History of Maya civilization

Terminal Preclassic from AD 159 to 250. The late or terminal Preclassic murals found in San Bartolo provide important information regarding mythology and royal inauguration ritual around 100 BC.

Tikal played a crucial role in obsidian procurement, production, and distribution during the Classic. Tikal dominated the Great Western Trade Route that transported the widely used El Chayal obsidian during the Early Classic (250-550 AD).

The Preclassic period in Maya history stretches from the beginning of permanent village life c. 1000 BC until the advent of the Classic Period c. 250 AD.

This period marked the peak of large-scale construction and urbanism, the recording of monumental inscriptions, and demonstrated significant intellectual and artistic development, particularly in the southern lowland regions.

Jaina Island is a pre-Columbian Maya archaeological site in the present-day Mexican state of Campeche. Jaina Island figurine representing a Classic period warrior.

The Maya reached the height of their civilization during the Classic Period of Maya civilization (A.D 250 to 900).

Classic Era Maya urban design could easily be described as the division of space by great monuments and causeways. In this case, the open public plazas were the gathering places for the people and the focus of the urban design, while interior space was entirely secondary.

Maya cities develop into more fortress-like defensive structures that lacked, for the most part, the large and numerous plazas of the Classic.

Early Classic era from AD 250 to 550.

In AD 378, Teotihuacan decisively intervened at Tikal and other nearby cities, deposed their rulers, and installed a new Teotihuacan-backed dynasty.

In the southeast, Copán was the most important city.

Its Classic-period dynasty was founded in 426 by Kʼinich Yax Kʼukʼ Moʼ. The new king had strong ties with central Petén and Teotihuacan.

In the north of the Maya area, Coba was the most important capital.

In 629, Bʼalaj Chan Kʼawiil, a son of the Tikal king Kʼinich Muwaan Jol II, was sent to found a new city at Dos Pilas, in the Petexbatún region, apparently as an outpost to extend Tikal's power beyond the reach of Calakmul.

It is the largest Mesoamerican stepped pyramid structure at the pre-Columbian Maya civilization site of Palenque, located in the modern-day state of Chiapas, Mexico.

The Temple of the Cross is the largest and most significant. It is located in the southeast corner of the site and consists of three main structures: the Temple of the Cross, the Temple of the Sun, and the Temple of the Foliated Cross.

Lachan Kʼawiil Ajaw Bot was a Maya king of La Amelia, an ancient city near Itzan in the Petén Department of modern Guatemala.

The population was estimated at a peak of twenty-eight thousand, between 750 and 800 – larger than London at the time.

Warfare was prevalent in the Maya world. In the 8th–9th centuries, intensive warfare resulted in the collapse of the kingdoms of the Petexbatún region of western Petén.

Built by the pre-Columbian Maya civilization sometime between the 8th and 12th centuries AD, the pyramid served as a temple to the deity Kukulcán.

The Postclassic period starts from C. 950 - to 1539 AD. The great cities that dominated Petén had fallen into ruin by the beginning of the 10th century AD with the onset of the Classic Maya collapse.

Early Postclassic from AD 950 to 1200. Analysis of bones from early Maya grave sites indicates that, although maize had already become a major component of the diet (under 30% at Ceullo, Belize) by this time, fish, meat from game animals, and other hunted or gathered foods still made up a major component of the diet.

All Mesoamerican cultures used Stone Age technology; after c. 1000 AD copper, silver, and gold were worked. Mesoamerica lacked draft animals, did not use the wheel, and possessed few domesticated animals; the principal means of transport was on foot or by canoe.

Chichen Itza and its Puuc neighbors declined dramatically in the 11th century, and this may represent the final episode of the Classic Period collapse.

The Maya occupied a territory that is now incorporated into the modern countries of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador; the conquest began in the early 16th century and is generally considered to have ended in 1697.

Late Postclassic from AD 1200 to 1539.

The Maya developed their first civilization in the Preclassic period. Scholars continue to discuss when this era of Maya civilization began. Maya occupation at Cuello has been carbon-dated to around 2600 BC.

Early Maya architecture is based on the general Mesoamerican architectural traditions. The stepped pyramids were constructed from the Terminal Pre-classic period onwards.

The once-great city of Kaminaljuyu in the Valley of Guatemala was abandoned after the continuous occupation of almost 2,000 years.

Mayapan was abandoned around 1448, after a period of political, social, and environmental turbulence that in many ways echoed the Classic period collapse in the southern Maya region.

One of the largest groups of Maya lives in the Yucatan Peninsula, which includes the Mexican states of Yucatán State, Campeche, and Quintana Roo as well as the nation of Belize.

In 1511, a Spanish caravel was wrecked in the Caribbean, and about a dozen survivors made landfall on the coast of Yucatán.

From 1517 to 1519, three separate Spanish expeditions explored the Yucatán coast and engaged in a number of battles with the Maya inhabitants.

After the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan fell to the Spanish in 1521, Hernán Cortés despatched Pedro de Alvarado to Guatemala with 180 cavalry, 300 infantry, 4 cannons, and thousands of allied warriors from central Mexico.

The highland Kʼicheʼ states in the pre-Columbian era are associated with the ancient Maya civilization and reached the peak of their power and influence during the Mayan Postclassic period (c. 950–1539 AD).

Qʼumarkaj was one of the most powerful Maya cities when the Spanish arrived in the region in the early 16th century. It was the capital of the Kʼicheʼ Maya in the Late Postclassic Period.

In 1697, Martín de Ursúa launched an assault on the Itza capital Nojpetén and the last independent Maya city fell to the Spanish.

In the 16th century, the Spanish Empire colonized the Mesoamerican region, and a lengthy series of campaigns saw the fall of Nojpetén, the last Maya city, in 1697.

In 1839, American traveler and writer John Lloyd Stephens set out to visit a number of Maya sites with English architect and draftsman Frederick Catherwood.

The Early Preclassic started from 2000 to 1000 BC. During the construction of Aguada Fénix, it is shown that they began to use ceramics and became sedentary.

Evidence in the form of stone blade points recovered from Aguateca indicates that darts and spears were the primary weapons of the Classic Maya warrior. The atlatl (spear-thrower) was introduced to the Maya region by Teotihuacan in the Early Classic.

The government was hierarchical, and official posts were sponsored by higher-ranking members of the aristocracy; officials tended to be promoted to higher levels of office during the course of their lives.

Settlements were established around 1800 BC in the Soconusco region of the Pacific coast, and the Maya were already cultivating the staple crops of maize, beans, squash, and chili pepper. This period was characterized by sedentary communities and the introduction of pottery and fired clay figurines.

Kaminaljuyu is a Pre-Columbian site of the Maya civilization that was primarily occupied from 1500 BC to AD 1200. Kaminaljuyu has been described as one of the greatest of all archaeological sites in the New World.

Early Middle Preclassic from 1000 to 600 BC.

During the Middle Preclassic Period, small villages began to grow to form cities. Nakbe in the Petén department of Guatemala is the earliest well-documented city in the Maya lowlands, here large structures have been dated to around 750 BC.

Late Middle Preclassic from 600 to 50 BC.

The Late Preclassic saw the rise of two powerful states that rival later Classic Maya city-states for scale and monumental architecture, Kaminaljuyu in the highlands and El Mirador in the lowlands.

By around the year 1000 BC, the Mayan city of Aguada Fénix was built in Tabasco, this archaeological site corresponds to a time of great change for Mayan society.

During the Early Classic, cities throughout the Maya region were influenced by the great metropolis of Teotihuacan in the distant Valley of Mexico.

Palenque was a Maya city-state in southern Mexico that perished in the 7th century. The Palenque ruins date from ca. 226 BC to ca. 799 AD.

The king was the supreme ruler and held a semi-divine status that made him the mediator between the mortal realm and that of the gods. From very early times, kings were specifically identified with the young maize god.

Late Preclassic from 1 BC to AD 159. The Late Preclassic saw the rise of two powerful states that rival later Classic Maya city-states for scale and monumental architecture.