The Rise of the Maya

A hundred and fifty years of painstaking archaeological inquiry allows us today to understand how the Maya emerged to transform the rain forest of Central America into a scene of urban civilization. By 1000 B.c. the Maya were settled agriculturalists growing a variety of crops in clearings in the forest, which they turned into villages They appear to have lived in a society of equals, without clear rulers or ceremonial centers. Then between 800 and 500 B.C, signs of a ruling elite within Maya society start to emerge in the form of elaborate burial monuments. At Los Mangales in the Salama Valley of highland Mexico, a chief was buried on a special mortuary platform accompanied by rich grave goods of jade and shell. Slightly later the ceremonial center at El Portón was built, involving the construction of earth terraces and platforms, on which were located altars and standing stones. one with a brief written inscription, although too damaged to be read today.

In the lowlands of Guatemala and the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, vast ceremonial centers appeared quite suddenly after 600 B.C. At Nakbe in northern Guatemala, the site was swiftly transformed from a modest village into a city with a major monumental structure at its heart. A massive platform was constructed on the ruins of the original settlement, on top of which were a series of terraced buildings up to 60 feet tall. Without any doubt we can see here the development of a more complex society. From 400 B.C. to Ad 250, major ceremonial centers developed in all parts of the Maya area, many carved out of the tropical rain forest that covered the southern lowlands of Guatemala. Belize, and Mexico. These cities were dominated by enormous terraced platforms, some forming giant temple-pyramids. Vast palaces of limestone masonry with vaulted rooms were constructed. set within architectural layouts that emphasized the most important buildings of a city, arranged around plazas with rows of standing stones lined up in front of them. A highly sophisticated art style emerged, seen in bas-reliefs, wall paintings, and beautiful pottery with multicolored fired decorations. Hieroglyphic writing became widespread, and inscriptions can be dated using the Maya Long Count, an elaborate but incredibly accurate calendarical system.

Earlier generations of archaeologists considered the great Maya cities to be purely ceremonial centers. In this view. the cities were occupied only by their peace-loving priestly rulers and their attendants except at great festivals. The British Mayanist Sir Eric Thompson, working at the Field Museum of Chicago, suggested that the Maya character encouraged the development of religious authority, and that their devoutness, discipline, and respect for authority would have facilitated the emergence of a theocracy.

This was not, however, an age of peace ruled over by unworldly priests living in solitude among the temples. In the last 25 years, a succession of remarkable breakthroughs has enabled us to read the Maya’s hieroglyphic language. Whereas Thompson and others assumed that inscriptions outside temples concerned complex matters of astronomy and calendric systems that fascinated the priests, the translations now available show beyond any doubt that the cities were ruled by an aristocracy that was firmly secular (not based on religion) and indeed warlike in outlook. Hieroglyphic writing on monuments was mainly used to record the achievements of Maya rulers, especially in war. Victory stones were erected outside the temples, bearing the names of famous captives. Great monuments were liberally marked with the names and faces of the rulers who commissioned them.

Excavation has also played its part in overturning the established picture of Maya cities. Vital evidence that the cities were not just ceremonial centers has now been found at many lowland sites. On the outskirts of cities such as El Mirador are groups of low, rectangular mounds of earth and stone long ignored, but which archaeological investigations have now shown were occupied by small wooden houses, raised above the level of the summer flooding-humble dwellings that housed the ordinary inhabitants who served the aristocrats living in palaces at the heart of the city.

1.A hundred and fifty years of?painstaking?archaeological inquiry allows us today to understand how the Maya emerged to transform the rain forest of Central America into a scene of urban civilization. By 1000 B.c. the Maya were settled agriculturalists growing a variety of crops in clearings in the forest, which they turned into villages They appear to have lived in a society of equals, without clear rulers or ceremonial centers. Then between 800 and 500 B.C, signs of a ruling elite within Maya society start to emerge in the form of elaborate burial monuments. At Los Mangales in the Salama Valley of highland Mexico, a chief was buried on a special mortuary platform accompanied by rich grave goods of jade and shell. Slightly later the ceremonial center at El Portón was built, involving the construction of earth terraces and platforms, on which were located altars and standing stones. one with a brief written inscription, although too damaged to be read today.?