so tat-toos represented valor and courage. Forintentional scarring, the goal was araised scar in a particular pattern. To ac-complish this, the skin was cut orpierced in the desired pattern. Then, tomake sure substantial scars wouldform, the individual encouraged thegrowth of the scars by keeping thewounds open for a time. Any adultwithout tattoos and scarring patternswas looked down upon.

Michael D. Coe, a professor emeritus

of anthropology at Yale University, dis-cusses body ornamentation in his bookThe Maya. According to Coe, the ClassicMaya thought certain physical adorn-ments enhanced their appearance orpublicly identified them with a particu-lar social class:

Both sexes had their frontal teethfiled in various patterns, and wehave many ancient Maya skulls inwhich the incisors have been in-laid with small plaques of jade.Until marriage, young men paintedthemselves black (and so did war-riors at all times); tattooing anddecorative scarification began af-ter wedlock, both men and womenbeing richly elaborated from thewaist up by these means.9

The colors used for body and facepainting were very important to Mayamen. Young unmarried warriors andmen who were fasting painted them-selves black. Blue was the color ofpriests and the color that victims of sac-rificial rites were painted. Women usu-ally painted their faces red.

A feature unique to the Maya was adramatically sloping forehead, but thiswas not a natural characteristic. It hadto be shaped very early in life in orderto form the head into what the Mayafelt was a noble appearance. Coe de-scribes the procedure:

Immediately after birth, Yucatecanmothers washed their infants andthen fastened them to a cradle,



Jade: The Green Goldof the Maya

Few materials are as durable as jade. In Mesoamerica it was prized above all otherstones. Jade is green, and to theMaya it symbolized the color of sproutingmaize.Maya

artisans carved it into jewelry for the nobility, but commoners also decorated themselveswith necklaces of small jade beads that they passed on from generation to generation.Jade is a collective term for several types of green or blue stones, including albite,

chrysopras, serpentine, and a combination of jadeite and diopside. All jade processed inMesoamerica originated in the valley of the Rio Motagua in southern Guatemala. It wasfound as loose rocks and stones, ranging in size from gravel to rocks weighing severalhundred pounds. Cutting jade was relatively simple. First, a sharp obsidian blade wasused to score the rock. Then rope, a flat piece of hardwood, or a piece of slate was movedback and forth—with sand, crushed obsidian, or jade dust acting as an abrasive—toslowly cut halfway through the rock. The jade was then turned over, and the procedurewas repeated. When only a thin section remained, a sharp blow completed the cutting.

This jade necklace and beads were excavated from a Maya king’s grave in Takalik Abaj,Guatemala. In the Maya culture both the nobility and commoners decorated themselveswith jade jewelry.


their little heads compressed be-tween two boards in such a waythat after two days a permanentfore-and-aft flattening had takenplace which the Maya considereda mark of beauty.10

Another practice, usually employed atthe same time, was an attempt to crossthe child’s eyes. This was also consid-ered a mark of beauty and distinctionamong Maya upper classes. Many of theMaya gods appear with crossed eyes.Parents hung a nodule of resin or a smallbead from the middle of their child’sforehead—the child would naturally fo-cus on the bead, thus crossing its eyes.

Jewelry, too, was a widespread adorn-ment for Maya nobles, both men andwomen. Most highly valued was jade; itwas green—the color of plants and thusa symbolic color of rebirth—and it wasrare. According to archaeologist CharlesGallenkamp, “Older children had theirearlobes, septums [tissue that separatesthe nostrils], lips, and one nostril piercedso they could wear a variety of orna-ments.”11 Such piercings were usuallyperformed on the children of the elitewhen they reached the age of five or six.

Two of the most common forms ofjewelry, at least among the upperclasses, were jade choker necklaces andear pendants, both worn by men. Thenecklaces usually featured a pectoral, alarger piece of carved jade made intothe necklace and displayed on the up-

per chest. This emblem signified hisfamily’s status and lineage. These neck-laces were either passed from father toson or were included in the itemsburied with a person of great rank. Earpendants were inserted through theearlobes, with progressively larger andlarger inserts, and usually made up ofseveral pieces of ornately carved jade.

In all cultures certain physical fea-tures and adornments are considereddesirable and others are not. In cultureswith distinct social classes, a person’sappearance is often an indication of sta-tus, wealth, and position. Maya rulingelite of the Classic Period reflected thattrend. They wore large amounts of jade,quetzal feathers, and obsidian—all rela-tively rare and expensive items.

Outward appearance was the mostvisible difference between Maya nobilityand the common class. Even thoughMaya commoners used many of thesame techniques to achieve what they be-lieved to be beautiful, they could not af-ford to go to the extremes of the upperclasses. Whereas nobles led lives of easedue to extravagant wealth and power,commoners had to work—on the farms,in the quarries, in the workshops, and inthe markets. Their simpler lifestyles re-quired simpler clothing, more utilitarianhairstyles, and jewelry and other physi-cal adornments that were less expensive.Although less adorned than the upperclass, the commoners were the backboneof the Classic Maya civilization.


During the height of the ClassicPeriod, scholars estimate thatas many as 20 million Maya

lived in Mesoamerica. They believethat up to 98 percent of that populationmust have been commoners, and themajority of commoners were farmers.Without the labor and support of sucha large underclass, the Maya nobilitycould never have achieved such a highlevel of civilization. However, thelower classes—those who cleared theland, grew the crops, and quarried thestone—were seldom represented inMaya art. Few artifacts have beenfound belonging to common people,other than stone and bone tools, bits ofutilitarian pottery, grinding stones, andthe earthen mounds that indicate theformer locations of peasant huts.

For that reason scholars have a se-verely limited knowledge of Mayacommoners during the Classic Period.Many of their theories about the lower

classes have been based on the writingsof Spaniards such as Friar Diego deLanda. These Spaniards observed first-hand how the Maya lived at the time ofthe Spanish Conquest and during theColonial Period (1521–1810). Likewise,scholars have also observed how ruralMaya peasants live today in Mexicoand Central America.

The Yalba Uinicob, or“Lower Men”According to de Landa and others whowrote about the Maya during and afterthe Spanish Conquest, two classes ofcommoners—yalba uinicob—lived inClassic Maya society. The upper levelof commoners was made up of skilledartisans and merchants—what mighttoday be considered a middle class; thelower level consisted of unskilled la-borers. Skilled artisans and craftsmenincluded stone and wood carvers,stucco workers, painters, potters, and

Chapter Three

Commoners of theClassic Period

Commoners of the Classic Period � 39

In Maya society, an artisan such as this one who produced pottery would have beenconsidered a member of the upper level of commoners.

sculptors. These individuals producedthe monuments, murals, and ceramicsthat had been designed and engineeredby members of the ahau class. Tradersand lower-level bureaucrats were alsopart of this Maya “middle class.”

Merchants and tradesmen—almostalways men—bought and sold thegoods each city-state produced. Theyalso traveled from place to place, trad-ing with their city-state’s neighbors—sometimes hundreds of miles away.Their homes were usually stone, butthey were smaller, less ornate, and lo-cated farther from the city’s center thanthose of the ahau class.

Lower-level commoners were un-skilled workers. In rural areas this in-cluded primarily farmers, but in urbanareas they were stonecutters, cleaners,and porters. Farmers wore simple cot-ton garments and sandals, and theyraised food for themselves and to sup-port the king, the royal family, and thenobility. All land was considered theproperty of the king, as in most feudalsocieties. During the dry season, manyfarmers provided labor for the con-struction of causeways, temples, andpalaces. They also cut wood for fueland timber, but scholars agree it wasthe food they produced on their farmsthat was the key to the Maya civiliza-tion’s success in the region’s harsh cli-mate.

Peasant HousesMost commoners lived on the outskirtsof cities or in the jungle. Their homeswere simple huts constructed of poles,

mud, and plaster with steeply pitchedroofs thatched with palm fronds. MostMaya houses were oval, round, or rec-tangular, and they were constructedusing a wattle-and-daub technique. Arow of poles was set in the earth, andmud was packed in between the poles,thus creating thick, solid walls whenthe mud dried. Inside a typical Mayahouse, the space was divided into twosections by a tall partition. The frontserved for everyday activities, and therear for sleeping. Other smaller struc-tures often stood near the house, serv-ing as kitchen or storage areas. Theentire complex was built atop a lowearthen platform to ensure adequatedrainage.

Because of their simple construction,peasant houses lasted only one genera-tion before being torn down. Each timethe resident of a house was buried in theearthen platform on which the househad been standing, and a new housewas built on the raised platform. TheMaya believed that this practice keptthe spirits of their ancestors nearby.

Acommoner’s homehadvery little fur-niture. Cooking was done on a stonehearth, usually with ceramic vessels.Other kitchen equipment consisted of wo-ven baskets andbags, clay pots, hollowed-out gourd scoops, stone implements, andperhaps wooden chests. Every kitchenalso had a metate and a mano—stonesspecifically used for grinding maize.Stools and benches, constructed bytightly lashing together wooden polesand covering the framework with wovenmatting, served as seating. Low beds



were constructed in much the same way,with woven matting stretched acrosslashed poles.

Archaeologists can learn a great dealabout a family’s social standing duringthe Classic Period by excavating andstudying the family’s home. ProfessorArthur Demarest explains how the loca-tion, design, and contents of excavatedhuts can help scholars understand Mayasocial classes:

Some of the social patterns ofClassic Maya society were “fos-silized” in architecture and arti-facts in the ruins of householdgroups. For each household groupthe amount of stone masonry (ver-sus mud and thatch) often variedwith the social rank of the ancientinhabitants. Height and area ofhousehold platforms, the presenceor absence of monuments, dis-tance from the nearest epicenter,the number of courtyards, pres-ence of plastered floors, and thetypes of pottery and artifacts inburials are all clues to the socialand political standing of a group’sancient inhabitants.12

The NewWorld’sPompeiiIn 1976 a Salvadoran bulldozer opera-tor accidentally bumped into the buriedremains of a wall belonging to an an-cient Maya house. He notified authori-ties, work was halted, and two yearslater, when excavations began, archae-

ologists discovered an almost intactfarming village from the Maya ClassicPeriod. They believe the village wasburied under 9 to 18 feet (3 to 5m) of ashwhen a nearby volcano erupted, proba-bly around A.D. 600. The site, calledCerén, is located in the Zapotitán Val-ley, 20 miles (32km) northwest of El Sal-vador’s capital city, San Salvador. Cerénis providing archaeologists their firstpeek at a rural Maya village as it existedduring that time.

Nicknamed “the Pompeii of the NewWorld,” Cerén is being carefully exca-vated by a team of archaeologists fromthe University of Colorado, Boulder.What they have found in the villageand the surrounding farmland chal-lenges some of what scholars havetheorized about rural peasant life dur-ing the Classic Period. The area was ap-parently covered with volcanic ashfairly rapidly, preserving it just as theeruption of Mount Vesuvius preservedthe ancient Roman cities of Pompeiiand Herculaneum.

Scientists have not unearthed any hu-man remains at Cerén, leading them toassume the population had enough timeto flee before their village was buried.Huts have been uncovered that still havethe occupants’ straw bedding tuckedinto the rafters—just as modern Mayapeasants do, to store their bedding outof the way during the day—indicatingthe disaster probably occurred in day-time. Among the discoveries made atCerén are clues to how the Maya vil-lagers farmed their land and what cropsthey grew—to feed the Maya.



Feeding the MayaOne of the biggest mysteries surround-ing the Maya of the Classic Period, un-til recently, has been how Maya farmerswere able to wrest enough food fromthe relatively poor soils of the Yucatánand the highlands of Guatemala to sup-port a population large enough to havebuilt such massive cities. Studying foodproduction and consumption is oftenthe cornerstone of understanding an-cient cultures, and apparently Mayafarmers excelled at maximizing theirfood production, even under extremelydifficult growing conditions.

Although kings and nobles no doubtate more lavishly, even Maya common-ers consumed a balanced diet. For years,scientists thought corn, or maize, madeup more than 50 percent of the dailyfood intake of the Classic Maya—that italone provided the bulk of their nutri-tion. It is true that maize was a signifi-cant food source, as well as a centralelement in Maya mythology and fre-quently a prominent feature of theirmonumental art. However, scientistshave long doubted the Maya could havegrown enough maize to feed the popu-lations that are now being attributed toMaya cities of that period—often with a

The Maya village of Cerén, nicknamed “thePompeii of the NewWorld,” was wellpreserved due to being buried with ash whena nearby volcano erupted. Findings duringexcavation of the site is challenging manytheories archaeologists have about Mayacivilization during the Classic Period.

population density that would comparewith that of the suburbs of a large mod-ern American city. Around Tikal, for ex-ample, scientists estimate an urbanpopulation density during the ClassicPeriod of about 300 people per squaremile (115 people per sq km). That isroughly equivalent to the populationdensity of Nashville, Tennessee, accord-ing to the 2000 census.

Recent discoveries at Cerén seem toindicate that another plant—maniocroot—may have been just as importantto the Maya diet. Payson Sheets, leaderof the group excavating Cerén, believesthat what they are finding may changescholars’ ideas about which foods keptClassic Maya society going for so long.They found evidence of some corn culti-vation below the thick layer of volcanicash, but they are also finding row uponrow of once-flourishing manioc plants.

Manioc, a common root crop in theAmerican tropics today, is a hardyplant that produces a waxy, relativelytasteless root. Its flesh can be made intoanything from tortillas to liquor. It iseasy to grow, thrives virtually any-where, packs loads of carbohydrates,and provides about six times the calo-ries of an equivalent amount of corn. Itis usually boiled and eaten like a po-tato. It can be grated, fried, turned intoflour, or, when sugar is added, madeinto a dessert. It has long been knownthat the Maya ate manioc, but it wasthought to have been a minor part oftheir diet. This is largely because, as aroot crop, evidence of its cultivationduring ancient times is virtually impos-

sible to find. Seeds like corn might sur-vive centuries under the proper condi-tions, but not roots.

At Cerén, however, Sheet’s team hasexcavated fields where manioc wasgrown—meticulously weeded, and inlong, straight, parallel rows to maxi-mize production. The manioc rootsthemselves are gone, of course, butthanks to the protection of the volcanicash, cavities in the ground that re-mained after the roots shriveled awayare mostly intact, similar to the cavitiesthat remained after the bodies of thosewho perished and were buried in Pom-peii disintegrated. Excavators carefullyfilled the manioc cavities with plaster.Once the plaster hardened and was dugup, they produced almost perfect castsof manioc roots.

According to Sheets, “We’re seeingwhat they actually grew, as they grewit. In other places you might get bits ofpollen, small pieces of evidence. Hereyou see the techniques, the furrows,the farm implements, everything.”13

Although their discoveries have beenencouraging, Sheets is quick to pointout that finding evidence in a small pe-ripheral Classic Maya location likeCerén does not prove that the cultiva-tion of manioc took place across all ofMaya territory.

Maize and Other FoodsDespite the implications of the discov-ery in El Salvador, corn was, and is still,a mainstay of the Maya diet. Besidesthe ever-present tortilla, the Maya usedcornmeal in almost everything they ate



Maya Farming Practices

Maya farmers of the Classic Period used the slash-and-burn, or swidden, methodof farming. Underbrush on a particular plot, or milpa (a word borrowed from

the Aztecs that means “field”), was chopped down with a stone ax, or bat, leaving thelarger trees for shade and to hold the soil. Eventually—usually in the dry season oflate March, April, and May—the then-dry debris was burned, leaving cleared landwith a rich layer of carbon and ash to serve as fertilizer on which to plant seeds.

Planting was done by Maya farmers—then, as now—with a simple, fire-hardeneddigging stick called a xul. Heavy rains in June and July germinated and sustainedthe crops, with a minimum of weeding, until harvest. This method, however—which is still used in much of the world—tends to deplete the soil after only a fewyears. More land then must be cleared and planted while the original field is al-lowed to lie unplanted, or fallow, for some years to rebuild its fertility.

A stone ax probably used by Maya farmers during the Classic Period.

or drank. With corn and possibly man-ioc to provide the carbohydrate—asource of energy—they ate beans forprotein, and squash and chili peppersfor essential vitamins. Add to that a fewfresh fruits and an occasional bit ofmeat, and they consumed everythingtheir bodies needed.

Besides their staple foods, the Mayaalso grew sweet potatoes, tomatoes, av-ocados, jícama, papaya, mulberries,melons, and pumpkins. The squash-like fruit of the chayote, a vine thatgrows all across the Yucatán Peninsula,was also a favorite. Two fruit trees inparticular have been associated withClassic Maya sites, so much so that insome cases finding them helps explor-ers locate remote structures that havebeen completely covered by jungle. Thefirst is the breadnut or ramon tree(Brosimum alicastrum), which producesan edible nut enclosed in an edible fruitcapsule. The fruit, an important sourceof protein, was valued by the ancientMaya also because the leaves could befed to their domesticated animals.

The other tree found quite oftenaround Maya sites is the amapolla tree(Pseudobombax elipticum), prized inpart, according to Professor Peter D.Harrison, because it “bears bright redfruit, with no leaves visible. Not onlywas red a sacred color to the Maya, thecolor of the East and of the rising sun,which they worshipped as a god, but itcame to represent the color of life—possibly because of the associationwith blood.” However, the main reasonthe Maya valued the amapolla was be-

cause its sap, which they could easilycollect, could be “fermented to make ahighly intoxicating drink.”14

For meat, the Classic Maya fishedand hunted small game such as deer,rabbits, armadillos, as well as tapirs.Birds, turtles, and iguanas also madetheir way into the Maya stew pot. Theycaptured red deer and peccaries, whichthey held for short periods in pensprior to slaughter. They raised domes-ticated turkeys, ducks, bees, and dogs.Their dogs were used in hunting, butwere also fattened to be slaughteredand eaten.

The Maya were skilled beekeepers.They cultivated bees and housed themnear their homes in hollow logs sealedat each end with mud. In addition tousing honey as a sweetener, they mixedit with tree bark and fermented it into apopular drink called balche.

Besides balche, the Maya also loved toconsume cacao, usually in the form of arelatively bitter drink mixed withground corn. The Maya cultivated cacaotrees (Theobroma cacao) on the Pacificcoast, on the western Yucatán Peninsulanorth of Belize, and in the lowlands ofthe Mexican state of Tabasco beginningin the Middle Preclassic Period. The treesare fairly delicate, and can grow only un-der specific climatic conditions. Cacaoblooms are pollinated exclusively bymosquitoes, so they thrive in the shadeof larger trees. Because of their scarcity,cacao beans were highly prized, andtraded as far away as central Mexicoduring the Classic Period, and used ascurrency during the Postclassic Period.



Family LifeDaily life for Maya commoners wascontrolled by forces they could neithersee nor understand. The Maya believedin astrology—that the position of thestars, movement of the planets, andphases of the moon had power overthem, and that priests could interpretthe celestial signs for them. In the worldof the Classic Maya, common peopleleft it to priests to determine the correctperson for them to marry, the best daysto get married, when to have children,and what to name them. The birth of achild was a significant event in a Mayafamily, and each date foretold the per-son’s attributes—some good, some neu-tral, and some bad.

A child’s given name (first name), orpaal kaba, was carefully chosen during aceremony conducted by a lower priest.Each child was given four differentnames—his paal kaba, his father’s fam-ily name, his mother’s family name (ornaal kaba), and finally an informal nick-

name, or coco kaba. Masculine givennames began with the prefix Ah, andfeminine given names began with Ix.Some examples of these given namesmight have been Ix Cuy (“Owl”), AhTok (“Flint Knife”), and Ah Kukum(“Jaguar”).

About the age of four, girls weregiven a red shell—a symbol of virgin-ity—to be worn on a string tied aroundtheir waists until puberty; boys, in turn,had a small white bead fastened to theirhair. No evidence has been found of for-mal schools among Maya commoners,but boys and girls learned what theyneeded to know from their parents.When boys reached the age of fourteenand girls the age of twelve, they wentthrough a coming-of-age ceremony,were considered old enough for mar-riage, and could leave home.

All Maya marriages were arranged,either by a child’s father or by an ahatanzahob, a professional matchmaker.After the marriage, the groom lived

Hot Chocolate

In Mesoamerica the Maya—commoners and nobility alike—enjoyed a bitter bever-age made from cacao beans. Nobles may have had it often, but commoners consid-

ered it a luxury because of the scarcity of the beans. The hot chocolate people drinktoday is usually made with milk and sugar, but neither was used during the time ofthe Maya. Instead they mixed cacao with chilies, making a spicy, bitter drink. Some-times they mixed it with ground maize or flavored it with a cinnamon-like bark calledcanela.


AMaya woman weaves a mat. Weaving was just one of the domestic chores that Mayawomen performed on a daily basis.


with and worked for the bride’s familyfor six or seven years. At that time, hecould build a separate home for hisfamily near his own parents’ house.

Women took care of domestic choressuch as collecting firewood, gatheringand preparing foods, weaving cloth forclothing, and making household contain-ers from clay, gourds, and other materi-als. Leisure time was almost nonexistent,but most families attended public reli-gious ceremonies. Many of these eventsinvolved music, with instruments suchas drums, flutes, bells, and trumpets.They also might watch dramatic presen-tations, with actors presenting storiesfrom their mythology.

Maya children older than four or fivehad little leisure time. As soon as theywere old enough, they joined their par-ents and put work ahead of play. Whenthey had some free time, children playeda board game with beans that was simi-lar to Parcheesi, or they played withballs made from the elastic gum of rub-ber trees. Boys ran and chased eachother, playing the hunter and thehunted.

The stories of the lives of commonpeople—those upon whose backs theMaya civilization was built—vanishedalmost as soon as they died. Scholars arefortunate to have the accounts of FriarDiego de Landa and others describing in

Calling the “Doctor”

When aMaya commoner fell ill, the women of the family usually knew folk remedies or herbalcures to try. However, if the illness persisted or was beyond the skill of the local practitioner,a priest might have to be called. After examining the victim, the priest might prescribe suchtreatments as rituals, fetishes, or potions. These potions might consist of such everyday ingre-dients as herbs, plants, or minerals, but they could also contain such unsavory elements as batwings, animal excrement, blood, urine, bird fat, red worms, or crocodile testicles.A typical remedy, translated from aMaya source, gave instructions for deadening the gums

before extracting a tooth:

There is an iguana that is yellow beneath the throat. Pierce its mouth, tie it up andburn it alive on a flat plane until it is reduced to ashes. These ashes of the iguana

you are to anoint [apply to the gums]. . . . Then you shall draw the tooth without pain.Try it first on a dog’s tooth, before you draw the man’s tooth.

Quoted in Charles Gallenkamp,Maya: The Riddle and Rediscovery of a Lost Civilization. New York: VikingPenguin, 1985, p. 126.

detail the homes, appearance, clothing,food, and activities of the commonMaya at the time of the Spanish Con-quest, but they can only infer from thosesources what life was like for the Mayaduring the Classic Period.

They are fortunate, too, that theMaya village of Cerén is being un-earthed, revealing more details about

commoners of the Classic Period. Thesesources, along with the ruins of Mayacities, undisturbed Maya tombs, whatremains of the codices prepared byMaya scribes, and hieroglyphs carvedonto stone monuments, help scholarsbetter understand the Maya of the Clas-sic Period—who they were and whatthey achieved during their golden age.


Greatest Achievements � 51

Chapter Four

GreatestAchievements

The most visible achievements ofthe ancient Maya are their vastcities and towering pyramids. Ad-

vances in architectural design and build-ing techniques helped them create citiesand monuments that rivaled those of an-cient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, andRome. Upon closer inspection, though,more subtle inventions and discoveriescome to light—discoveries that allowedthe Maya civilization to develop to alevel that enabled it to design and con-struct those enduring structures.

Agricultural PracticesIncreases in Maya population duringthe Late Preclassic and Classic periodsmade it necessary to clear more landand increase production. The Mayabuilt extensive irrigation systems anddeveloped other intensive agriculturalpractices, such as the construction ofterraces on hillsides and raised beds inswampy areas. The practice of terracing

made thousands of acres of otherwiseunproductive land available to Mayafarmers. Terraces of various types—some built during the Classic Period—are still in use today by Guatemalanand Mexican farmers.

As much as 30 percent of the Yucatánconsists of damp, swampy areas calledbajos—lowlands—that are unsuitablefor normal farming practices. In thePetén region in the central lowlands ofGuatemala, that portion rises to 50 per-cent, with only drier upland areas suit-able for milpas. To reclaim swamplandfor farming, the Maya built raised bedsfor crops. They constructed a checker-board-like pattern of these raised bedsin the bajos by scooping mud from thebottom of channels and piling it up be-tween them.

The roughly rectangular artificial is-lands they created were then used forraising crops. Because the soil was con-stantly refertilized every time they

added more of the organically richmud, farmers were able to grow somecrops year-round, greatly increasingfood production. Without such inten-sive agricultural practices, it wouldhave been impossible to provideenough food to support the populationrequired to construct the Maya’s mostvisible achievement—stone cities.

Stone for the PyramidsCities built by the Maya in the Late Pre-classic, Classic, and Postclassic periodsreflect superior intellect and craftsman-ship. The city-state of Tikal, for example,may have covered 47 square miles (122sq. km) during its heyday, with a “down-town” area of some 6 square miles (16 sq.km), roughly the size of the NationalMall in Washington, D.C. Towering overTikal’s central Great Plaza are numerousstone pyramids—tombs of their kings—and on either side rise two massive stonepyramid-temples, Temple I and TempleII. Like most Maya pyramids, these werebuilt using limestone quarried nearby.

Limestone is relatively soft and easyto cut into blocks while still in theground. It hardens after being exposedto air. During the Late Preclassic Periodthe Maya discovered that they couldcut grooves into the natural limestonerock with flint or obsidian tools, deepenthe grooves, and eventually use leversand wedges to separate a stone block.

Then, while the limestone block wasstill damp, they carved it roughly intothe shape they needed using woodenhammers or hammer stones and stonechisels. Workers used a wooden sled to

transport the block to the building site,where craftsmen finished carving andpolishing it. If the limestone was partic-ularly soft, as it was near Palenque,craftsmen used a special twin-bladedstone knife to complete the carving.

Urban ArchitecturalDevelopmentsPyramids like those at Tikal andPalenque, along with hundreds of oth-ers in cities such as Piedras Negras,Quiriguá, and Copán, reflect two ad-vancements in architecture and build-ing techniques similar in some ways tothose of the Roman Empire—the archand cement. The Maya developed theuse of arches in their construction, buttheirs were not true arches, like thosebuilt by the Romans. Instead the Mayabuilt corbelled arches for many of theirdoorways and as high ceilings formany of their pyramids’ rooms. A cor-belled arch is formed when stonesforming layers, or courses, on oppositewalls are extended gradually towardthe center of the open space. Eachcourse sticks farther out into the spaceuntil the opposite walls meet, forminga triangularly shaped ceiling with acapstone on top, connecting the sides.Because this type of arch cannot spanmuch open space without collapsing,rooms topped with them had to besomewhat narrow.

Like arches, Maya cement also dif-fered in some ways from what the Ro-mans used. Yet it served the samepurposes: mortar to affix stone to stonein a wall, and stucco to seal the surfaces



of structures and decorate their wallswith raised images and hieroglyphs. TheMaya burned limestone, pulverized it,and mixed it into a substance similar tocement. The mixture formed a bond sotight that stones joined with it seemed tobe naturally joined—as if the structureswere made of one piece of stone. Duringthe Middle and Later Preclassic periods,the Maya used stucco to adorn the wallsand steps of their buildings, usually withthree-dimensional images from theirmythology.

PyramidsAll Maya pyramids share certain char-acteristics. They are step pyramidsrather than smooth-sided “true” pyra-mids like the Great Pyramid of Egypt,and all are topped by other structures.Maya pyramids, in general, have threecomponents: a stepped pyramidal basewith a stairway leading to the top, achambered sanctuary or temple atopthe pyramid, and an ornamental ma-sonry “topknot”—called a roof comb—stretching skyward from the roof of the

These pyramids at Tikal show how the Maya used cement to meet their own uniquestructural and architectural needs.

temple. Though they serve no practicalpurpose, these roof combs give ClassicMaya pyramids their distinctive look.Scholars believe they were added toClassic Period pyramids to increasetheir height and make them appearmore imposing, more sacred, and closerto the heavens.

At the northern Guatemalan Classicsite of Tikal—”City of Echoes” inMayan—sit six large pyramids withroof combs. So impressed was film-maker George Lucas with Tikal that heused its skyline as a backdrop for sev-eral scenes in the 1977 movie Star Wars.Pyramids at Palenque, a Maya site inthe Mexican state of Chiapas, all have

unique roof combs. Instead of the solidroof combs of Tikal, each Palenquestructure is topped with a latticed roofcomb, ornately carved with scenes fromMaya mythology.

Known Maya pyramids number inthe thousands. They make up the ma-jority of structures in the central areasof Maya cities. Whereas some served astombs, others were foundations fortemples, astronomical observatories, orother government buildings. Thanks tohieroglyphic carvings on the structures,archaeologists usually are able to deter-mine when each was built and bywhom. What archaeologists do notknow is how many more Maya pyra-

Some Mayan temples, such as this one at Copán, are known as “stacked” pyramidsbecause they have been built on top of older pyramids. This stacking preserves thecarvings and structure of the older buildings.


mids remain undiscovered in the densejungles of the Yucatán Peninsula andCentral American highlands, mistakenfor tree- and vine-covered hills.

Some Maya pyramids are buried be-neath other pyramids that were built ata later date. It was common practiceamong Maya kings in the Classic Periodto build a larger pyramid over one builtby a predecessor, often using the olderstructure as the foundation for the newone. In some cases the pyramids arestacked one inside the other. For exam-ple, Temple 26 in Copán, Honduras, sitsatop at least six previously built pyra-mids. Scholars can literally dig theirway through the history of the city andits kings.

Often these “stacked” pyramids eachcontain a king’s tomb, allowing excava-tors to see how each dynasty differedfrom those that preceded it. Many of thecovered structures were carefully pre-served in the process, protecting themfrom the elements. As each layer of thenewer pyramid was laid in place, work-ers carefully packed sand between thenew structure and the old, covering thecarvings on the older pyramid to forma solid core for the new structure. Ar-chaeologists tunnel into pyramids, re-move the sand, and study the carvingsand hieroglyphs on older pyramids.

Across the region, some two hundredMaya centers have already been found,most containing numerous pyramids.Whereas some are in well-known cere-monial centers, such as Tikal, Copán,Uxmal, Palenque, and Chichén Itzá, oth-ers are in lesser-known, more recently

discovered sites. Some Maya pyramidsare simple platforms on which templeswere built; others are steep, ornate struc-tures with many levels. Many containtombs, such as the Pyramid of the In-scriptions at Palenque and Temple I atTikal, but others do not.

Some pyramids were used as foun-dations for astronomical observatories.The Caracol at Chichén Itzá in thenorthern Yucatán is one example of this.This structure is one of the few roundMaya structures and was built atop astep pyramid to elevate it above thesurrounding terrain for observation ofthe rising and setting of the sun, themoon, the planet Venus, and otherheavenly bodies. The Caracol, whichmeans “Snail” in Spanish, was namedfor its internal spiral staircase, which re-sembles the pattern on a snail’s shell.

Paintings and carvings on templewalls, along the facades of pyramidsand other structures, on countlesspieces of ceramic pottery, and on stelaedepict scenes of life in every Maya city.Alongside these paintings and sculp-tures are thousands of smaller carvingsthat early archaeologists recognized asa form of hieroglyphic writing. For cen-turies no one knew what the Maya hadwritten, but today they do.

Maya HieroglyphicsOther civilizations in the New Worldrecorded their history, mythology, andsometimes their business transactions,but the Maya were the only ones in theWestern Hemisphere to develop a com-plete, complex system of writing. It was

so complex that fifty years ago noscholar could read it. Now the subtle-ties of the Maya’s written language aregradually coming to light.

Like the ancient Egyptians, the Mayaincorporated pictograms into their sys-tem of writing. A pictogram is a picturethat represents an object. For example,

to convey the word snake, the Mayadrew a small snake, usually stylizedwithin a roughly square image. Hadtheir written language used only pic-tograms and number symbols, theycould have recorded rudimentary sto-ries about events that occurred aroundthem, but if they had wanted to writeair, for example, or beauty, pictogramswould have been far too limiting.

To enrich their written language, theMaya developed symbols calledideograms to represent nonphysical con-cepts. They had symbols for conceptssuch as love, hate, anger, and pride. Theuse of ideograms allowed them morefreedom of expression, but they alsowanted to express the phonetic soundsof their spoken language. They thereforedeveloped symbols called syllabogramsto represent sounds. Each syllabogramcontained one consonant and one vowel;like English, a vowel could be pro-nounced more than one way, so theMaya devised different syllabograms foreach pronunciation.

Because of its use of pictograms (alsocalled logograms—”word signs”) andsyllabograms, Maya writing is referredto as a logosyllabic language, or a mixedsystem. About eight hundred writingsigns have been identified so far, andmost can now be read, allowing scholarsto understand minute details about theMaya—names, places, and concepts—they could not read before.

Maya hieroglyphic texts are readfrom top to bottom, left to right, twoglyphs at a time. As scholar HeatherMcKillop explains, “To read a glyphic


As this monument shows, the Mayanlanguage is a mixed language containingboth pictograms and syllabograms. MostMaya hieroglyphs can be read by scholarsnow, and this allows researchers to learnmore details about the Maya culture thanwas possible before.


text on a Classic stela, for example, onebegins at the top left corner, reads thefirst two glyphs, and then continuesreading glyphs below them, by pairs.Once at the bottom, one returns to thetop of the text and reads the next col-umn of glyphs, again by pairs.”15

Today scholars can read most of whatthey find in Maya cities, revolutioniz-ing the study of this ancient civilization.According to scholar Michael D. Coe:

The history of the American conti-nent does not begin with Christo-pher Columbus, or even with Leifthe Lucky, but with those Mayascribes in the Central American jun-gles who first began to record thedeeds of their rulers some two thou-sand years ago. Of all the peoples ofthe pre-Columbian New World,only the ancient Maya had a com-plete script: they could write downanything they wanted to, in theirown language. In the last century,following the discovery of the ru-ined Maya cities, almost none ofthese records could be read byWestern scholars. . . . Today, thanksto some remarkable advances madeby epigraphers [those who decipherhieroglyphics] on both sides of theAtlantic, we can now read most ofwhat those long-dead scribes carvedinto their stone monuments. I be-lieve that this decipherment is oneof the most exciting intellectual ad-ventures of our age, on a par withthe exploration of space and the dis-covery of the genetic code.16

One of those epigraphers, the lateLinda Schele of the University of Texas,said, “These glyphs give the Maya 1,500years of history, written in the words oftheir ancestors, not in the words ofwhite people from Europe.”17 SimonMartin, another epigrapher and thecoauthor of several books on the Maya,adds, “This is our one and only oppor-tunity to peer into the Americas beforethe arrival of Europeans and hear thesepeople speaking to us. . . . [It gives] usan indigenous insight into what theythought was important.”18

One thing “they thought was impor-tant” was the study of astronomy. Muchof what the Maya wrote—on stelae,ceramic pottery, and temple walls—in-volved what they observed and pre-dicted, based on studying the stars.

Keeping Their Eyeson the HeavensIn cities throughout the Yucatán, along-side pyramids, ball courts, and temples,the Maya built observatories to watchthe skies. The Maya gods resided in theheavens, so worship included watchingthe sky. Centuries of watching the sun,moon, and stars rise above the horizoneventually led the Maya to develop a so-phisticated astronomy. Early scholarsnoticed that the location from which theheavenly bodies emerged on the horizonvaried depending on the season. Theystudied the phenomenon by driving twostakes in the ground or by placing twovertical stones to align them with the lo-cation on the horizon of those celestialevents. Over time they noticed recurring


Tourists visit the ruins of the Caracol, a Maya observatory, at Chichén Itzá. Observatoriesallowed the Maya to predict celestial events with much greater accuracy.


patterns that made it possible for themto predict when certain events would oc-cur. They eventually built stone observa-tories with windows aligned with thosepoints; this allowed them greater accu-racy in their predictions.

During the Late Preclassic and Clas-sic periods, they built pyramids andplazas along astronomical lines. Theyaligned these structures with the pathof the sun on certain days of the year orwith the cardinal directions. At many ofthese pyramids, a person standing atthe entrance of the temple could lookout over the surrounding smaller pyra-mids and perhaps see the sun rise di-rectly over one pyramid on the summersolstice, over another on both the falland spring equinoxes, and over yet an-other on the winter solstice.

Some sites, however, did not aligntheir structures with the path of the sun.Instead they aligned them with thepaths of other celestial bodies. One ex-ample is at Takalik Abaj (“StandingStones”), a Late Preclassic site near thePacific coast of western Guatemala.Scholars believe its builders aligned thestructures with the star Eta Draconis inthe serpent-shaped constellation Draco.Scholars speculate that the city mayhave been the center of a cult that wor-shipped that star or the god they be-lieved it represented.

Without the use of telescopes or com-puters, Maya astronomers achieved aremarkable degree of accuracy. Theywere able to chart the movement ofstars and planets—calculating, for ex-ample, that the revolution of the planet

Venus, what the Maya called Chak ek’,took 584 days. Modern astronomersknow that its revolution is precisely583.92 days, a margin of error just overone-hundredth of 1 percent. Using onlyfixed lines of sight, crossed sticks, andfixed observation points, Maya as-tronomers and mathematicians also cal-culated the length of a year on Earth tobe 365.2420 days, incredibly close to theactual figure of 365.2422. They werealso able to predict the changing of sea-sons, the arrival of comets, and the oc-currences of solar and lunar eclipses.

Mathematics and anObsession with TimeThe Maya’s intense study of astronomyrequired the simultaneous develop-ment of an equally complex system ofmathematics. Theirs was vigesimal—based on the number twenty—ratherthan decimal, based on ten. They alsodeveloped the concept of zero, possiblyas early as 36 B.C. Although it seems ba-sic to modern cultures, zero is a rela-tively complicated mathematical idea.It was unknown in Europe until theMiddle Ages, when the idea finallyfound its way from India, by way of theArabian Peninsula. No symbol for zeroappears in Roman numerals becausethe Romans did not consider it neces-sary to have a numeral to representnothing. Advanced mathematics wouldbe useless without it. Without zeros,how could numbers less than one—0.003, for example—be written?

Both fields of knowledge, astronomyand mathematics, were essential for the

Maya’s true obsession—time. No ancientcivilization, in the Old World or the New,was more obsessed with the passage oftime than the Maya. Mathematics andastronomy were tools for the creation ofthe most important technological ad-vance for the Maya—their calendar. Al-most twelve hundred years before theadoption of the Gregorian calendar thatmost of the world uses today, the moreaccurate Maya calendar was in use.

The Maya became obsessed with theircalendar as part of their religious obser-vances. The Maya’s numerous gods andgoddesses lived in the heavens and em-bodied certain stars, moons, and plan-ets. Therefore, studying and anticipatingthe repeating cycles of these celestialbodies became an important impetus todevelop and maintain a calendar. TheMaya believed that the passage of timecontrolled the universe. Alexander W.Voss, a professor at the University ofQuintana Roo in Mexico, explains whythe Maya calendar was so closely associ-ated with their gods: “In a never-endingcycle [the gods] were born, developedtheir powers and then died, only to beborn again at a precisely determinedtime and start a new cycle. To the Maya,these supernatural entities representedtime and were responsible for maintain-ing cosmic order.”19

Because these cycles were thought tobe crucial to their survival, observingcertain religious ceremonies on certaindays of the year was also thought to becrucial. Using their calendar each day,the aj k’inob, literally, “lords of the day,”predicted important events and calcu-

lated which supernatural being, good orevil, would rule that day. They then per-formed ceremonies they felt would bestinfluence the cosmic entity in their favor.

The Maya CalendarMaya scribes listed dates on almostevery painting, stela, and ceramic vasethey created, but they never seem tohave carved or otherwise depicted theirentire complex calendar. Some sourcessuggest that the circular stone calendarof the Aztecs—sometimes referred to asthe Aztec Sun Stone—also representedthe Maya calendar, but the two are to-tally different. The Maya calendar wasactually three separate calendars that ranat the same time, and no graphical depic-tion of all three has been discovered.

The secular Haab calendar, based onthe solar year, contained eighteen sec-tions, each having twenty days, whichconstituted one Tun. At the end of eachTun was a separate period of 5 days tofinish the 365-day year. This 5-day pe-riod, called u wayeb u haab, “sleepers ofthe year,” or ma k’aba k’in, “the name-less days,” was considered unlucky.Each Tun in the Haab calendar beginswith the Maya month Pop and endswith Kumk’u, which is then followedby the Wayeb, the empty, unlucky days.The days of Haab began with 1 Pop, 2Pop, 3 Pop, and so forth, and theyended with 3 Wayeb, 4 Wayeb, and 5Wayeb.

Longer time periods in the Haab haddifferent terms. A K’atun, for example,was a period containing 7,200 days, ortwenty Tuns. Their largest measure-



A Unique Maya Pyramid

El Castillo, the pyramid that dominates Chichén Itzá, is not dedicated to a god ofMaya origin. It is dedicated instead to Kukulcán, the Maya name for the feath-

ered serpent god the Aztecs called Quetzalcoatl. It is also unlike any other Maya pyra-mid. El Castillo is an almost perfectly symmetrical square pyramid with stepped sides.Although it has a large temple at its peak, it lacks a roof comb, and staircases ascendall four sides of the pyramid. El Castillo more closely resembles something the Aztecsor the Toltecs would have built, suggesting that perhaps the Late Classic Maya wereinfluenced by those central Mexico cultures.

Before the excavation site was sealed to preserve it, visitors could enter an open-ing beside the north stairway, climb the steps of an earlier pyramid upon which El

Castillo was built, and seeKukulcán’s throne, all insidethe current pyramid! Thethrone has the form of asnarling red jaguar, with jadeeyes and spots and shellfangs. Standing before thethrone is a sculpture called achacmool, a reclining figureholding a plate over its belly,probably to hold a sacrificedhuman heart.

An Aztec painting ofQuetzalcoatl, the featheredserpent god known to the Mayaas Kukulcán, to whom thepyramid El Castillo is dedicated.

ment of time was a Bak’tun. This was aperiod of 144,000 days, or 20 K’atuns—approximately 394 years. Bak’tuns wereused to describe dates in the far distantpast or future. The Maya felt the end ofa Bak’tun was a particularly significantdate because of their belief in the im-

portance of observing cycles. The cus-tom of observing the changing of onecentury to another—as happened at thebeginning of the twenty-first century—is a modern example of humankind’songoing fascination with repeating cy-cles of time.


This modern artist’s creation, produced for sale to tourists, combines elements fromthe Aztec calendar with the Haab, the Maya solar calendar. The hieroglyphs in theinner circle are Maya glyphs for months, but the outer rings come directly from theAztec Sun Stone. The ancient Maya never carved a stone version of their calendar,and these elements would never have appeared together on any authentic Mayaartifact, stelae, or building.


The Tzolk’in was the Maya’s ritualcalendar of 260 days. Each day of theTzolk’in had a name consisting of twoparts—a number and a day symbol.There were 20 recurring day symbols,but the numbers 1 through 13 wereused. As the ritual year progressed,numbers and day symbols followed aset pattern until they reached a total of260 days. At that point they repeated,beginning a new cycle. Each cycle ofthe Tzolk’in began with 1 Imix, 2 Ik’, 3Ak’bal, 4 K’an, 5 Chikchan, and so on.

Although the nonreligious Haab andthe religious Tzolk’in ran independ-ently of each other, the Maya combinedthem into a larger cycle of 18,980 days—52 years—that has been called the Cal-endar Round. Any particular Haabday—such as 9 Kumk’u—would not co-incide with a particular Tzolk’in day—5 Imix, for example—more than onceevery 18,980 days. At the end of thoselong cycles, every 52 years, the Mayafeared the end of the world. Priests per-formed special religious ceremoniesthey felt would prevent that from hap-pening.

The Classic Maya also developedwhat scientists call the Long Count,which was a way to measure evenlonger periods of time, extending backto a specific date. This compares withthe Christian practice of recording timein Anno Domini (A.D.)—years since thebirth of Jesus Christ—or, more recently,years of the Common Era (C.E.). Thedate that was considered the beginningof Maya time, and hence the beginningof the Long Count, has been calculated

to have been September 8, 3114 B.C.—the day on which they believed the cur-rent world was created. The Mayabelieve time extends backward and for-ward into infinity. Some carved stelaemention dates some 400 million yearsin the past.

In addition to the Haab, the Tzolk’in,and the Long Count, the Maya studiedlunar cycles to predict lunar and solareclipses. They also were obsessed withthe planet Venus—Chak ek’, or “GreatStar,” which they associated with war.Professor Voss explains that the Mayaconsidered Venus “a bringer of misfor-tune, bad omens, and war,”20 so theyhad a calendar to predict its position inthe sky. Many extensive battles betweencity-states, the deaths of kings, and thefall of dynasties took place during therising of the planet Venus.

To the Maya, time ran in cycles;whatever happened in a particularyear, or time of year, was bound tohappen again. During the empty days—the Wayeb—people were careful toavoid anything that might cause themharm because they were convinced itwould happen repeatedly. If someonetripped and fell on an empty day, theyexpected to continue tripping andfalling every day for the rest of theirlives.

The ancient Maya did not see time asmerely a means of arranging events inorder. Time had mystical significance.In their minds, a different god ruledover each period of time, and they hadto know which god to worship at theappropriate time. To put it in our terms,

the god of January would rule untilmidnight on the 31st, when the god ofFebruary would take over. Because notall Maya gods were benevolent towardhumanity, some time periods weremore dangerous than others.

Everything the Classic Maya accom-plished related to their religion. They

built pyramids to get closer to theheavens. They created a calendar andstudied the stars to better know how toworship their gods. They played a ballgame to imitate the actions of theirgods. Even the food they raised waslinked to the gods. To the Maya, theirlives—and their universe—were like


The Maya seemed obsessed with the planet Venus, which they associated with war andmisfortune.


The Mesoamerican Ball Game

The Mesoamerican ball game, played in specially constructed courts in virtuallyevery Maya city throughout their history, was possibly the foundation for the

modern games of football, soccer, basketball, volleyball, and other ball games. Basedon fragmentary evidence, scholars believe it was played as either a team sport or anindividual competition by both men and women. Players wore protective clothing,including headgear, knee pads, and quilted cotton armor. Some were depicted wear-ing what the Spanish called a yugo, which was a yokelike, heavy wooden shield inthe shape of a horseshoe that was worn around the stomach.

The ball—varying in size up to 12 inches (30cm) in diameter—was made fromlatex obtained from local rubber trees. It was relatively hard and could weigh asmuch as 18 pounds (8kg). Once the ball was tossed into play, it was allowable to hitit back and forth only with the hips, thighs, or upper arms. The ultimate goal was toput the ball through a ring. Maya kings often played the game to symbolically reen-act scenes from the Maya creation myth.

Amodel depicts a Maya ball game being played. This game may have laid the foundation forthe games of football, soccer, basketball, volleyball, and other ball games.

the maize plants that fed them: Theysprouted with new life, grew to matu-rity, bore fruit, then withered and died.But the seeds of those plants, whencared for properly, could be placed inthe Earth, nurtured, and would sproutagain, thus perpetuating the cycle of

birth, life, death, and rebirth. The calen-dar told the Maya to which of theirmany gods and goddesses they shouldpray on a particular day, make offer-ings, and, in some cases, make bloodsacrifices to ensure the continuation ofthat cycle.


2012—The End of the World?

The end of the thirteenth Bak’tun is approaching on December 21 or 23, 2012. Somebelieve this to be the end of the Maya Long Count, when the Maya supposedly

predicted the end of the universe; but Maya scholars dispute this. They say it will sim-ply be the end of one time period and the beginning of another—similar to the endof one calendar year, when December 31 again becomes January 1. Based on stelae atCopán, they believe the true end of the Maya Long Count will not occur for trillionsof years. Some have compared what will happen on December 21 or 23, 2012, to anodometer in an older car. When it has exceeded its mechanical limit, it simply turnsover to all zeros and starts the count again.

Popular fiction and Hollywood blockbuster movies are playing up these erro-neous doomsday predictions. One movie, 2012, starring John Cusack, was releasedin November 2009. Its trailer alludes to the Maya prophecy, ominously saying, “Wewere warned!”

The Spirit Realm � 67

Chapter Five

The Spirit Realm

Just as everyday life for the ancientMaya was influenced by their calen-dar—such as when to plant and har-

vest crops or when to attend publicceremonies—so were their religious be-liefs and practices. The Maya believedtime was an integral part of how the cos-mos functioned. It was crucial for theirreligious ceremonies to be appropriatelytimed. Their calendar—and its associ-ated mythology—was a window to thedistant past and to the future. It gave theMaya a connection to the previous uni-verse and the evils that led to its destruc-tion, to the creation of this currentuniverse, to its eventual destruction, andto the creation of the next universe.

The Maya UniverseThe Maya had an elaborate view of theheavens, Earth, and Xibalba—whatthey called the underworld—and howevents were interconnected in eachlevel of the universe. They believed the

heavens were divided into thirteen lev-els, each with a specific god ruling overit. They believed Xibalba, the “Place ofFright,” contained nine levels; each ofthose levels was presided over by a dif-ferent, often grotesque, deity. The Mayadid not conceive of the underworld asnecessarily a place where immoral orevil people went when they died. It waswhere all people went, except thosewho died a violent death. All who wentto Xibalba had to face tricky challengesfrom the gods of the underworld. If asoul was successful in outwitting thosegods, it ultimately ascended into thesky as a heavenly body.

Only those who met a violent deathwould enter some level of Heaven.These souls went to the level of Heavenpresided over by the god who ruled theelement of nature that led to theirdeaths. A person who was struck bylightning or drowned, for example, wentto the level ruled by Chaak, the god of

rain, thunder, and lightning. War casu-alties and sacrificial victims inhabitedthe level reigned over by K’inich Ajaw,the god of war and blood sacrifice.

Gods in the heavens and in the un-derworld controlled what happened onEarth, including rain, the seasons, andsunrises. Kings and priests performedceremonies and blood sacrifices to nur-ture the gods and strengthen them forthose tasks. This belief in the intercon-nectedness of the universe, seen andunseen, affected not only the Maya’sdaily lives but also how they built theirhomes, laid out their milpas, and con-structed their cities. The orientationand design of buildings and plazas andthe construction of main roads andcauseways reflected this obsession withimitating on Earth the order and struc-ture they perceived in the universe.

The Maya conceived of Earth as a flatsquare. Each of its four sides faced a car-dinal direction, and each had its owncolor—red for east, white for north, blackfor west, yellow for south, and bluishgreen at the center. Earth was held up ateach corner by four ancient gods, abovethe primordial ocean from which it roseat the moment of creation. The corners ofEarth were the points at which the sunrose and set on the summer and wintersolstices. At the center of each side lay amythical mountain with a cave. Thesewere entrances toXibalba and the primor-dial ocean. The water above which Earthfloated was a link with the underworld.Another Maya source shows Earth rest-ing on the back of a monstrous crocodile,floating in a pond of water lilies.

The Maya believed that honoring thecardinal directions was paramount, thatmountains connected Earth to the heav-ens, and that caves and cenotes—natu-ral sacred wells—linked Earth to the


A statue of Chaak, the god of rain, thunder,and lightning found at the Maya ruins ofCopán. According to the Maya religion,people who were drowned or struck bylightning went to the level of heaven ruledby Chaak.


primordial ocean below. Pyramids sim-ulated mountains, and temple doorwaysrepresented caves—symbolic entrancesto the underworld. Entering a cave or atemple doorway was symbolic of directcontact with the gods. Many major tem-ple complexes in the lowlands of Yu-catán were built directly over caves, andsacrificial altars have been discovered inmany caves in the region.

Many cities in the Yucatán were alsobuilt near deep circular-shaped cenotes,into which sacrifices to the gods were of-ten thrown. Friar Landa reported that, intimes of drought, the Yucatán Mayathrew people into the cenote nearChichén Itzá. When confronted aboutkilling people in this way, they insistedthat the individuals who had been castin were not dead, even though they werenever seen again. The Maya believedthat those sacrificial victims had simplyentered the underworld through thecenote and were still alive there.

In the Maya universe the sky was sup-ported by either another set of four godsor four huge trees, depending on thesource consulted. In the center, servingas an axis to connect the upper world(the heavens), the middle world (Earth),and the underworld, stood a huge ceibatree—the World Tree. In some represen-tations this center of the universe was astalk of maize rather than a tree. (Theceiba, or silk-cotton tree, is the tallest treein the Maya region of Mesoamerica,reaching a height of 230 feet [70m].Called yaxche (“first tree”) in Mayan, theyare sacred and are never cut down whenfarmers clear land for planting.)

A stylized image of the World Treewas carved on the rear wall of the sanc-tuary in the Temple of the Cross atPalenque. The temple was named forthe cross-shaped World Tree in the bas-relief carving; the tree is pictured grow-ing out of a sacrificial bowl with thegreat bird of heaven—Itzam Ye—sittingat its highest point. Itzam Ye was onesymbolic form of the Maya’s supremedeity, the creator god Itzamnaaj.

The Creation MythThe core of the Maya religion—and theprimary reason behind their rituals—was their creation story. The Maya be-lieved humans were created to serveand nurture the gods, and they actedaccordingly. During virtually every re-ligious ceremony, Maya kings andqueens symbolically reenacted the cre-ation story, reinforcing that belief intheir subjects.

The Maya creation story must begleaned from several sources. Inscrip-tions in three temples in Palenque, in-cluding the one in the Temple of theCross, provide many details. Similar in-scriptions have been found in templesin Quiriguá, Piedras Negras, Cobá, andCopán. Accounts are also found in thePopol Vuh (The Council Book or The Bookof Counsel), a sixteenth-century Mayatext that retells their ancient creationstory, and in The Books of Chilam Balam(Books of the Jaguar Prophet), a series oftwelve books written by Maya villagepriests after the Spanish Conquest.

According to these sources, the worldas it exists today was created on the

Maya date 4 Ajaw 8 Kumk’u—Septem-ber 8, 3114 B.C.—but it was not the firstto have existed. The previous world andits inhabitants were destroyed by a greatflood, followed by a time of semidark-ness. During that twilight time, fourheroic figures emerged in the cosmos—the Hero Twins (Junajpu and Xb’alanke),their father (Jun Junajpu), and their un-cle, Wuqub’ Junajpu. Their adventuresin Xibalba, vanquishing the evil forcesthat ruled the early world, were thoughtto prepare the way for humanity. Theirstory also explains the importance of theMesoamerican ball game to the Mayaculture.

The Hero Twins and theCreation of the People ofthe CornThe Popol Vuh tells the story of two setsof twins who lived before humanity

came into existence. Thefirst twins—sons of the godsItzamnaaj and Ix Chel—were Jun Junajpu (“OneBlowgun”) and Wuqub’ Ju-najpu (“Seven Blowgun”).They were skilled ballplay-ers, but their loud play irri-tated the lords of theunderworld, who invitedthem to Xibalba for a game.There, the lords challenged

them to a series of clever tests. Theyfailed each one and were sacrificed.

Before burying their bodies, the godsdecapitated Jun Junajpu, turned hishead into a gourd, and placed it in thefork of a tree. When a young maiden ap-proached the gourd, it spat into herhand and magically made her pregnant;she then fled Xibalba to the upperworld. There she gave birth to two boys,called the Hero Twins—Junajpu (“Blow-gun”) and Xb’alanke (“Jaguar”). Whenthe twins were grown, their loud ballplaying also irritated the gods of the un-derworld, and they were summoned be-low. Unlike their father and uncle, theywon each challenge, outwitting the un-derworld lords and killing them. Theyresurrected their ancestors and returnedwith them to the upper world. The re-birth of their father, Jun Junajpu, trans-formed him into the maize god, ahandsome young figure whose life,death, and rebirth was forever associ-ated with the growth cycle of corn and acentral element of worship for the Maya.

The Hero Twins’ victory over the lordsof Xibalba served to lessen humanity’s


The Maya creation story must be gleanedfrom several sources, including this pagefrom the Popol Vuh, a sixteenth-centuryMaya text that recalls the creation ofhumans.


dread of the underworld and estab-lished the necessity of making offeringsto the gods to honor them. Their questcomplete, the twins were taken into thesky, where one later became the sun andthe other the moon.

Once the evil of the underworld wasvanquished, the world experienced atime of twilight. Itzamnaaj, or First Fa-ther—the creator god, supreme deity,and inventor of writing—raised the skyabove Earth and placed the World Treeat its center. He caused the sky to rotate,endowing Earth with life. Plantssprouted from the soil, including maize,which First Mother ground into mealand mixed with water to make a paste.The creator gods formed humans fromthe maize paste. The new Maize People,as they were called, paid homage to thegods while they waited for the first sun-rise. It was a long time coming, so thehumans became despondent. Theywandered aimlessly in the semidark-ness until the arrival of a one-leggedlightning god named Tojil (sometimescalled K’awiil, depicted with a serpentfor one leg and a torch sticking out fromhis forehead).

Tojil brought fire to humans but de-manded human sacrifice in return.When the dawn finally arrived, the hu-mans burned incense in gratitude, butit was not enough. The gods made thesun so strong that everything dried out,withering the plants. Tojil again de-manded blood offerings, so the earlyMaya offered animal blood. Still not sat-isfied, Tojil insisted that human bloodbe offered. The humans reluctantly

obliged, offering a human heart. Fromthat time forward, the Maya believed itwas their duty to offer human blood toappease their gods.

Understanding theMaya GodsLittle is known about the Maya gods andgoddesses because sources differ. Codicesdating from before the Spanish Conquestmention 30 deities by name; however, oneeighteenth-century manuscript lists 166.Part of the confusion comes from Mayagods being multifaceted, with more thanone appearance, power, or name.

As with other ancient polytheistic cul-tures (cultures that worshipped manygods), some Maya deities had slightlydifferent identities, depending on theirpowers. K’inich Ajaw was the god of thesun, kingship, war, and sacrifice, and hisappearance and name in Maya art variedaccording to which area he was picturedas ruling. Itzamnaaj, the creator god, isalways shown as an old wise man with ahooked nose and large square eyes, buthe is also depicted in a different role, asItzam Ye, the giant mythical bird sittingatop the World Tree.

Two or more Maya gods were some-times fused, as with Tojil, the fiery god oflightning and thunder, and Chaak, therain god, depicted in some temple imagesas a single being with characteristics ofboth gods. Aparticular god might be pic-tured as masculine or feminine, young orold, fleshed or skeletal. Each celestial godalso had an underworld identity, as-sumed when it passed beneath Earth onits way to rebirth in the eastern sky.


Maya Codices

For centuries scholars have been poring over three surviving Maya books—theDresden Codex, the Madrid Codex, and the Paris Codex. In 1739 the director of

the Royal Library of Dresden purchased a codex from a private collector. How andwhen the collector obtained it is a mystery. The 74-page book, which is the most com-plete of the codices, contains astronomical tables dealing with the movements of themoon and the planet Venus. After its acquisition the codex became known as the Dres-den Codex. The Madrid Codex, a 112-page book, was “discovered” in Madrid in 1860.It is the longest of the surviving codices, containing more than 250 almanacs. The ParisCodex first appeared in France in 1832. It is in very poor condition. The 22 pages ofthe codex that have survived contain prophecies and astrological information.

A fourth Maya codex, a 10-page fragment called the Codex Grolier, was report-edly found in 1965 in a dry cave in southern Chiapas, Mexico. Its hieroglyphs dealexclusively with astronomical calculations associated with Venus. Scholars believe itmay be the oldest of the surviving codices.

Two pages from the Madrid Codex show the god of death heating the celestial snake to provokerain. With 112 pages, the Madrid Codex is the longest of the four Maya codices.


Maya gods were sometimes depictedas infants or small children, cradled inthe arms of a mortal king. This imageserved to reinforce the nobility’s uniquebond with the gods, and their vital rolein nurturing those gods with blood sac-rifices. Anthropology professor Karl

Taub describes the relationship de-picted in such images:

The act of blood sacrifice . . . wastantamount to nurturing the gods.The texts in the holy Maya bookspair the term “suckle” with the

A sculpture of the Maya god K’inich Ajaw found on the wall of a pyramid. According toMaya beliefs, K’inich Ajaw was the god of the sun, kingship, war, and sacrifice, and hisappearance and name in Maya art varied according to which area he was pictured as ruling.

word for “embrace,” recallinghow, in Classic Maya scenes, thegods are held by the rulers like ba-bies pressed against the breast.The Maya kings saw themselvesas caring parents of the gods. Thegods were looked after and keptalive thanks to the religious activi-ties of the elites.21

The Maya PantheonThe Maya worshipped many gods. Theybelieved every living thing had a spirit,with a god or goddess ruling overeverything in nature. Local shrines tothese numerous gods were called way-bil, which means “place of sleep.” From

time to time the gods had to be awak-ened and summoned to action. Despitedifferences between individual Mayacity-states across Mesoamerica, as wellas changes in beliefs and practices acrossthe centuries of the Maya civilization,the portrayal of certain primary deitiesremained constant. The roles and impor-tance of individual gods, however, var-ied, depending on the specific Mayadynasty worshipping them.

Several Maya gods and goddesses re-mained standard in appearance in im-ages throughout the Maya region andacross the centuries. The most prominentwas the supreme deity, Itzamnaaj. Be-cause of his extreme age, he was usuallyportrayed as an ancient figure with a


The Structure of theMaya Universe

Elizabeth Wagner, a scholar of Maya hieroglyphs in Bonn, Germany, points out thesignificant symbolism present in one particular version of the creation story: “The

[re-creation] of the cosmos was achieved by setting up trees at the corners and centerof the universe. The trees are associated with the colors for the cardinal points, andbirds sit in them.”

This imagery, of trees at the corners and at the center of the universe, is a com-mon theme in the Maya concept of the cosmos. Murals recently discovered at SanBartolo, a Late Preclassic site in the Petén region of northern Guatemala, feature im-ages of the five trees, each with a deity offering animal or flower sacrifices, alongwith their own blood. Some have nicknamed these murals—which were discoveredquite by accident in 2001—”the Sistine Chapel of the early Maya” because of theirage and what they reveal about ancient Maya religious thought.

Quoted in Nikolai Grube, ed., Maya: Divine Kings of the Rain Forest. Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany:h.f.ullmann, 2006–2007, p. 288.


wrinkled face, a hooked nose, and largesquare eyes resembling goggles. He waspictured wearing a headdress made of ashell that protruded from his foreheadand a headband with a mirror in theshape of a flower. A pearl-studded stripemerged from the flower mirror, repre-senting nectar or dew. The Maya associ-ated Itzamnaaj with the morning dewand collected it each day from leaves touse as sacred water in ceremonies.

Ix Chel, “Lady Rainbow,” alsoknown as Chak Chel, was Itzamnaaj’swife and the most important Mayagoddess. She ruled the night sky asgoddess of the moon and water. De-picted with a wrinkled face and a longhooked nose like her husband, she wasassociated with weaving, medicine,and childbirth. Sometimes she was pic-tured as an old, fearsome goddess, withsnakes for hair, jaguar claws for hands,and a skirt featuring skulls and cross-bones. At other times she was a beauti-ful, scantily clad young goddess linkedwith love and fertility.

K’inich Ajaw, “Sun-faced Lord,” wasthe sun god, one of the most powerfulMaya gods. A royal figure, associatedwith nobles, war, and sacrifice, his wor-ship included ritual war dances andblood sacrifice. He was pictured withbeard stubble on a wrinkled face, andthe Maya hieroglyph k’in—”sun”—onhis body. Images of his face adorn thefacades of several Classic Period tem-ples. Each night he transformed into ajaguar to travel through Xibalba.

Chaak, the rain god, was deeply re-spected by Mesoamerican civilizations

dating back to the Olmec and wasshared by many cultures in the region.Associated with the cardinal directions,he ruled lightning, thunder, and rain.Chaak was usually represented with along hooked nose and either an axe or asnake in his hand. Today’s Maya farm-ers still make offerings to Chaak.

The maize god was also called YumKaax, or Jun Ye Nal, “First Corn Cob.”His origin was linked to the resurrec-tion of Jun Junajpu, the father of theHero Twins. A young man with a re-markably handsome face, the top of hishead was sometimes depicted as an earof maize. According to scholar HeatherMcKillop, “[Jun Junajpu’s] death by de-capitation is a metaphor for the harvest-ing of corn and for death.”22 In latermurals the maize god is sometimesshown as a youthful figure divingheadfirst from the sky.

The primary god of death for theMaya was Yum Cimil, sometimes calledKimi. He ruled the lowest level ofXibalba. Though sometimes pictured asa fearsome skeletal god, he is also de-picted as a comical, grotesque figurewho has a huge protruding stomachand dances wildly. Due to the HeroTwins’ victory in Xibalba, it appears thatthe Maya did not always look at YumCimil with abject fear. Sometimes theymade fun of him, knowing he could bedeceived with rituals and clever tricks.Unlike other gods, who had flowerybreath, he spread foul smells and decay,prompting some Yucatec Maya to callhim kisin, which literally means “thefarter.”

Religious CeremoniesTo keep the universe running as it shouldand prevent disasters or the end of theworld, Maya gods had to be happy. Ritu-als, including blood sacrifice and visionquests, thus had to be performed on aregular schedule. When something badhappened—a drought or a flood, for ex-ample—it was the action of an angry godwho felt neglected or insulted.

Religious rituals took place everyday, both in peasant huts and on thesteps of great stone temples. In Mayahomes a mother offered bits of tortillato Ix Chel for the health of her child. Afarmer, before beginning his chores,burned incense and prayed to Chaak tobring rain to his fields. Some cere-monies involved offering food, tobacco,or alcoholic beverages to the gods. Oth-ers involved the most precious of offer-ings—life itself.

The sacred essence of life, called k’uh-lel, was the blood of living things. Offer-ing k’uhlel to the gods was necessary topreserve the universe. The soul inhab-ited the heart. Blood was the essence ofthe soul, making the heart the ultimatesacrifice. The type of sacrifice offered de-pended on the importance of the event.The offering might be small birds, ani-mals, or human blood.Among the Maya,human sacrifice was not as common anoccurrence as it was among the Aztec,but ritual bloodletting formed an inte-gral part of religious ceremonies. Majorevents, such as the coronation of a newruler, a natural disaster, a war, or thededication of a new temple or ball court,required human sacrifice.

For years archaeologists knew theMaya offered their own blood as an of-fering to the gods, but they believed theMaya had not practiced human sacrifice


Creating Humans

In the beginning, before the world’s creation and before the epic story of the HeroTwins, two ancient creator gods, First Mother (Ix Chel) and First Father (Itzamnaaj),

created animals. They soon realized, however, that these creatures could not speak oroffer prayers. The gods therefore ordained them to be servants to humans and to havetheir flesh eaten. The gods then tried to create humans, but their first attempts werealso unsatisfactory. When they used clay, it quickly dissolved in water. They tried us-ing wood, but that also failed. These wooden creatures looked somewhat like humansbut were still unable to speak or offer prayers. According to the Maya, these creaturesbecame monkeys. Their third attempt to create humans, using a paste made frommaize, succeeded.


until late in their history—near the endof the Postclassic Period. In 1946, how-ever, with the discovery of the Mayacity of Bonampak, these theorieschanged. Murals and sculptures foundthere—dated between A.D. 600 and800—proved the Maya, like the Aztecs,practiced human sacrifice to appeasetheir gods. Recent discoveries and thecontinuing decoding of Maya hiero-glyphics also reveal a higher level ofblood sacrifice throughout Maya his-tory than previously thought.

Blood SacrificeIndividuals—both nobles and common-ers—often pierced themselves with nee-dles and stingray spines or cut themselvesto provide blood for the sacrifice. FriarLanda described rituals he witnessed inthe Yucatán:

They offered sacrifices with theirown blood, sometimes cuttinground sections from their ears. Theirscarred ears remained as a symbol.On other occasions, they piercedholes in their cheeks and lower lipsand sometimes made incisions in[their genitals] or made holes in theirtongues from one side to the other.23

Sometimes Maya priests or nobleswished to seek the gods’ advice, andthey entered a trancelike state to do so.Scholar Arthur Demarest describes howthis was accomplished:

Ancient shamans, priests, andrulers induced their visions with the

aid of massive blood loss which nat-urally releases opiates in the brain.They also smoked powerful tobaccomixtures or drew upon the rain for-est’s natural bounty of psychotropicsubstances. Hallucinogens madefrom mushrooms were used, andperhaps extracts from morning-glories, water lilies, or the glands ofreptiles.24

However they accomplished thetrance, they believed that while in itthey could directly communicate withthe gods. Drugs, it is believed, were alsosometimes administered to captivesabout to be sacrificed, especially thosebeing prepared to be thrown into acenote. Several accounts written bySpaniards during the Spanish Conquesttell of victims voluntarily leaping intothe deep natural wells.

During the Classic Period many pris-oners of war—always men—were alsosacrificed. Captured kings often weredecapitated. Other prisoners werestripped, bound, and paraded throughthe streets in humiliation. Some cap-tives were imprisoned, tortured, andpublicly humiliated for years before be-ing sacrificed. Atop the temple pyra-mid, each victim was bent backwardover a stone altar and was held downwhile a priest split open his chest andremoved his beating heart. The victim’sblood was burned in a vessel on thetemple steps, and his body wasbutchered and eaten by priests and oth-ers attending the ceremony. The headsof decapitated victims were usually


This segment of a mural found at the Maya city of Bonampak shows Maya warriorspresenting captives (whose heads are visible at the bottom of the image) to their king.During the Classic Period, many male prisoners of war were imprisoned, tortured, andpublicly humiliated before being sacrificed.


impaled on poles in the plaza or kept inthe palace as trophies and buried in thetombs of dead rulers. Captured womenwere sold as slaves.

Visual representations and writtendescriptions of Maya religious ritualstell scholars a lot about the ClassicMaya, but the vast majority of sources

that would explain their thoughts andbeliefs have been lost to history. Tolearn why the Classic Period came to anabrupt end in A.D. 900, and why Mayasociety changed so dramatically be-tween that date and the arrival of theSpanish in the 1500s, scientists continueto dig for answers.


Many of today’s Maya live astheir ancestors did during theClassic Period. In rural Meso-

america some Maya farmers still live insmall thatched-roof houses, wear simplecotton clothes, and grow corn using toolsthat have changed little since the glorydays of Tikal. The Yucatec Maya still callthemselves the Mazehualob—”the Peopleof the Maize”—and follow a version ofthe ancient 260-day Maya calendar, call-ing it chol q’iij—”Count of Days.” Most oftoday’s Maya speak a mixture of Spanishand various Mayan languages. They wor-ship using a combination of Christianityand elements of the Maya religion of theirancestors, including a ceremony honoringChaak, the Maya god of rain.

The causes of the ancient Maya civi-lization’s decline have been debated forcenturies. Some early scholars speculatedit was caused by a sudden, cataclysmicevent like an earthquake, a volcaniceruption, or a particularly destructive

hurricane. But these theories have beendisproved, partly because the collapseextended over two hundred years. Somesuspect an epidemic similar to the BlackDeath in medieval Europe wiped out alarge part of the population.

Some have suggested a large-scale re-volt by commoners against abuses of thenoble classes, an invasion, or the resultof ongoing savage warfare between rivalMaya city-states. Others argue that theClassic Maya overpopulated their lands,exhausted their soils, and reaped de-struction because of their own short-sightedness. Today, based on scientificand historical evidence, it seems all thesefactors, including climate changes—specifically extreme droughts—led totheir decline.

The Postclassic Periodand CollapseThe final time period associated withancient Maya studies is the Postclassic.

Postclassic andModern Maya

Epilogue

Postclassic and Modern Maya � 81

It extends from the collapse of the Clas-sic Maya city-states in A.D. 900 to the ar-rival of the Spanish in force in 1527.Some scholars designate the last centuryof the Classic and the first of the Post-classic as the Terminal Classic Period(800–1000) because radical changes tookplace during those centuries, leading tothe collapse of the cities.

Civilization during the Classic Pe-riod proved impossible to maintain inthe hostile physical environment of thesouthern Yucatán. Scholars believeoverpopulation and overuse of naturalresources eventually caused the aban-donment of Palenque, Tikal, Cobá, andCopán. With the abandonment of Clas-sic Maya cities in the southern low-lands and the subsequent migration oflarge groups of people from thosecities, populated areas in the northernYucatán and the southern highlandsgained influence. There is also ampleevidence of strong political influencefrom civilizations in central Mexico.

Postclassic cities in the northern Yu-catán lowlands, such as Uxmal, Kabáh,Labná, Chichén Itzá and Mayapán, wereapparently influenced in art, architec-ture, and religious practices by theToltec, a warlike culture that some scien-tists believe flourished in central Mexicoduring the tenth to twelfth centuries A.D.Postclassic Maya cities were smaller, lessornately decorated, and less skillfullyconstructed than Classic cities. Thesechanges may have been due either toscarcity of food resulting from droughtor as the result of political and militaryinfluence from the Toltecs. Many Post-

classic cities also had defensive wallssurrounding the city’s center, possiblyindicating constant warfare.

By the time the Spanish arrived inthe 1520s, the Maya civilization hadevolved into something entirely differ-ent from the Classic Period. The Mayahad migrated away from their stonecities to two regions: the southern high-lands of their Preclassic ancestors, andnorth and east to the coastal areas of theYucatán. They remained obsessed withthe calendar, worshipped many gods,and used hieroglyphics. They also es-tablished extensive sea trade routesaround the Gulf of Mexico and into theCaribbean Sea.

The Conquest and BeyondThe remaining Maya kingdoms offeredfierce resistance to Spain, but they wereno match for Spanish firepower, nordid they have defenses against Spanishdiseases. During the first ten to twentyyears of Spanish occupation, hundredsof thousands of Maya died from small-pox and other diseases against whichthey had no natural immunity. Spanishsoldiers brought southern kingdomsunder their control by 1527 and north-ern kingdoms by 1546. Maya kingdomsin isolated forests of the central high-lands held out against the Spanish until1697. Decimated by warfare and dis-ease, the Maya suffered more than theannihilation of much of their popula-tion. They also suffered the irreparableloss of their history at the overzealoushands of Spanish priests, who orderedtheir books burned, many of their idols

smashed, and forbade the use of theirlanguage.

And yet the Maya endured. They en-dured the collapse of their civilizationand the virtual decimation of theirnumbers from disease. They suffered aprolonged, bloody conquest at thehands of the Spanish, refusing to sub-mit to Spanish control until the finalMaya community—Tayasal on LakePetén Itzá in Guatemala—was con-quered in 1697. They endured brutal at-tempts by priests to convert them toChristianity. They endured centuries ofdiscrimination, first at the hands of

Spanish colonizers, and later at thehands of descendants of those con-querors, people they called ladinos—Hispanic or Hispanicized individualswho moved into their territory andpushed the Maya to the fringes.

Resistance against outside attempts todestroy their culture has kept the Mayastrong and has preserved their culture. In1847 Maya peasants in the Yucatán re-belled against the high taxes and unfairland policies of newly independent Mex-ico in a conflict called the Caste War. Formore than a year, Maya rebels foughtwith muskets and machetes until they


The ruins of the ancient Maya city of Tulum rest on the coastal cliffs of the YucatánPeninsula and continued to be a thriving Maya city even after the Spanish arrivedin the 1520s.


had control of virtually the entire YucatánPeninsula. Then, in 1848, on the verge ofstorming Mérida, the region’s largest city,they faltered and were driven back intothe eastern jungles.

Regrouping, some Maya establishedan independent nation called Noj KajSanta Cruz Xbalam Naj, also called ChanSanta Cruz (“Little Holy Cross”). It ex-tended along the east coast of Yucatán,from just north of the Maya ruins of Tu-lum, south to the Mexico/British Hon-duras (now Belize) border. Partly becauseof extensive trade, the British governmentrecognized Noj Kaj Santa Cruz XbalamNaj as an independent nation. Historybooks usually list 1901 as the date this in-dependent Maya nation was conqueredby Mexican troops, but fierce resistanceactually continued into the 1940s. Todaydescendants of the rebels live in QuintanaRoo, Mexico, and call themselves Cru-zo’ob Maya. They still resist integrationinto the Mexican state.

The Great TerrorIn the 1970s and 1980s Maya citizens ofGuatemala suffered horribly at the handsof a militaristic government that seemedintent on destroying their culture. OnMay 29, 1978, a unit of the Guatemalanarmy opened fire on a group of peopleprotesting land policies. Many of themwere Maya. More than one hundred pro-testers were killed. Later the governmentinstituted a resettlement policy aimed ateliminating indigenous culture, all in thename of unifying the nation under oneculture and one language. According toNikolai Grube:

The suppression of the native pop-ulation in the early 1980s took onthe dimensions of genocide. Unionmembers, Catholic activists, andteachers were abducted by deathsquads and tortured and murdered.Maya demonstrations fell understorms of bullets, the entire malepopulations of villages were shotand secretly buried in mass graves,women were raped, and childrenwere forced into military service.Maya villages disappeared from themaps, and whole tracts of land (suchas the Ixil region) were depopulated.Thosewhohad survived andnot fledwere forcibly resettled into so-calledmodel villages, whose chessboardpatterns of streets were watched bysoldiers. The statistics convey an im-pression of the extent of the blood-bath and the human misery of theseyears, forwhich theMaya simplyusethe Spanish term violencia: 150,000dead, at least 1 million refugees intheir own country, and 400,000refugees inneighboring countries, theUSA, and Europe.25

In 1984, thanks to pressure from theworld community, the Guatemalan gov-ernment ceased its repressive tacticsagainst the Maya. However, more subtleefforts continued in Guatemala andneighboring Mexico. Mayan languageswere repressed as “dialects.” No mentionof pre–Spanish Conquest history ap-peared in Guatemalan or Mexican text-books. In some cases the achievements ofthe Classic Maya were attributed to other


cultures. The overwhelming influence ofmodern North American pop culture onthe young also has served to further sep-arate today’s Maya from their culturalheritage.

The Maya Renaissance andthe Maya MovementToday in both Mexico and Guatemala,the Maya are making their voicesheard. In 1994 a guerrilla group namedthe Zapatista National Liberation Army(Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Na-cional, or EZLN) stormed San Cristóbalde las Casas, a large city in central Chi-apas, Mexico. The group waged a

largely nonviolent but armed conflictagainst the Mexican state. The EZLNstandoff with Mexico persists today, inpart because of widespread supportfrom around the world through the In-ternet and other media.

Today the Maya in Guatemala, thenation with the largest Maya popula-tion, are not waging war against theirgovernment, but they have reason tohope. Elections in December 1995brought a national government thatwas less anti-Maya. Under the auspicesof the United Nations, investigationsinto human rights violations have com-menced, displaced indigenous peoples

EZLN supporters protest against the Mexican government in 2001. The EZLN has beenable to gain worldwide support due to the Internet and other media outlets.


are being resettled, cultural identity andhuman rights have been guaranteed,and Mayan languages are again beingtaught in schools.

Maya communities are now beginningto organize and play more prominentroles in national politics and public pol-icy making. Maya groups in Mexico,Guatemala, and Belize are demandingthe return of control over their ancestors’cities from local governments and for-eign archaeologists, museums, and uni-versities. Maya publishers are printingbooks and establishing Web sites inMayan languages. Young Maya are ex-changing their Spanish names for namesof Maya origin.

Maya politicians—mostly women—have been elected to positions in the na-tional government of Guatemala. Mayaarchaeologists and epigraphers workside by side with scientists from othercountries, striving to make the history,language, and culture of their peopleknown to the world. Maya activists areleading the way in a renewed conserva-tion movement—one designed to pre-serve the natural environment and toprotect their cultural heritage by creating

national parks around major Late Pre-classic and Classic Maya sites. The pro-posed Cuatro B’alam (“Four Jaguars”)National Park, located in the middle ofthe Maya Biosphere Reserve in northernGuatemala, will be one of the world’slargest economically sustainable archae-ological and wildlife parks.

During her acceptance of the 1992 No-bel Peace Prize, author and indigenousrights activist Rigoberta Menchú Tumsummarized the Maya worldview andtheir cautious optimism for the future:

We have in our mind the deepestfelt demands of the entire humanrace, when we strive for peaceful co-existence and the preservation of theenvironment. The struggle we fightpurifies and shapes the future. Ourhistory is a living history, that hasthrobbed, withstood and survivedmany centuries of sacrifice. Now itcomes forward again with strength.The seeds, dormant for such a longtime, break out today with some un-certainty, although they germinate ina world that is at present character-ized by confusion and uncertainty.26


Chapter One: The Rise of theMaya1. Nikolai Grube, ed., introduction toMaya: Divine Kings of the Rain Forest.Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany: h.f.ullmann, 2006–2007, p. 11.

2. Victor Wolfgang von Hagen, MayaExplorer: John Lloyd Stephens and theLost Cities of Central America and Yu-catán. Norman: University of Okla-homa Press, 1948, p. 75.

3. Quoted in Bruce Norman, Footsteps:Nine Archaeological Journeys of Ro-mance and Discovery. Topsfield, MA:Salem House, 1988, pp. 170–71.

4. Quoted in Norman, Footsteps, pp.173, 178.

5. Arthur Demarest, Ancient Maya: TheRise and Fall of a Rainforest Civiliza-tion. New York: Cambridge Univer-sity Press, 2004, p. 114.

6. Guy Gugliotta, “The Kingmaker,”National Geographic, August 2007,p. 76.

Chapter Two: Maya Nobilityof the Classic Period7. Simon Martin and Nikolai Grube,Chronicle of the Maya Kings andQueens: Deciphering the Dynasties ofthe Ancient Maya. London: Thames& Hudson, 2000, p. 14.

8. Nikolai Grube and Simon Martin,“The Dynastic History of the

Maya,” inMaya: Divine Kings of theRain Forest., p. 157.

9. Michael D. Coe, The Maya. 7th ed.New York: Thames & Hudson, 2005,p. 207.

10. Coe, The Maya, p. 207.11. Charles Gallenkamp,Maya: The Rid-dle and Rediscovery of a Lost Civiliza-tion. New York: Viking Penguin,1985, p. 126.

Chapter Three: Commonersof the Classic Period12. Demarest, Ancient Maya, p. 116.13. Quoted in Roger Atwood, “Maya

Root: Did an Ugly, Waxy Tuber Feeda Great Civilization?” Archaeology,July/August 2009, p. 60.

14. Peter D. Harrison, “Maya Agricul-ture,” in Maya: Divine Kings of theRain Forest, p. 74.

Chapter Four: GreatestAchievements15. Heather McKillop, The AncientMaya: New Perspectives. New York:Norton, 2004, p. 293.

16. Michael D. Coe, Breaking the MayaCode, rev. ed. New York: Thames &Hudson, 1999, p. 7.

17. Quoted inNOVA, “Cracking theMayaCode,” WGBH Educational Founda-tion, 2008. www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/3506_mayacode.html.

Notes

Notes � 87

18. Quoted in NOVA, “Cracking theMaya Code.”

19. Quoted in Grube, ed.,Maya, p. 143.20. Quoted in Grube, ed.,Maya, p. 141.

Chapter Five: The SpiritRealm21. Quoted in Grube, ed.,Maya, p. 268.22. McKillop, The Ancient Maya, p. 218.23. Quoted in Grube, ed.,Maya, p. 265.

24. Demarest, Ancient Maya, p. 192.

Epilogue: Postclassic andModern Maya25. Grube, ed.,Maya, p. 422.26. Quoted in NobelPrize.org, “Rigoberta

Menchú Tum: The Nobel Peace Prize1992.” http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1992/tum-lecture.html.


BooksTony Allen and Tom Lowentstein, Godsof Sun and Sacrifice. Amsterdam:Time-Life, 1997. This lavishly illus-trated study of Aztec and Maya reli-gious beliefs and practices includesextensive retelling of the Popol Vuh.

Elizabeth Baquedano and Barry Clark,Aztec, Inca, and Maya. New York: DK,2005. Stunning photos, full-color art,and informative text give an overviewof these three pre-Columbian civiliza-tions.

Sheri Bell-Reholdt, Amazing Maya Inven-tions You Can Build Yourself. WhiteRiver Junction, VT: Nomad, 2007. Thisinformative book offers twenty-fivehands-on projects associated withthe Maya civilization. It includesprojects dealing with the vigesimalnumbering system, building a modelpyramid, making ceremonial masks,creating a screen-fold “codex,” learn-ing to read hieroglyphs, and creatinga Maya calendar wheel.

Arlette N. Braman, The Maya: Activitiesand Crafts from a Mysterious Land.Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons,2003. This book provides activities,recipes, and crafts from the Mayacivilization, along with text coveringMaya history, society, and daily life.Projects include a mosaic mask, mak-ing corn cakes and chili chocolate

drink, building a model pyramid,and playing Bul, a Maya children’sgame.

Michael D. Coe, The Maya. 7th ed. NewYork: Thames & Hudson, 2005. Thiscomplete study of the Maya is writtenby a leading Maya scholar. It is illus-trated with color and black-and-whitephotography.

Laurie Colter, Ballplayer and Bonesetter:One Hundred Ancient Aztec and MayaJobs You Might Have Adored or Ab-horred. Toronto: Annick, 2008. Color-ful cartoons humorously illustratethis guide to jobs one might havehad during the Aztec and Maya civi-lizations, including palace jobs, foodand drink jobs, military service,beauty or health careers, ballplayers,or midwives.

Nancy Day, Your Travel Guide to the An-cient Maya Civilization. New York:Lerner, 2000. This book takes readersback in time to the days of the Mayacivilization. It tells them what theyshould wear, where they should go,what they should expect to eat. Itcovers the period from A.D. 600 to800, during the Classic Period.

Chris Eboch, Life Among the Maya.Farmington Hills, MI: Lucent Books,2005. This is a detailed, informativedescription of everyday life amongthe Maya.

For More Information

For More Information � 89

Nikolai Grube, ed.,Maya: Divine Kings ofthe Rain Forest. Nordrhein-Westfalen,Germany: h.f. ullmann, 2006–2007. Aremarkable coffee-table book with ex-tensively researched articles aboutevery aspect of the Maya civilizationand lavish, full-color photographs,maps, and charts. It has an extensiveglossary of Maya terms, lists of majorMaya sites, and world museums withMaya exhibits. This is probably the de-finitive source on the Maya, written bysome of the best Maya scholars in theworld. Amust-see book!

Elizabeth Mann, Tikal: The Center of theMaya World. New York: Mikaya,2002. An overview of the Maya civi-lization, as seen from Tikal. This bookincludes colorful full-page and double-page illustrations.

Lila Perl, The Ancient Maya. New York:Scholastic Library, 2005. This illus-trated, appealing, and informative workexplores Maya civilization through itssocial structure. Sidebars highlight ar-chaeological discoveries, and it con-tains a biographical dictionary ofimportant people and a timeline.

Robert J. Sharer, Daily Life in Maya Civi-lization. Westport, CT: Greenwood,1996. An overview of the Maya, witha section focusing on what lessonsmodern societies should learn fromwhat happened to the Maya.

VideosThe Ancient Maya: Tools of Astronomy.

DVD. New York: A&E Home Video,2006. This video offers a look at Mayaastronomy and how their discoveriesand techniques have influencedmodern astronomy.

Apocalypto. DVD. Directed by MelGibson. Burbank, CA: Touchstone/Disney, 2007. Mel Gibson’s movieabout the Maya civilization providesexcellent details about daily life in arural Maya village, including types ofclothing, food, houses, jewelry, andhairstyles. However, because themovie is set at the time of the arrival ofthe Spanish, certain details about thelevel of Maya civilization—such ascity-states populated with thousandsof people and priests practicing humansacrifice atop pyramids—may not behistorically accurate. Nevertheless, it isa good peek into the Maya world, in-cluding the use of Yucatec Maya as thelanguage in the movie, with Englishsubtitles.

Mystery of the Maya. DVD. Directed byBarrie Howells. Menlo Park, CA: Ra-zor Digital Entertainment, 1998. Origi-nally made for IMAX theaters, thisvideo makes the viewer feel as thoughhe or she is actually creeping throughCentral American jungles beforeemerging to see Maya ruins.

NOVA: Cracking the Maya Code. DVD.Directed by David Lebrun. Boston:WGBH, 2008. NOVA tells the story ofhow Maya hieroglyphs were finallydeciphered, with lots of backgroundinformation on the Maya civilization.Available for viewing on PBS’sNOVAWeb site, www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/mayacode.

NOVA: Lost King of the Maya. DVD. Di-rected by Gary Glassman. Boston:WGBH, 2007. This video is an exami-nation of Maya murals and hiero-glyphs, leading to discoveries of thetombs of Maya kings.

Palenque: Metropolis of the Maya. DVD.A&E Home Video, 2006. An in-depthlook at Palenque, with backgroundabout the Maya civilization.

Web SitesCracking the Maya Code (www.pbs

.org/wgbh/nova/mayacode/). ThisPBS Web site is based on NOVA’svideo program of the same name. Itfeatures interactive pages, videoclips, and lavish illustrations.

Foundation for the Advancement ofMesoamerican Studies, Inc. (www.famsi.org). An extensive Web sitewith up-to-the-minute informationon current discoveries, excavations,and more. It also features maps, charts,and photographs of Maya sites.

Guatemala: Cradle of the Maya Civi-lization (www.authenticmaya.com).This site focuses on the Maya inGuatemala and has links to maps, aphoto gallery, and lots of informationabout various aspects of Maya life,then and now.

Jaguar Sun (www.jaguar-sun.com).This is a private Web site created byJeeni Criscenzo del Rio, the author ofseveral books on the Maya. It fea-tures links to pages about the Mayanumbering system, calendar, a re-telling of the Popol Vuh, and excerptsfrom Criscenzo del Rio’s novel.

Lost King of the Maya (www.pbs.org/nova/wgbh/maya/). This PBS siteaccompanies the NOVA video pro-gram of the same name. It featuresinteractive maps, video clips, and ex-tensive information.

Maya Rise and Fall (http://ngm/nationalgeographic.com/2007/08/maya-rise-fall/gugliotta.text). This site,which is part of the National Geo-graphic Society, is based on a NationalGeographic article of the same name. Itfeatures links to interactive maps anda quiz on Maya knowledge.

Museum CollectionsCleveland Museum of Art. Located in

Cleveland, Ohio, this museum holdsone of the largest collections of Mayaart in the United States, includingsome stelae, ceramic vessels, jade fig-urines, and a fine assortment ofMaya shell jewelry.

Dumbarton Oaks Research Libraryand Collection. This museum, lo-cated in Washington, D.C., containsstone monuments, relief tablets, dec-orated ceramics, figurines, and jew-elry made from alabaster and jade.

FieldMuseum of Natural History. ThisChicago, Illinois, museum has a largecollection of Maya ceramics and tex-tiles from Guatemala.

Metropolitan Museum of Art. Thismuseum, located in New York City,offers a large collection of shell andjade jewelry as well as painted andrelief-ornamented ceramics, stonestelae, and wood sculpture.

Museum of Fine Arts. Located inBoston, Massachusetts, this museumboasts one of the most outstandingcollections of painted Maya ceramicvessels.

PeabodyMuseum of American Archae-ology and Ethnology. The PeabodyMuseum in Cambridge, Massachu-


For More Information � 91

setts, contains an extensive collectionof Maya sculptures and ceramics.

University Museum. Located in Phila-delphia, Pennsylvania, this museum

holds artifacts brought back from itsown expeditions of the 1930s and1940s, including stelae, sculpture, ce-ramics, and jade figurines.

AAfterlife, 67–68Agricultural practices, 45, 51–52Amapolla tree (Pseudobombax elipticum), 46Archaic Period (7000–2000 B.C.), 18Arches, corbelled, 52Architectural developments, 52–53Artisans/craftsmen, 38, 39, 40Astrology, 47Astronomy, 23, 55, 57, 59Aztec Sun Stone, 60, 62

BBall game, Mesoamerican. SeeMesoamerican ball gameBiología Centrali-Americana (Maudslay), 18Blood sacrifice, 77, 78, 79Body adornments, 33–35, 37Bonampak, 27The Books of Chilam Balam (Books of theJaguar Prophet), 69

Breadnut/ramon tree (Brosimumalicastrum), 46

CCacao (Theobroma cacao), 46Calendar, 30, 60, 62–63of Modern Maya, 80

Camera lucida, 23Caste War (1847–1848), 82–83Castle at Tulum Overtaken by Vegetation(Catherwood), 23

Catherwood, Frederick, 13, 14, 15, 18, 23Cement, 52–53Cerén (Maya site), 41, 42–43, 44, 50Chaak (deity), 67–68, 68, 75–76Chacmool, 61Chak Tok Ich’aak (Great Jaguar Paw), 25Children, 47, 49Chocolate, 47Chronicle of Maya Kings and Queens (Grube

and Simon), 28, 33Cities, 8of Classic Period, 23, 25layout of, 18–20Postclassic, 81Preclassic, 12–13

City-states, 23Classic Period (300–900 A.D.)cities of, 23, 25nobility of, 27–37

Codex Grolier, 72Codices, 11, 72Coe, Michael D., 35–36, 57Commoners (yalba uinicob), 27, 32body adornments of, 37family life of, 47, 49–50limited knowledge about, 37

Copán, 16, 23pyramids at, 54, 55

Creation myths, 69–71, 74, 76Cruzo’ob Maya, 83Cuatro B’alam (Four Jaguars) NationalPark, 85

DDemarest, Arthur, 18, 41, 77Dresden Codex, 72

EEarth, Maya conception of, 68El Castillo (pyramid), 61El Mirador, 22Elite (ah mehenob), 27End of world, Maya prediction of, 66

FFace painting, 35Family life, 47, 49Farmers, 40, 43See alsoAgricultural practices

Foods/diet, 43–44, 46


Index

Index � 93

GGallenkamp, Charles, 37Grube, Nikolai, 12–13, 16, 28on The Great Terror, 83on king’s headdress, 29on role of scribes, 33

GuatemalaMaya movement in, 84–85twentieth century genocide of Maya in,83–84

Gugliotta, Guy, 26

HHaab calendar, 60, 62Hairstyles, 34–35Halach Winik, 9Head shaping, 35, 37Headdresses, of kings, 29Hero Twins (Junajpu and Xb’alanke),70–71, 76

Hieroglyphs, 9, 10, 11, 55, 56breakthroughs in decoding of, 12in royal tombs, 30

Housing, peasant, 40–41

IIncidents of Travel in Central America,Chiapas, and Yucatán (Stephens), 15

Initiation rites, 33Itzamnaaj (deity), 69, 70, 71, 74–75, 76Ix Chel (Chak Chel, deity), 75, 76

JJade, 36Jewelry, 36, 37Jun Junaj pu (One Blow-gun), 70

KK’inich Ajaw (deity), 68, 71, 73, 75Kukulcán (deity), 61

LLabna, 9Lakamtuun (stone monuments), 28See also Stelae

Landa, Diego de, 11, 38, 49, 69, 77Landowners (uytzam chinamital), 32Long Count, 63, 66Lucas, George, 54

MMadrid Codex, 72, 72

Maize (corn), 43, 44, 46Manioc root, 43Marriage, 47, 49Martin, Simon, 28, 33Mathematics, 59–60Maudslay, Alfred Percival, 15–18MayaClassic Period, 23, 25–26Early Preclassic Period, 20–21Late Preclassic Period, 23Middle Preclassic Period, 22–23modern, locations of, 8, 85Postclassic Period, 80–81prehistoric, 18settlement patterns, 18–20view of universe, 67–69, 74Maya, Diving Kings of the Rain Forest(Grube), 16

Maya Renaissance, 84–85Mayan (language), 9written, 56–57The Maya (Coe), 35McKillop, Heather, 56–57, 75Merchants/tradesmen, 40Mesoamerican ball game, 22Mesoamerican civilizations, time periodsof, 18

Mexico, Maya movement in, 84–85

NNational Geographic (magazine), 26Nobility, of Classic Period, 27, 32–33body adornment of, 33–35initiation rites of, 33

Noj Kaj Santa Cruz Xbalam Naj (ChanSanta Cruz), 83

OObservatories, 57, 58Olmec people, 22

PPalenque, 13, 23pyramids at, 52, 54, 55

Plazuela (settlement pattern), 18, 18–20Popol Vuh (The Council Book/The Book, ofCounsel), 69, 70

Postclassic Period (900–1527 A.D.), 80–81cities of, 81

Preclassic Period (2000 B.C.–300 A.D.),20–23

cities of, 12–13Priests, 31, 32, 47role as doctors, 49

Pyramids, 13, 51characteristics of, 53–55El Castillo, 61sources of stone for, 52stacked, 54at Tikal, 53use of astronomy in building, 59at Uxmal, Mexico, 13

QQuetzalcoatl (Aztec deity), 61, 61Quiriguá, 16–17

RReligion/religious ceremonies, 30, 32, 49,76–77importance in Classic Maya culture, 64,66

Maya Panthenon, 71, 73–75Mayan calendar and, 60, 63

Remedies, folk, 49Royalty, of Classic Period, 27–28lifestyles of, 28–30role in communicating with gods, 30

SSan Bartolo, 23, 74Scarring patterns, 35Schele, Linda, 57Scribes (aj tz’ib), 32, 33, 57Sheets, Payson, 44Siyaj K’ak’ (“Fire is Born,” warlord), 25–26Social ranking, 27revealed in architecture/artifacts ofhouseholds, 41

Spanish Conquest (1527–1697), 11, 81–82Star Wars (film), 54Stelae (monuments), 22, 24, 25, 34, 55, 56depicting royalty, 28information about royalty on, 29reading hieroglyphs on, 56–57

Stephens, John Lloyd, 13, 14, 15

TTakalik Abaj (Maya site), 59Tattooing, 35Taub, Karl, 73–74Teotihuacán, 11invasion from, 25

Terminal Classic Period (800–1000), 81Tikal, 17invasion of, 25–26plazuela in, 19population density of, 44pyramids of, 52, 53ruins of, 17

Timemeasurement of, 60–61mystical significance of, 63–64

Tojil (deity), 71Tulum, 82Tum, Rigoberta Menchú, 852012 (film), 66Tzolk’in (ritual calendar), 63

UUniverse, Maya view of, 67–69, 74

VVan Buren, Martin, 14Venus, 63, 64Von Hagen, Victor Wolfgang, 15Voss, Alexander W., 60, 63

WWagner, Elizabeth, 74Women, role of, 49World Tree, 69Wuqub’ Junaj pu (Seven Blow-gun), 70

YYum Cimil (Kimi, deity), 75–76Yum Kaax (Jun Ye Nal, deity), 75–76

ZZapatista National Liberation Army(Ejército Zapatista de LiberaciónNacional, EZLN), 84


Picture Credits � 95

Cover Image copyright Olga Utyakova, 2009. Used under license from Shutterstock.com.Apic/Hulton Archive/Getty Images, 72The Art Archive/Museo Ciudad Mexico/Gianni Dagli Orti/The Picture Desk, Inc., 61The Art Archive/National Anthropological Museum Mexico/Gianni Dagli Orti/The

Picture Desk, Inc., 9, 73© Stefano Bianchett/Corbis, 7Bettman/Corbis, 7Bernard Bisson/Sygma/Corbis, 84Image copyright Bzzuspajk, 2010. Used under license from Shutterstock.com, 6Sissie Brimberg/National Geographic/Getty Images, 45Image copyright Sam Chadwick, 2010. Used under license from Shutterstock.com, 54Martha Cooper/National Geographic/Getty Images, 21The Creation of Man, page from “Popul Vuh” (w/c on paper), Rivera, Diego (1886-

1957)/Museo Casa Diego Rivera (INBA), 70© Dianni Dagli Orti/Corbis, 14De Agostini Picture Library/De Agonstini/Getty Images, 10© Werner Forman/Corbis, 31Kenneth Garrett/National Geographic/Getty Images, 36Image copyright Hannah Gieghorn, 2010. Used under license from Shutterstock.com, 62Guanajuato, Mexico/Index/The Bridgeman Art Library, 70© Jack Hollingsworth/Corbis, 29© Cindy Miller Hopkins/Danita Delimont/Alamy, 42-43Image copyright kschrei, 2010. Used under license from Shutterstock.com, 17© Otto Lang/Corbis, 24© Charles and Josie Lenars/Corbis, 28, 56Image copyright rj lerich, 2010. Used under license from Shutterstock.com, 19© Craig Lowell/Corbis, 53, 68Model of a ballgame (pottery), Mayan/Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts, USA/The

Bridgeman Art Library, 65© Francis G. Mayer/Corbis, 6,Joyce Naltchayan/AFP/Getty Images, 7Image copyright Pierdelune, 2010. Used under license from Shutterstock.com, 58© Carl & Ann Purcell/Corbis, 82Image copyright Qing Ding, 2010. Used under license from Shutterstock.com, 13Terry W. Rutledge/National Geographic/Getty Images, 34, 39, 48SEF/Art Resource, NY, 78Time Life Pictures/NASA/JPL/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images, 64

Picture Credits


About the Author

Charles and Linda George have been writing children’s nonfiction books for morethan ten years. They have nearly sixty books in print on a wide variety of sub-jects—from ancient civilizations to world religions, from the Holocaust to civilrights and black nationalism, from working dogs to the world’s pyramids. TheGeorges were both teachers in Texas schools before “retiring” to write. They livein a small town in western Texas.

Maya Civilization


Maya C

ivilizationLU

CEN

T BO

OK

S

The World History series examines the eras, events, civilizations, and movements that have shaped human history, providing readers with insight into the past and its many legacies. Vivid writing, full-color photographs and extensive use of fully cited primary and secondary source quotations provide a sense of immediacy. Sidebars, time lines, indexes, and annotated bibliographies, which appear in every volume, offer a wealth of additional information as well as provide launching points for further discussion and study.

9781420502404_WH-MAYA CIVILIZATION.indd 1 6/3/10 5:36 PM

Documents

Maya Civilization · 2020. 1. 29. · Maya Civilization Charles and Linda George Maya Civilization LUCENT BOOKS The World History series examines the eras, events, civilizations,