More Important Topics of Maya Civilization II: Politics and Religion Cylinder

Within this region, elements associated with the Maya civilization have been found which date back to approximately 1000 BC. The region had however been inhabited since at least the 10th millennium BC, and the point at which distinctive Maya-like characteristics first arose is not well-defined. By the period known to archaeologists as the mid-Preclassic (or mid-Formative, around 600 BC), some of the earliest Maya complexes had been constructed.

The later Classic period (c. 250 - 900) witnessed the peak of widespread urban center construction and the recording of monumental inscriptions, particularly in the southern lowland regions. For reasons which are still much debated, many of these sites were abandoned in the Terminal phase of this period (the so-called "Terminal collapse"), although in several places these activities continued, particularly in northern Yucatán.

Detailed monumental inscriptions all but disappeared. During the succeeding Post-Classic period (to the early 16th century), development in the northern centers persisted, characterised by an increasing diversity of external influences; however by the time of the Spanish arrival in 1519 most of these centers had substantively declined.

The Maya civilization shared many features with other Mesoamerican civilizations, for there was a high degree of interaction and cultural diffusion throughout the region. Although aspects such as writing and the calendar (see Maya calendar) did not originate with the Maya, their civilization developed these to their fullest extent.

Maya influences can be detected as far afield as central Mexico, more than 1000 km from their homelands. Equally, many external influences are to be found in Maya art and architecture, particularly in the Post-Classic period; these are thought to be mainly a result of trade and cultural exchange, rather than direct external conquest.

Contrary to popular perception, the various Maya peoples themselves had not "disappeared", neither at the time of the Classic period decline nor with the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores and the subsequent colonization of their lands. The Maya persist in contemporary Mesoamerican societies, maintaining a distinctive set of traditions and beliefs, albeit generally combined with more recent practices such as widespread adoption of Roman Catholicism.

The Maya and their descendants form sizeable populations throughout the region formerly occupied by the states of the ancient civilization. Many different Mayan languages are still spoken as their primary language.

History

Origins

Archaeological evidence shows the Maya had started to build ceremonial architecture by approximately 1000 BC. There is some disagreement about the boundaries which differentiate the physical and cultural extent of the early Maya and their neighboring Pre-Classic Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Olmec culture of the Tabasco lowlands and the Mixe-Zoque– and Zapotec–speaking peoples of Chiapas and southern Oaxaca. Many of the earliest significant inscriptions and buildings appeared in this overlapping zone, and evidence suggests that these cultures and the formative Maya influenced one other.

The earliest monuments consist of simple burial mounds, the precursors to pyramids erected in later times.

Eventually, the Olmec culture faded after spreading its influence into the Yucatan peninsula, present-day Guatemala, and other regions.

The Maya developed the famed cities of Tikal, Palenque, Copán and Kalakmul, as well as Dos Pilas, Uaxactun, Altun Ha, Bonampak and many other sites in the area (see list of sites, below). They developed an agriculturally intensive, city-centered empire consisting of numerous independent city-states.

The most notable monuments are the pyramids they built in their religious centers and the accompanying palaces of their rulers. Other important archaeological remains include the carved stone slabs usually called stelae (the Maya called them Tetun, or "Tree-stones"), which depict rulers along with hieroglyphic texts describing their genealogy, war victories, and other accomplishments.

The Maya participated in long distance trade in Mesoamerica and possibly further lands. Important trade goods included cacao, salt, and obsidian; see also: Obsidian use in Mesoamerica.

Decline of the Maya

In the 8th and 9th centuries AD, Classic Maya culture went into decline, with most of the cities of the central lowlands abandoned. Warfare, ecological depletion of croplands, and drought or some combination of those factors are usually suggested as reasons for the decline. There is archaeological evidence of warfare, famine, and revolt against the elite at various central lowlands sites.

There is also conclusive geological evidence, found in shells recovered from Lake Chichancanab (in modern Quintana Roo state in Mexico) by a team from the University of Florida, showing that the area suffered the worst drought in 7,000 years in the 9th century; this meteorological event is apparently connected to that of northern Europe having suffered extremely low temperatures around the same time (the same connection between drought in the Maya areas and extreme cold in northern Europe was found again at the beginning of the 20th century).

This evidence seems to support Dick Gill's theory that an unusually severe drought leading to a catastrophic decimation of the population was the driving force behind the collapse of Maya civilization. However, there is no single cause universally accepted for their decline.

The Maya cities of the northern lowlands in Yucatan continued to flourish for centuries more; some of the important sites in this era were Chichen Itza, Uxmal, Edzná, and Coba. After the decline of the ruling dynasties of Chichen and Uxmal, Mayapan ruled all of Yucatan until a revolt in 1450; the area then devolved to city states until the area was conquered by the Spanish.

The Itza Maya, Kowoj and Yalain groups of Central Peten survived the "Classic Period Collapse" in small numbers and by 1250 CE reconstituted themselves to form competing polities. The Itza kingdom had its capital at Noj Peten, an archaeological site thought to underlay modern day Flores, Guatemala. It ruled over a polity extending across the Peten Lakes region, encompassing the community of Eckixil on Lake Quexil. These sites and this region were inhabited continuously by independent Maya until after the final Spanish Conquest of 1697 AD.

Post-Classic Maya states also continued to thrive in the southern highlands. One of the Maya kingdoms in this area, the Quiché, is responsible for the best-known Maya work of historiography and mythology, the Popol Vuh.

Spanish conquest of the Mayas

Main article: Spanish conquest of Yucatan

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The Spanish Conquest of Yucatán began in 1511 and took some 170 years to complete. The Maya had no single leader (like the Inca of Peru), but instead lived in numerous independent states, some of which fiercely resisted foreign domination. Also, the land had no gold or silver except for small amounts acquired by trade, so many early Spanish conquistadors were attracted instead to central Mexico or Peru, which seemed to offer quicker and easier riches. The last Maya state, the Itza kingdom, was not subdued by Spanish authorities until 1697.

In pre-Columbian Maya civilization, ritual dance had great importance. However, since dance is a transient art, it is inherently difficult for archeologists to find and evaluate evidence of its role.

There is little material information left behind, beyond a few paintings on murals and vases. This poverty of facts causes a wide range of interpretions by different archeologists.

Dance was a central component of social, religious, and political endeavors for the ancient Maya. The entire community danced, including kings, nobles, and common people. Dance served many functions such as creating sacred space, closing the gap between here and the otherworld, and releasing the dead from the grasp of the Xibalbans.

Reseach

In 1966, Micheal Coe and Elizabeth Benson recognized the depiction of important lords standing with one heel raised was indicative of dancing. Even after this pose meaning was identified, most of the examples were either dismissed or not understood in the larger context of Maya history and religion.

In the spring of 1990, Nikolai Grube deciphered the glyph for “dance” (read as ak’ot) in Maya hieroglyphics. After this decipherment, it was clear that dance was one of the public actions most often depicted by Maya court artisans. The many representations of dancing people in the artwork show that the Maya kings and their courts were public performers. All of theses discoveries let archeologists know that dance was central to most of the public rituals of the ancient Maya.

Some interesting depictions of Maya dance of the Classic era are found on Maya ceramics and in the famous murals of Bonampak.

Technique

Ancient Maya dance is characterized by transformations of human beings into supernatural beings by means of visionary trance. Some think that hallucinogenic drugs or entheogenic medicines were used to put the performer into an altered state of mind. Once in this state of mind the participants were transformed into their wayob or soul companions. These soul companions were depicted through the masks and the costumes people wore in the dance.

Some scenes are painted on pottery such as that from the myriad ritual meals of Classic festivals. These vessels depict humans, both kings and nobles, dressed in costumes. Their human faces are shown in cutaway view inside the costumes of the fantastic creatures they have become through the transformation of the dance. Some of these wayob are recognizable as animals like jaguars and birds of prey, but others just look like strange monsters.

For the Maya, dance was a very public affair. It induced visionary trances where either individuals or groups went into an altered state of mind that allowed them to communicate with the other world. Those who were strong enough to travel there, told stories about how the land had things like rivers and trees in this world. Some of the great Maya lords even depicted themselves dancing out over the abyss that leads into the otherworld.

One of the problems researchers have encountered is that the boundaries between humans dancing as supernatural beings and supernatural beings materializing in human rituals. The distinction between the two was never sharply made. Through dance, people became gods and gods became people even if it was only for a moment. It is important to note that these were more than just acts of civic pride or piety. They were considered to be direct connections to the otherworld.

Meanings within dances

One particular dance that has been discovered is called the Snake Dance. It was depicted on a panel that was looted from an unknown site. It depicted King Bird-Jaguar of Yaxchilan dancing with a snake. It also depicted the ruler of the town participating in important rituals with his king. Both men are wearing elaborate headdresses, personified wings, long feathers that arched behind them and they danced with snakes. The Snake Dance was also celebrated by the lords of Palenque.

This time the dance was done with a male who has an ax in one hand and a serpent in the other, and a women who is grasping the lower body of the snake. These dancers wore costumes of First Father and First Mother, the deities whose actions enabled the final Creation and the birth of all the gods. This depiction is thought to point toward the role of dance in the story of Creation.

The importance of dance in the story of Creation is crucial because of its capacity to regenerate life. The story of the Popol Vuh exhibits examples of this idea. After the Hero Twins are killed they come back to life as vagabonds and quickly enchant the people of Xibalba with their dancing and magic.

The Twins danced such dances as the Dance of the Poorwill, the Weasel and the Armadillo and they are able to bring things back to life. All of this fame caught the attention of the Lords of Death who command the Twins to perform. As the twins perform, the Lords are amazed by their powers and finally ask the Twins to sacrifice them. The Twins do, but this time they do not bring them back to life, limits the Xibalbans power over humans forever.

A typical Classic Maya polity was a small kingdom (ajawil, ajawlel, ajawlil) headed by a hereditary ruler – ajaw, later k’uhul ajaw.

Both terms appear in early Colonial texts including Papeles de Paxbolón where they are used as synonymous to Aztec and Spanish terms for supreme rulers and their domains – tlahtoani (Tlatoani) and tlahtocayotl, rey or magestad and reino, señor and señorío or dominio.

Such kingdom was usually no more than a capital city with its neighborhood and several lesser towns, although there were greater kingdoms, which controlled larger territories and extended patronage over smaller polities. Each kingdom had its name that did not necessarily correspond to any locality within its territory. Its identity was that of a political unit associated with a particular ruling dynasty.

For instance, the archaeological site of Naranjo was the capital of the kingdom of Saal. The land (chan ch’e’n) of the kingdom and its capital were called Wakab’nal or Maxam and were part of a larger geographical entity known as Huk Tsuk. Interestingly, despite constant warfare and eventual shifts in regional power, most kingdoms never disappeared from the political landscape until the collapse of the whole system in the ninth century AD.

In this respect, Classic Maya kingdoms are highly similar to late Post Classic polities encountered by the Spaniards in Yucatan and Central Mexico: some polities could be subordinated to hegemonic rulers through conquests or dynastic unions and yet even then they persisted as distinct entities.

Mayanists have been increasingly accepting the ‘court paradigm’ of Classic Maya societies that puts the emphasis on the centrality of the royal household and especially the person of the king. This approach focuses on the totality of Maya monumental spaces as the embodiment of the diverse activities of the royal household.

It considers the role of places and spaces (including dwellings of royalty and nobles, throne rooms, temples, halls and plazas for public ceremonies) in establishing and negotiating power and social hierarchy, but also in producing and projecting aesthetic and moral values that define the order of a wider social realm.

Spanish sources invariably describe even the largest Maya settlements of Yucatan and Guatemala as dispersed agglomerations of dwellings grouped around the temples and palaces of the ruling dynasty and lesser nobles. None of the Classic Maya cities shows evidence of economic specialization and commerce of the scale of Mexican Tenochtitlan. Instead, Maya cities were in fact enormous royal households, the locales of the administrative and ritual activities of the royal court.

They were the places where privileged nobles could approach the holy ruler, where aesthetical values of the high culture were formulated and disseminated, where aesthetic items were consumed. They were the self-proclaimed centers and the sources of social, moral, and cosmic, order. The fall of a royal court as in the well-documented cases of Piedras Negras or Copan would cause the inevitable ‘death’ of the associated settlement.

Agriculture

The ancient Maya had diverse and sophisticated methods of food production. It was formerly believed that slash and burn (swidden) agriculture provided most of their food but it is now thought that permanent raised fields, terracing, forest gardens, managed fallows, and wild harvesting were also crucial to supporting the large populations of the Classic period in some areas.

Indeed, evidence of these different systems persist today: raised fields connected by canals can be seen on aerial photographs, contemporary rainforest species composition has significantly higher abundance of species of economic value to ancient Maya, and pollen records in lake sediments suggest that corn, manioc, sunflower seeds, cotton, and other crops have been cultivated in association with deforestation in Mesoamerica since at least 2500 BC.

Contemporary Maya peoples still practice many of these traditional forms of agriculture, although they are dynamic systems and change with changing population pressures, cultures, economic systems, climate change, and the availability of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.

Ejercía además el cargo de primer consejero jefe y ordenaba los actos que se debían cumplir de acuerdo a la observación de los astros; mediante cálculos muy precisos preveía su posición y movimiento en la bóveda celeste a lo largo de siglos.

Redactaba los códigos, las leyes y decidía la construcción de las ciudades sagradas como Chichén-Itzá y Palenque por ejemplo. Los sacerdotes deificaban el tiempo llamado "Chol Kisi".

Name and orthography

The name is often represented as Chichén Itzá in Spanish

and other languages to show that both parts of the name are stressed on their final syllables. In the Yucatec Maya language (still in use in the area, and written with the Roman alphabet since the 16th century) this stress follows the normal rules of the language, and so it is written without diacritics. Both forms are attested in literature on the subject, including in scholarly works. Other references prefer to employ a more rigorous orthography, using Chich'en Itza. This form preserves the phonemeic distinction between [ ch' ] and [ ch ], since the base word ch'en meaning

"well (of water)" begins with a glottalized affricate ( in IPA notation, [t?']) and not a voiceless (non-glottalized) one ([t?]).

The Maya name "Chich'en Itza" means "At the mouth of the well of the Itza (people)". Although this was the usual name for the site in pre-Columbian times, it is also referred to in the ancient chronicles as Uucyabnal, meaning "Seven Great Rulers".

The site

El Gran Juego de Pelota (Grand Ballcourt), from El Castillo

El Caracol observatory

El Castillo

El Castillo being climbed by tourists

West side of El Castillo

Plumed Serpent

Kukulcan's Jaguar Throne

Sacred Cenote

Great Ballcourt (interior)"Chichen" contains many fine stone buildings in various states of preservation; the buildings were formerly used as temples, palaces, stages, markets, baths, and ballcourts.

The Yucatán has no above-ground rivers, so the fact that there were three natural sink holes (cenotes) providing plentiful water year round at Chichen made it a natural spot for a center of population. Two of these cenotes are still in existence, the most famous being the legendary "Cenote of Sacrifice", which was sacred to the Maya rain god Chaac.

Offerings of jade, pottery, and incense were thrown into the great well as offerings to Chac, and occasionally during times of desperate drought a human sacrifice -- however there is no confirmation in either ancient chronicles nor the archeological dredging of the cenote to confirm the lurid tales of some tour guides claiming that great numbers of beautiful, young, virgin women were regularly cast into the well. The Sacred Cenote was long a place of pilgrimage Yucatán.

Chichen was a major center by about 600 in the middle of the Maya Classic period, but the city saw its greatest growth and power after the Maya sites of the central lowlands to the south had already collapsed.

Some of the notable classic era structures at Chichen include a fine complex of buildings in the "Puuc" architectural style. The Spanish nicknamed this complex "Las Monjas" ("The Nuns," or "The Nunnery") but was actually the city's classic era government palace. Just to the east is a small temple (nicknamed "La Iglesia", "The Church") decorated with elaborate masks of the rain god.

To the north is a round building on a large square platform nicknamed "El Caracol" or "the snail" for the stone spiral staircase inside; this was an observatory (the doors were aligned to view the vernal equinox, the Moon's greatest northern and southern declinations, and other astronomical events) sacred to Kukulcan, the feathered-serpent god of the wind and learning.

Apparently about 987 a Toltec king named Quetzalcoatl arrived here with an army from central Mexico, and (with local Maya allies) made Chichén Itzá his capital, and a second Tula. The art and architecture from this period shows an interesting mix of Maya and Toltec styles. Chichen's "Temple of the Warriors" was clearly built as a copy of Temple B at the Toltec capital of Tula, although thanks to the Maya architects is grander than the original. This is a stone building (originally with a wood and plaster roof) atop a step-pyramid, with the columns in the interior carved with the likenesses of warriors. At the top of the stairway leading to the entrance of the temple is a type of altar-statue known as a Chac Mool.

Dominating the center of Chichén is the Temple of Kukulcan (the Maya name for Quetzalcoatl), often referred to as "El Castillo" (the castle). This step pyramid with a ground plan of square terraces with stairways up each of the 4 sides to the temple on top. Great sculptures of Plumed Serpents run down the sides of the northern staircase, and are set off by shadows from the corner tiers on the Spring and Fall equinox.

It was practice in Mesoamerican cities to periodically build larger and grander temple pyramids atop older ones, and this is one such example. Thanks to archeologists, a doorway at the base of the north stairway leads to a tunnel, from which one can climb the steps of the earlier version of El Castillo inside the current one, up to the room on the top where you can see King Kukulcan's Jaguar Throne, carved of stone and painted red with jade spots.

Seven courts for playing the Mesoamerican ballgame have been found in Chichén, but the one about 150 meters to the north-west of the Castillo is by far the most impressive. It is the largest ballcourt in ancient Mesoamerica. It measures 166 by 68 meters (545 by 232 feet). The sides of the interior of the ballcourt are lined with sculpted panels depicting teams of ball players, with the captain of the winning team decapitating the captain of the losers.

Built into one of the exterior walls of the ballcourt is the Temple of the Jaguar, which features another jaguar throne -- since this one was not buried for a thousand years, its red paint and jade spots are long since gone.

Behind this platform is a walled inscription which depicts a tzompantli (rack of impaled human skulls) in relief.

Chichen Itza also has a variety of other structures densely packed in the ceremonial center of about 5 km² (2 mile²) and several outlying subsidiary sites. Nearby are the sacred Caves of Balankanche, where a large selection of ancient pottery and idols may be seen still in the positions where they were left in Pre-Columbian times.

The Maya chronicles record that in 1221 a revolt and civil war broke out, and archeological evidence confirms that the wooden roofs of the great market and the Temple of the Warriors were burnt at about this date. Chichen Itza went into decline as rulership over Yucatán shifted to Mayapan.

While the site was never completely abandoned, the population declined and no major new constructions were built. The Sacred Cenote, however, remained a place of pilgrimage.

In 1531 Spanish Conquistador Francisco de Montejo claimed Chichén Itzá and intended to make it the capital of Spanish Yucatán, but after a few months a native Maya revolt drove Montejo and his forces from the land (see Spanish conquest of Yucatán).

Modern investigations at Chichen Itza

In 1839 United States travel writers Benjamin Norman, followed the next year by John Lloyd Stephens, visited and published accounts of the ruins of Chichen Itza. Various other expeditions made further examinations of the ruins in the following decades. In 1901 the United States Consul to Yucatán, Edward H. Thompson bought Chichen Itza (as the ruins had no protected status then) and moved there with his Maya wife, and spent some 30 years doing amateur archeology there, including dredging the first artifacts out of the Sacred Cenote.

In 1924 the Carnegie Institution and Harvard University began a 20 year excavation project directed by Sylvanus G. Morley, which included restoring two sides of the Castillo. In 1961 the Sacred Cenote was dredged more thoroughly by Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). In the 1980s INAH excavated some additional buildings and restored the other two sides of the Castillo.

Chichen Itza is today a World Heritage Site and is a very popular tourist destination; it is the most visited of the major Maya archaelogical sites. Many visitors to the popular tourist resort of Cancún make a day trip to Chichen Itza, usually with time to view only a portion of the site.

Recently, climbing the "castle" is forbidden because an elderly woman had fallen to her death several months ago, and is therefore closed. Another reason for its closure is the restoration of the site, as thousands of visitors would climb it everyday. A third reason which was recently given was that these visitors, (or a majority of them), would sit, and then ride down the narrow stairs, rather than walking them. This made the steps very slippery and eroded some of the stone over time. -A recent visitor supplied this information

Coba

Coba (Cobá in the Spanish language) is a large ruined city of the Pre-Columbian Maya civilization, located in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico. It is located about 90 km east of the Maya site of Chichen Itza, about 40 km west of the Caribbean Sea, and 44 km northwest of the site of Tulum, with which it is connected by a modern road.

Nohoch Mul

The Ancient City

Coba is located around five small lagoons. A series of elevated stone and plaster roads radiate from the central site to various smaller sites near and far. These are known by the Maya term "sacbe" (plural "sacbeob"). Some of these causeways go east to the Caribbean coast, and the longest runs over 100 km to the west to the site of Yaxuna. The site contains several large temple pyramids, the tallest, known as Nohoch Mul, being 42 meters in height.

A number of longer sacbeob, radiate out from Coba to other Maya sites in the area, the longest being over 100 km long, running west to the site of Yaxuna.

Coba is estimated to have had some 50,000 inhabitants (and possibly significantly more) at its peak of civilization, and the built up area extends over some 80 square km. The site was occupied by a sizable agricultural population by the 1st century. The bulk of Coba's major construction seems to have been made in the middle and late Classic period, about 500 to 900, with most of the dated heiroglyphic inscriptions from the 7th century. However Coba remained an important site in the Post-Classic era and new temples were built and old ones kept in repair until at least the 14th century, possibly as late as the arrival of the Spanish.

Modern Explorations of Coba

Knowledge of this expansive site was never completely lost, but it was not examined by scholars until the 1920s. John Lloyd Stephens mentioned hearing reports of the site in 1841, but it was so distant from any known modern road or village that he decided the difficulty in trying to get there was too daunting. For much of the rest of the 19th century the area could not be visited by outsiders due to the Caste War of Yucatán. Teoberto Maler paid Coba a short visit in 1893 and took at least one photograph, but unfortunately did not publish at the time and the site remained unknown to the archeological community.

Amateur explorer Dr. Thomas Gann was brought to the site by some local Maya hunters in February of 1926. Gann published the first first-hand description of the ruins later the same year. Gann gave a short description to the archeologists of the Carnegie Institution project at Chichen Itza, which sent out an expedition under J. Eric S. Thompson. Thompson's initial report of a surprisingly large site with many inscriptions prompted Sylvanus Morley to mount a more throrough examination of the site.

Eric Thompson made a number of return visits to the site through 1932, in which year he published a detailed description.

The site remained little visited due to its remoteness until the first modern road was opened up to Coba in the early 1970s. As a major resort was planned for Cancún, it was realized that clearing and restoring some of the large sight could make it an important tourism attraction.

The Mexican National Institute of Anthropology & History began some archeological excavations in 1972 directed by Carlos Navarrete, and consolidated a couple buildings. At the start of the 1980s another road to Coba was opened up and paved, regular bus service begun, and a small Villas Archeologicas Hotel was opened up by the Club Med (with its own electric generator, since the village at Coba was otherwise without electricity).

Coba became a tourist destination shortly thereafter, with many visitors visiting the site on day trips from Cancún and the Riviera Maya. Only a small portion of the site has been cleared from the jungle and restored by archaeologists. Local guides are available at the entrance to the site, as well as bicycle rentals to get to some of the farther ruins within the archaeological zone. Coba, like all archaeological sites in Mexico open to the public via INAH, is free to visitors on Sundays and national holidays. There is a small pueblo near the ruins, with some restaurants and small shops selling local crafts.

Copán

The Pre-Columbian city now known as Copán is a locale in extreme western Honduras, in the Copán Department, near to the Guatemalan border. It is the site of a major Maya kingdom of the Classic era.

The kingdom, anciently named Xukpi (Corner-Bundle), flourished from the 5th century AD to the early 9th century, with antecedents going back to at least the 2nd century AD. Its name is an apparent reference to the fact that it was situated at the far southern and eastern end of Maya territory. The nearby modern village of Copán Ruinas itself may have anciently been known as Oxwitik.

Description of the ruins

The site in Copan is perhaps best known for producing a remarkable series of portrait stelae, most of which were placed along processional ways in the central plaza of the city and the adjoining "acropolis" (a large complex of overlapping step-pyramids, plazas, and palaces). The stelae and sculptured decorations of the buildings of Copán are some of the very finest surviving art of ancient Mesoamerica.

Many structures are elaborately decorated with stone sculptures, usually constructed from a mosaic of carved stones of a size that one person could carry.

The site also has a large court for playing the Mesoamerican ballgame.

At its height in the late classic period Copán seems to have had an unusually prosperous class of minor nobility, scribes, and artisans, some of whom had homes of cut stone built for themselves (in most sites a privilege reserved for the rulers and high priests), some of which have carved hieroglyphic texts.

The buildings suffered significantly from forces of nature in the centuries between the site's abandonment and the rediscovery of the ruins. There have been numerous earthquakes -- none of the roofs of the stone buildings were intact when the site was rediscovered, and the hieroglyphic stairway had collapsed. The Copán river changed course and meandered, destroying part of the acropolis (revealing in the process its stratigraphy in a large vertical cut) and apparently wiping out various subsidiary architectural groups in the region. In the long period when the site was overgrown the buildings and scuptures suffered from the invasive thick jungle vegetation and periodic forest fires.

Archeologists have consolidated and restored many structures at the site.

Pre-Columbian history

Stela H detail, depicting King "18 Rabbit"The fertile Copán River valley was long a site of agriculture before the first known stone architecture was built in the region about the 9th century BC.

A kingdom seems to have been established in Copán in 159. It grew into one of the most important Maya sites by the 5th century. Large monuments dated with hieroglyhic texts were erected in the city from 435 through 822.

Xukpi was one of the more powerful Maya city states, a regional power, although it suffered a catastrophic defeat at the hands of the kingdom located at Quirigua in 738. It eventually withered in the face of the depletion of natural resources which was a factor in bringing most of the Classic-Age Maya city-states to their end.

The area continued to be occupied after the last major ceremonial structures and royal monuments were erected, but the population declined in the 8th century - 9th century from perhaps over 20,000 in the city to less than 5,000.

The ceremonial center was long abandoned and the surrounding valley home to only a few farming hamlets at the time of the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century.

List of known Xukpi rulers

1. K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo' ("Great Sun Green Queztal Macaw") before 435

2. K'inich Popol Hol (Ruler 2) c. 437

3. 1 King, name unknown c. 455

4. Cu Ix c. 465 (K'al Tuun Hix)

5. 1 King, name unknown c. 476

6. Muyal Jol or "Cloud Head"

7. B'alam Hehn, ("Jaguar Mirror"; "Waterlily-Jaguar") after 504-544

8. name unknown

9. name unknown, died about 553

10. "Moon Jaguar" 553-578

11. Butz' Chan "Smoke Serpent" (fire-eating serpent) 578-628

12. Smoke Imix (Smoke Jaguar) 628-695

13. Uaxaclajuun Ub'aah K'awiil ("18 Rabbit") 695-738

14. K'ac Joplaj Chan K'awiil ("Smoke Monkey") 738-749

15. K'ac Yipyaj Chan K'awiil ("Smoke Shell"; "Smoke Squirrel") 749-763

16. Yax-Pasaj Chan Yoaat ("Yax Pac") 763-after 810

(probably period where throne was vacant)

17? U-Cit-Tok 822

Royal ceremonial center of city abandoned by 1984

The first sixteen names, from Yax K'uk' Mo' to Yax Pac (Yax Pasah), are depicted on Altar Q, an artifact that has provided researchers clues to the history and origins of Copán. [1]

Copán in modern times

Stela N, depicting King K'ac Yipyaj Chan K'awiil ("Smoke Shell"), as drawn by Frederick Catherwood in 1839By the time of the Spanish conquest of Honduras, the site had long been overgrown by rainforest. Although this large ruined city was known locally since early colonial times, it remained largely unknown by the outside world until a series of explorers visited it in the early 19th century.

Juan Galindo wrote a description of the ruins in 1834, which was published the following year. This sparked the interest of North American explorer and travel writer John Lloyd Stephens and English architect and draftsman Frederick Catherwood whose illustrated books describing Copán and other sites excited a great deal of interest in Mesoamerican antiquities among American and European scholars, and its publication is regarded as the commencement of modern Mayan studies which continue to this day.

The site was the subject of one of the first modern archeological surveys and excavations in the Maya area, conducted by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology of Harvard University from 1891 to 1900. Further excavations and restorations were begun by the Carnegie Institution of Washington in the 1930s, the Peabody Museum again in the 1970s, followed by the Government of Honduras's Proyecto Copán beginning in the late 1970s and continuing to this day.

Kalakmul

Calakmul (also Kalakmul and other less frequent variants) is also the name given to site of one of the largest ancient Mayan cities ever uncovered. It is located in the 1,800,000 acre Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, deep in the jungles of the Petén, 30 km from the Guatemalan border.

First discovered from the air by biologist Cyrus L. Lundell of the Mexican Exploitation Chicle Company on December 29, 1931, the find was reported to Sylvanus G. Morley of the Carnegie Institute at Chichen Itza in March 1932. According to Lundell, who named the site, "In Maya, 'ca' means 'two', 'lak' means 'adjacent', and 'mul' signifies any artificial mound or pyramid, so 'Calakmul' is the 'City of the Two Adjacent Pyramids'."

Calakmul was the major seat of power of the Kaan or "Kingdom of the Snake", which first arose further north but built Calakmul into a Late Classic Era superpower ally of Caracol and rival to Tikal. A series of 11 painted vessels, dubbed Dynastic Vases, describe the ascensions of the Kaan rulers, including ancestral and legendary figures.

Calakmul probably supported a population of over 50,000, and so far more than 6,250 structures have been discovered in an area of up to 70 square kilometers with a substantial northern wall and a series of water management features (Calakmul's reservoirs include the largest in the Mayan world) delineating a dense core of 22 square kilometers. Calakmul's 45 meter pyramid "Structure 2" is the largest Classic Era Mayan temple platform known. Many of the city's monuments and structures are constructed of chalky local limestone, which has made interpretation of the site difficult.

After a long period of inactivity following Morely's 1932 expedition, the city was explored by William Folan between 1984 and 1994, and is now the subject of a large-scale project of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) under Ramón Carrasco.

Known rulers of Calakmul

(Note that this list is not continuous, as the archaeological record is incomplete)

Unknown: Yuknoom Ch'een I

c.520–546: Tuun K'ab' Hix

c.561–572: Sky Witness

572–579: First Axewielder

579–c.611: Scroll Serpent

c.619: Yuknoon Chan

622–630: Tajoom Uk'ab' K'ak'

630–636: Yuknoom Head

636–686: Yuknoom the Great

686–c.695: Yuknoom Yich'aak K'ak'

c695: Split Earth

c.702–c.731: Yuknoom Took' K'awil

c.736: Wamaw K'awil

c.741: Ruler Y

c.751: Ruler Z

c.771–c.789: B'olon K'awil

c.849: Chan Pet

c.909: Aj Took'

Palenque

Palenque is a Maya archeological site near the Usumacinta River in the Mexican state of Chiapas, about 130 km south of Ciudad del Carmen (see map). It is a medium-sized site, much smaller than such huge sites as Tikal or Copán, but it contains some of the finest architecture, sculpture, and bas-relief carvings the Maya produced.

The name

The site was already long abandoned when the Spanish arrived in Chiapas. The first European to visit the ruins and publish an account was Father Pedro Lorenzo de la Nada in 1567; at the time the local Chol Maya called it Otolum meaning "Land with strong houses", de la Nada roughly translated this into Spanish to give the site the name "Palenque", meaning "fortification". Palenque also became the name for the town (Santo Domingo del Palenque) which was built over some peripheral ruins down in the valley from the main ceremonial center of the ancient city.

An ancient name for the city was Lakam Ha, which translates as "Big Water" or "Wide Water", for the numerous springs and wide cascades that are found within the site. Palenque was the capital of the important classic-age Mayan city-state of B'aakal (Bone).

The Maya Classic city

While the site was occupied by the middle Pre-Classic, it did not gain importance until several hundred years later. By 600 the first of the famous structures now visible were being constructed. Situated in the western reaches of Maya territory, on the edge of the southern highlands, B'aakal was a large and vital center of Maya civilization from the 5th century AD to the 9th century.

The B'aakal state had a chequered career. Its original dynasts were perhaps Olmec. Politically, the city experienced diverse fortunes, being disastrously defeated by Kalakmul in 599 and again in 611.

Nevertheless, B'aakal produced what is arguably the best-known Maya Ajaw (king or lord), Pacal the Great, who ruled from 615 to 683, and left one of the most magnificent tomb-works of ancient Mesoamerica, beneath the Temple of Inscriptions. This is a grand temple atop a step pyramid dedicated in 692; inside is an elaborate, long hieroglyphic text carved in stone detailing the city's ruling dynasty and the exploits of Pacal the Great.

A stone slab in the floor could be lifted up, revealing a passageway (filled in shortly before the city's abandonment and reopened by archeologists) to a long interior stairway leading back down to ground level and the shrine/tomb of the semi-divine Pacal. Over his crypt is an elaborate stone showing him falling into the underworld, and taking the guise of one of the Maya Hero Twins in the Popul Vuh who defeated the lords of the underworld to achieve immortality.

A view of the main plaza of Palenque from the top of one of the pyramidsOther important structures at Palenque include:

The Palace, actually a complex of several connected and adjacent buildings and courtyards built up over several generations on a wide artificial terrace. The Palace houses many fine sculptures and bas-relief carvings in addition to the distinctive four-story tower. The Temple of the Cross, Temple of the Sun, and Temple of the Foliated Cross. This is a set of graceful temples atop step pyramids, each with an elaborately carved relief in the inner chamber.

They commemorate the succession of King Chan Bahlum II to the throne after the death of Pacal the Great, and show the late king passing on his greatness to his successor. These temples were named by early explorers; the cross-like images in two of the reliefs actually depict the tree of creation at the center of the world in Maya mythology. The Aqueduct constructed with great stone blocks with a three-meter-high vault to make the Otulum River flow underneath the floor of Palenque's main plaza.

The Temple of The Lion at a distance of some 200 meters south of the main group of temples; its name came from the elaborate bas-relief carving of a king seated on a throne in the form of a jaguar. Temple of the Count another elegant Classic Palenque temple, which got its name from the fact that early explorer Jean Frederic Waldeck lived in the building for some time, and Waldeck claimed to be a Count. The site also has a number of other temples, tombs, and elite residences, some a good distance from the center of the site, a court for playing the Mesoamerican Ballgame, and an interesting stone bridge over the Otulum River some distance below the Aquaduct.

Rulers

A list of known Maya rulers of the city, with dates of their reigns:

K'inich K'an B'alam II ("Chan Bahlam II")K'uk B'alam I 11 March, 431 - 435

"Casper" (nickname; ancient name not translated; also known as "11 Rabbit") 10 August, 435 - 487

B'utz Aj Sak Chiik 29 July, 487 - 501

Ahkal Mo' Naab I 5 June, 501 - 1 December, 524

vacant ?

K'an Joy Chitam I 25 February, 529 - 8 February, 565

Ahkal Mo' Naab II 4 May, 565 - 23 July, 570

vacant ?

K'an B'alam I 8 April, 572 - 3 February, 583

Yohl Iknal (female ruler) 583-604

Aj Ne' Ohl Mat 605-612

Pacal I 612

Sac-Kuk (female) 612-615 d. 640

K'inich Janaab' Pakal ("Pacal II"; "Pacal the Great") 615-683

K'inich K'an B'alam II ("Chan Bahlam II") 683-702

K'inich K'an Joy Chitam II 702-711 d. 722?

Xoc (regent for Kan-Joy Chitam II) 711?-c. 722

K'inich Ahkal Mo' Naab III ("Chaacal III") 3 January, 722 - after 729

K'inich Janaab' Pakal ("Pacal III") fl. c. 742

K'inich K'uk B'alam II 8 March, 765 - ?

Wak Kimi Janhb' Pakal ("Pacal IV") 17 November, 799-?

The abandonment of Palenque

During the 8th century, B'aakal came under increasing stress, in concert with most other Classic Mayan city-states, and there was no new elite construction in the ceremonial center sometime after 800. An agricultural population continued to live here for a few generations, then the site was abandoned and was slowly grown over by the forest. The district was very sparcely populated when the Spanish first arrived in the 1520s.

Modern examinations of Palenque

Palenque is perhaps the most studied and written about of Maya sites.

After de la Nada's brief account of the ruins no attention was paid to them until 1773 when one Don Ramon de Ordoñez y Aguilar examined Palenque and sent a report to the Capitan General in Antigua Guatemala, a further examination was made in 1784 saying that the ruins were of particular interest, so two years later surveyor and architect Antonio Bernasconi was sent with a small military force under Colonel Antonio del Rio to examine the site in more detail.

Del Rio's forces smashed through several walls to see what could be found, doing a fair amount of damage to the Palace, while Bernasconi made the first map of the site as well as drawing copies of a few of the bas-relief figures and sculptures. Draughtsman Luciano Castañeda made more drawings in 1807, and the first book on Palenque, Descriptions of the Ruins of an Ancient City, discovered near Palenque, was published in London in 1822 based on the reports of those last two expeditions together with engravings based on Bernasconi and Castañedas drawings; two more publications in 1834 contained descriptions and drawings based on the same sources.

Juan Galindo visited Palenque in 1831, and filed a report with the Central American government. He was the first to note that the figures depicted in Palenque's ancient art looked like the local Native Americans; some other early explorers, even years later, attributed the site to such distant peoples as Egyptians, Polynesians, or the Lost Tribes of Israel.

Starting in 1832 Jean Frederic Waldeck spent two years at Palenque making numerous drawings, but most of his work was not published until 1866. Meanwhile the site was visited in 1840 first by Patrick Walker and Herbert Caddy on a mission from the governor of British Honduras, and then by John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood who published an illustrated account the following year which was greatly superior to the previous accounts of the ruins.

Désiré Charnay made the first photographs of Palenque in 1858, and returned in 1881 - 1882. Alfred Maudslay encamped at the ruins in 1890 - 1891 and made extensive photographs of all the art and inscriptions he could find, and made paper and plaster molds of many of the inscriptions, setting a high standard for all future investigators to follow.

Several other expeditions visited the ruins before Frans Blom of Tulane University in 1923, who made superior maps of both the main site and various previously neglected outlying ruins and filed a report for the Mexican government on recommendations on work that could be done to preserve the ruins.

A bas-relief relief in the Palenque museum, from one of the recently excavated buildings.From 1949 through 1952 Alberto Ruz Lhuillier supervised excavations and consolidations of the site for Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH); it was Ruz Lhuillier who was the first person to gaze upon Pacal The Great's tomb in over a thousand years. Further INAH work was done in lead by Jorge Acosta into the 1970s.

Housing blocks just below the pyramids would have been reserved for the powerful in Maya society.In 1973 the first of the very productive Palenque "Mesa Redonda"s (Round tables) was held here on the inspiration of Merle Green Robertson; thereafter every few years leading Mayanists would meet at Palenque to discuss and examine new findings in the field. Meanwhile Robertson was conducting a detailed examination of all art at Palenque, including recording all the traces of color on the sculpture.

The 1970s also saw a small museum built at the site.

In the last 15 or 20 years, a great deal more of the site has been excavated, but currently, archaeologists estimate that only 5% of the total city has been uncovered.

Palenque remains much visited, and perhaps evokes more affection in visitors than any other Mesoamerican ruin.

Tikal

Tikal is the largest of the ancient ruined cities of the Maya civilization. It is located in the El Petén department of Guatemala at 17°13'19?N, 89°37'22?W.

Tikal in the Classic era

Tikal was one of the major cultural and population centers of the Maya civilization. Monumental architecture was built here as early as the 4th century BC. The city was at its height in the Maya Classic Period, approximately 200 AD to 850 AD, after which no new major monuments were built, some of the palaces of the elite were burned, and the population gradually declined until the site was abandoned by the end of the 10th century.

The name "Tikal" means "Place of Voices" or "Place of Tongues" in Maya, which may be an ancient name for the city, although the ancient hieroglyphs usually refer to it as Mutal or Yax Mutal, meaning "Green Bundle", and perhaps metaphorically "First Prophecy".

Scholars estimate that at its peak it had a population from 100,000 to 200,000.

The site

The site presents hundreds of significant ancient buildings, only a fraction of which have been excavated in the decades of archeological work.

The most prominent surviving buildings include six very large step pyramids supporting temples on their tops. They were numbered geographically by early explorers. They were built during the city's height from the late 7th and early 9th century. Temple I was built around 695; Temple III in 810; The largest, Temple-pyramid IV, some 72 meters (230 feet) high, was dedicated in 720. Temple V is from about 750. Temple VI was dedicated in 766.

The ancient city also has the remains of royal palaces, in addition to a number of smaller pyramids, palaces, residences, and inscribed stone monuments. There is even a building which seemed to have been a jail, originally with wooden bars across the windows and doors. There are also several courts for playing the Mesoamerican ballgame.

The residential area of Tikal covers an estimated 60 square km (23 square miles), much of which has not yet been cleared or excavated.

A huge set of earthworks has been discovered ringing Tikal with a 6 meter wide trench behind a rampart. Only some 9km of it has been mapped; it may have enclosed an area of some 125 km square (see below).

Recently, a project exploring the earthworks has shown that the scale of the earthworks is highly variable and that in many places it is inconsequential as a defensive feature. In addition, some parts of the earthwork were integrated into a canal system. The earthwork of Tikal varies significantly in coverage from what was originally proposed and it is much more complex and multifaceted than originally thought.

Ancient history of Tikal

Tikal dominated the central Maya lowlands, but was often at war. Inscriptions tell of many alliances and wars with other Maya states, including with Uaxactun, Caracol, Naranjo, and Calakmul.

Rulers

Known rulers of Tikal include:

King of Tikal from wooden lintel in Temple III

Depicting either "Yax Nuun Ayin II" or "Dark Sun"

Yax Ehb' Xook c. 60 - dynastic founder

Siyaj Chan K'awil Chak Ich'aak ("Stormy Sky I") 2nd century

Yax Ch’aktel Xok c. 200

Balam Ajaw ("Decorated Jaguar") 292

K'inich Ehb' c. 300

Ix Une' B'alam ("Queen Jaguar") 317

"Leyden Plate Ruler" 320

K'inich Muwaan Jol - died 359

Chak Toh Ich’ak I ("Jaguar Paw I") c.360 - 378 - His palace, unusually, was never built over by later rulers, and was kept in repair for centuries as an apparent revered monument. He died on the same day that Siyah K'ak' arrived in Tikal.

Nun Yax Ayin a noble from Teotihuacan, was installed on Tikal's throne in 379 by Siyah K'ak', ruled to 411

Siyah Chan K'awil II ("Stormy Sky II") 411-456

K'an-Ak ("Kan Boar") 458-486

Ma'Kin-na Chan late 5th century

Chak Tok Ich'aak (Bahlum Paw Skull) 486-508 married "Lady Hand"

Ix Yo K'in ("Lady Tikal") 511-527

Kalomte' Balam ("Curl-Head", "19th Lord") c. 511-527

Wak Chan K'awil ("Double-Bird") - 537-562

"Lizard Head II" - lost a battle with Caracol in 562

K'inich Waaw 593-628

K'inich Wayaan - early/mid 7th century

K'inich Muwaan Jol II - early/mid 7th century

Hasaw Chan K’awil ("Double Moon", "Lord Chocolate") 682-734 - entombed in great temple-pyramid I; his queen Lady Twelve Macaw (d. 704) is entombed in temple-pyramid II. Triumphed in war with Calakmul in 711.

Yik’in Chan Kawil; His wife was Shana'Kin Yaxchel Pacal "Green Jay on the Wall" of Lakamha 734-766

"Temple VI Ruler" 766-768

Yax Nuun Ayiin II ("Chitam") 768-790

"Dark Sun" c. 810

"Jewel K'awil" 849

Jasaw Chan K'awiil II 869-889

(English language names are provisional nicknames based on their identifying glyphs where rulers' Maya language names have not yet been definitively deciphered phonetically.)

Two stelae on the North Acropolis

Modern history of Tikal

As is often the case with huge ancient ruins, knowledge of the site was never completely lost in the region. Some second- or third-hand accounts of Tikal appeared in print starting in the 17th century, continuing through the writings of John Lloyd Stephens in the early 19th century. Due to the site's remoteness from modern towns, however, no scientific expedition visited Tikal until 1848. Several other expeditions came to further investigate, map, and photograph Tikal in the 19th and early 20th century.

In 1951 a small airstrip was built at the ruins, which previously could only be reached by several days travel through the jungle on foot or mule. From 1956 through 1970 major archeological excavations were made by the University of Pennsylvania. In 1979 the Guatemalan government began a further archeological project at Tikal, which continues to this day.

The ruins of Tikal (now Guatemala's Tikal National Park) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and can be visited by the public. The closest large towns are Flores and Santa Elena, about 30 km. away.

It was used as background scenery of the Rebel Base in the film Star Wars.

The ruins lay on lowland rainforest. Conspicuous trees at the Tikal park include gigantic ceiba (Ceiba pentandra) the sacred tree of the Maya; tropical cedar (Cedrela odorata), and mahogany (Swietenia). Regarding the fauna, agouti, spider monkeys, howler monkeys, ocellated turkeys, guans, toucans, green parrots and leaf-cutting ants can be seen there regularly. Jaguars and coatis are said to roam in the park.

Uxmal

Uxmal (20°21'34?N, 89°46'17?W) is a large Pre-Columbian ruined city of the Maya civilization in the state of Yucatán, Mexico. It is 78 km south of Mérida, Yucatán, or 110 km from that city on Highway 261 towards Campeche, Campeche), 15 km south-southeast of the town of Muna.

Uxmal is pronounced "Oosh-mahl". The place name is Pre-Columbian and it is usually assumed to be an archaic Maya language phrase meaning "Built Three Times", although some scholars of the Maya language dispute this derivation.

Adivino from the ground level, a person near the top, holding onto a chain which extends down the (rather steep) steps

Adivino from the South-West, showing newer temple-pyramid around older oneContents

Ancient history

While much work has been done at the popular tourist destination of Uxmal to consolidate and restore buildings, little in the way of serious archeological excavation and research has been done here, therefore the city's dates of occupation are unknown and the estimated population (about 25,000 people) is at present only a very rough guess subject to change upon better data. Most of the architecture visible today was built between about 700 and 1100.

Maya chronicles say that Uxmal was founded about 500 by Hun Uitzil Chac Tutul Xiu. For generations Uxmal was ruled over by the Xiu family, was the most powerful site in western Yucatan, and for a while in alliance with Chichen Itza dominated all of the northern Maya area. Sometime after about 1200 no new major construction seems to have been made at Uxmal, possibly related to the fall of Uxmal's ally Chichen Itza and the shift of power in Yucatan to Mayapan. The Xiu moved their capital to Maní, and the population of Uxmal declined.

After the Spanish conquest of Yucatán (in which the Xiu allied themselves with the Spanish), early colonial documents suggest that Uxmal was still an inhabited place of some importance into the 1550s, but no Spanish town was built here and Uxmal was soon after largely abandoned.

Description of the site

Even before the restoration work Uxmal was in better condition than many other Maya sites thanks to being unusually well built. Much was built with well cut stones not relying on plaster to hold the building together. The Maya architecture here is considered matched only by that of Palenque in elegance and beauty. The Puuc style of Maya architecture predominates. Thanks to its good state of preservation, it is one of the few Maya cities where the casual visitor can get a good idea of how the entire ceremonial center looked in ancient times.

Some of the more noteworthy buildings include:

the Nunnery Quadrangle at Uxmal

La Gran Pyramide (The Great Pyramid) at UxmalThe Governor's Palace, a long low building atop a huge platform, with the longest façades in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica.

The Adivino or "Pyramid of the Magician", a fine pyramid temple unusual in several ways. The layers of the step pyramid are oval, rather than the usual rectangular or square shape. It was a common practice in Mesoamerica to build new temple pyramids atop older ones, but here a newer pyramid was built centered slightly to the east of the older pyramid, so that on the west side the temple atop the old pyramid is preserved, with the newer temple above it.

The Nunnery Quadrangle (a nickname given to it by the Spanish; it was a government palace) is the finest of Uxmal's several fine quadrangles of long buildings with elaborately carved façades on both the inside and outside faces

A large Ballcourt for playing the Mesoamerican ballgame, which an inscription there informs us was dedicated in 901 by Chan Chak K'ak'nal-Ahau.

A number of others temple-pyramids, quadrangles, and other monuments, some of significant size, and in varying states of preservation, are also at Uxmal.

The majority of hieroglyphic inscriptions were on a series of stone stelae unusually grouped together on a single platform. The stelae depict the ancient rulers of the city, and they show signs that they were deliberately broken and toppled in antiquity; some were re-erected and repaired.

A further suggestion of possible war or battle is found in the remains of a wall which encircled most of the central ceremonial center.

A large raised stone pedestrian causeway links Uxmal with the site of Kabah, some 18 km to the south.

Modern history of the ruins

The site, located not far from Mérida beside a road to Campeche, has attracted many visitors since the time of Mexico's independence. The first detailed account of the ruins was published by Jean Frederic Waldeck in 1838. John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood made two extended visits to Uxmal in the early 1840s, with architect/draftsman Catherwood reportedly making so many plans and drawings that they could be used to construct a duplicate of the ancient city (unfortunately most of the drawings are lost).

Désiré Charnay took a series of photographs of Uxmal in 1860. Some three years later Empress Carlota of Mexico visited Uxmal; in preparation for her visit local authorities had some statues and architectural elements depicting phallic themes removed from the ancient façades.

Sylvanus G. Morley made a map of the site in 1909 which included some previously overlooked buildings. The Mexican' governments first project to consolidate some of the structures from risk of collapse or further decay came in 1927. In 1930 Frans Blom led a Tulane University expedition to the site which included making plaster casts of the façades of the "Nunnery Quadrangle"; using these casts a replica of the Quadrangle was constructed and displayed at the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago, Illinois. In 1936 a further Mexican government repair and consolidation program was begun under José Erosa Peniche.

Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom visited on 27 February of 1975 for the inaguration of the site's sound & light show; when the presentation reached the point where the sound system played the Maya prayer to Chaac, a sudden torrential downpour fell upon the gathered dignitaries, despite the fact that it was the middle of the dry season.

Two hotels and a small museum have been built within the remains of the ancient city.

Other important Maya sites

Altun Ha

Becan

Bonampak

Cancuén

Caracol

Chinikiha

Chinkultic

Cival

Comalcalco

Dos Pilas

Dzibilchaltun

Edzná

Ek' Balam

El Mirador

El Perú

Gumarcaj

Iximche

Izamal

Jaina

Joya de Cerén

Kabah

Kaminaljuyu

Labná

La Corona (Believed to be the enigmatic Site Q)

Lamanai

Louisville, Belize

Lubaantun

Mayapan

Mixco Viejo

Naranjo

Nim Li Punit

Piedras Negras

Quirigua

Rio Bec

San Andrés

San Bartolo

Sayil

Seibal

Takalik Abaj

Tazumal

Tonina

Tuluum (Tulum)

Uaxactun

Utatlan

Waka

Xunantunich

Yaxchilan

Yo'okop

Zaculeu

These calendars could be synchronised and interlocked in complex ways, their combinations giving rise to further, more extensive cycles.

The essentials of the Maya calendric system are based upon a system which had been in common use throughout the region, dating back to at least the 6th century BCE. It shares many aspects with calendars employed by other earlier Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Zapotec and Olmec, and contemporary or later ones such as the Mixtec

and Aztec.

Although the Mesoamerican calendar did not originate with the Maya, their subsequent extensions and refinements to it were the most sophisticated. Along with those of the Aztecs, the Maya calendars are the best-documented and most completely understood.

By the Maya mythological tradition, as documented in Colonial Yucatec accounts and reconstructed from Late Classic and Postclassic inscriptions, the deity Itzamna is frequently credited with bringing the knowledge of the calendar system to the ancestral Maya, along with writing in general and other foundational aspects of Maya culture[1].

General overview

The most important of these calendars is one with a period of 260 days. This 260-day calendar was prevalent across all Mesoamerican societies, and is of great antiquity (almost certainly the oldest of the calendars). It is still used in some regions of Oaxaca, and amongst the Maya communities of the Guatemalan highlands.

The Maya version is commonly known to scholars as the Tzolkin, or Tzolk'in in the revised orthography of the Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala. The Tzolkin combined with another 365-day calendar (known as the Haab, or Haab' ), to form a synchronised cycle lasting for 52 Haabs, called the Calendar Round. Smaller cycles of 13 days (the trecena) and 20 days (the veintena) were important components of the Tzolkin and Haab cycles, respectively. A different form of calendar was used to track longer periods of time, and for the inscription of calendar dates (i.e., identifying when one event occurred in relation to others).

This form, known as the Long Count, is based upon the number of elapsed days since a mythical starting point, and was capable of being extended to refer to any date far into the future. This calendar involved the use of a positional notation system, in which each position signified an increasing multiple of the number of days.

The Maya numeral system was essentially vigesimal (i.e., base-20), and each unit of a given position represented 20 times the unit of the position which preceded it. An important exception was made for the second place value, which instead represented 18 × 20, or 360 days, more closely approximating the solar year than would 20 × 20 = 400 days. It should be noted however that the cycles of the Long Count are independent of the solar year.

Many Maya Long Count inscriptions are supplemented by what is known as the Lunar Series, another calendar form which provides information on the lunar phase and position of the Moon in a half-yearly cycle of lunations.

A 584-day Venus cycle was also maintained, which tracked the appearance and conjunctions of Venus as the morning and evening stars. Many events in this cycle were seen as being inauspicious and baleful, and occasionally warfare was timed to coincide with stages in this cycle.

Other, less-prevalent or poorly-understood cycles, combinations and calendar progressions were also tracked. An 819-day count is attested in a few inscriptions; repeating series of 9- and 13-day intervals associated with different groups of deities, animals and other significant concepts are also known.

With the development of the place-notational Long Count calendar (believed to have been inherited from other Mesoamerican cultures), the Maya had an elegant system within which events could be recorded in a linear relationship to one another, and also with respect to the calendar ("linear time") itself.

In theory, this system could readily be extended to delineate any length of time desired, by simply adding to the number of higher-order place markers used (and thereby generating an ever-increasing sequence of day-

multiples, each day in the sequence uniquely identified by its Long Count number). In practice, most Maya Long Count inscriptions confine themselves to noting only the first 5 coefficients in this system (a baktun-count), since this was more than adequate to express any historical or current date (with an equivalent span of approximately 5125 solar years). Even so, example inscriptions exist which noted or implied lengthier sequences, indicating that the Maya well understood a linear (past-present-future) conception of time.

However, and in common with other Mesoamerican societies, the repetition of the various calendric cycles, the natural cycles of observable phenomena, and the recurrence and renewal of death-rebirth imagery in their mythological traditions were important and pervasive influences upon Maya societies. This conceptual view, in which the "cyclical nature" of time is highlighted, was a pre-eminent one, and many rituals were concerned with the completion and reoccurrences of various cycles.

As the particular calendaric configurations were once again repeated, so too were the "supernatural" influences with which they were associated. Thus it was held that particular calendar configurations had a specific "character" to them, which would influence events on days exhibiting that configuration. Divinations could then be made from the auguries associated with a certain configuration, since events taking place on some future date would be subject to the same influences as its corresponding previous cycle dates. Events and ceremonies would be timed to coincide with auspicious dates, and avoid inauspicious ones.

The completion of significant calendar cycles ("period endings"), such as a katun-cycle, were often marked by the erection and dedication of specific monuments (mostly stela inscriptions) commemorating the completion, accompanied by dedicatory ceremonies.

A cyclical interpretation is also noted in Maya creation accounts, in which the present world and the humans in it were preceded by other worlds (one to five others, depending on the tradition) which were fashioned in various forms by the gods, but subsequently destroyed. The present world also had a tenuous existence, requiring the supplication and offerings of periodic sacrifice to maintain the balance of continuing existence. Similar themes are found in the creation accounts of other Mesoamerican societies.

Mayanists have bestowed the name tzolkin (or tzolk'in, in the revised orthography which is now preferred) on the Maya version of the Mesoamerican 260-day calendar.

The word was coined based on the Yucatec language, with an intended meaning of "count of days". The actual names of this calendar as used by the pre-Columbian Maya are not known. The Aztec calendar equivalent was called by them tonalpohualli, in the Nahuatl language.

The Tzolkin calendar combines twenty day names with the thirteen numbers of the trecena cycle to produce 260 unique days. It was used to determine the time of religious and ceremonial events and for divination. Each successive

day was numbered from 1 up to 13 and then starting again at 1. Separately from this, each day was given a name in sequence from a list of 20 day names: The system started with 1 Imix, which was followed by 2 Ik, 3 Akbal and so on up to 13 Ben. The day numbers then started again at 1, so there were 1 Ix, 2 Men, 3 Cib, 4 Caban, 5 Etznap, 6 Caunac, and 7 Ahau. The day names then started again, so the next day was 8 Imix. The full cycle of every possible day number with every possible day name took 260 days.

Divination

The Maya believed that each day of the Tzolkin had a character that influenced events. The Maya had a shaman-priest, whose name meant day keeper, and who read the Tzolkin to predict the future. When a child was born, the day keeper would interpret the Tzolkin cycle to predict the baby’s destiny.

For example, a child born on the day of Akabal was thought to be feminine, wealthy, and verbally skillful. The birthday of Ak’abal was also thought to give the child the ability to communicate with the supernatural world, so he or she might become a shaman-priest or a marriage spokesman. In the Maya highlands, babies were even named after the day on which they were born to apprise the community of that child's purpose in life.

Origin of the Tzolkin

The exact origin of the Tzolkin is not known, but there are several theories. One theory is that the calendar came from mathematical operations based on the numbers thirteen and twenty, which were important numbers to the Maya. The number twenty was the basis of the Maya counting system, taken from the number of human fingers and toes. (See Maya numerals). Thirteen symbolized the number of levels in the Upperworld where the gods lived.

The numbers multiplied together equal 260. Another theory is that the 260-day period came from the length of human pregnancy. This is close to the average number of days between the first missed menstural period and birth, unlike Naegele's rule which is 40 weeks (280 days) between the last menstrual period and birth. It is postulated that midwives originally developed the calendar to predict babies' expected birth dates.

Haab

The Haab was the Maya solar calendar made up of eighteen months of twenty days each and a five day month at the end of the year known as Wayeb or Uayeb that was called "the nameless days." Victoria Bricker estimates that the Haab was first used around 550 BC with the starting point of the winter solstice. The Haab was the foundation of the agrarian calendar and the month names are based on the seasons and agricultural events. For example the thirteenth month, Mac, may refer to the end of the rainy season and the fourteenth month, Kankin, may refer to ripe crops in the fall.

In Yucatec Maya, the eighteen months had the following names:

Pop

Uo

Zip

Zotz

Tzec

Xul

Yaxkin

Mol

Chen

Yax

Zac

Ceh

Mac

Kankin

Muan

Pax

Kayab

Cumku

Each day was identified by a day number within the month followed by the name of the month. Day numbers began with a glyph translated as the "seating of" a named month, which is usually regarded as day 0 of that month, although a minority treat it as day 20 of the month preceding the named month. In the latter case, the seating of Pop is day 5 of Wayeb. For the majority, the first day of the year was 0 Pop (the seating of Pop). This was followed by 1 Pop, 2 Pop ... 19 Pop, 0 Uo, 1 Uo and so on.

As a calendar for keeping track of the seasons, the Haab was crude and inaccurate, since it treated the year as having 365 days, and ignored the extra quarter day (approximately) in the actual tropical year. This meant that the seasons moved with respect to the calendar year by a quarter day each year, so that the calendar months named after particular seasons no longer corresponded to these seasons after a few centuries.

The Haab is equivalent to the wandering 365-day year of the ancient Egyptians. Some argue that the Maya knew about and compensated for the quarter day error, even though their calendar did not include anything comparable to a leap year, a method first implemented by the Romans.

Wayeb

The five nameless days at the end of the calendar called Wayeb were thought to be a dangerous time. Lynn Foster writes that, "During Wayeb, portals between the mortal realm and the Underworld dissolved. No boundaries prevented the ill-intending deities from causing disasters." To ward off these evil spirits, the Maya had customs and rituals they practiced during Wayeb. For example, people avoided leaving their houses or washing or combing their hair.

Calendar Round

Neither the Tzolkin nor the Haab system numbered the years. The combination of a Tzolkin date and a Haab date was enough to identify a date to most people's satisfaction, as such a combination didn't occur again for another 52 years, well above life expectancy.

Because the two calendars were based on 260 days and 365 days respectively, the whole cycle would repeat itself every 52 Haab years exactly. This period was known as a Calendar Round. The end of the Calendar Round was a period of unrest and bad luck among the Maya, as they waited in expectation to see if the gods would grant them another cycle of 52 years.

The back of Stela C from Tres Zapotes

This is one of the oldest artifacts using the long count system, which here appears as 7.16.6.16.18 (September 3, 32 BCE Julian). The glyphs surrounding the date are what is thought to be one of the few surviving examples of Epi-Olmec script.

Long Count

Since Calendar Round dates can only distinguish within 18980 days, equivalent to around 52 solar years, the cycle repeats roughly once each lifetime, and thus, a much more refined method of dating was needed if their history was to be recorded accurately.

The Long Count employs the use of number series, roughly base 20 and is constructed by counting whole number of days alone. The Mayan name for a day was kin; twenty of these kins are known as a uinal; eighteen uinals make one tun; twenty tuns are known as a katun, twenty katuns make a baktun. (Four higher order cycles but rarely used are known as Pictun, Calabtun, Kinchiltun, and Alautun.)

Table of Long Count units Days Long Count periods Long Count Solar years Tuns

1 = 1 Kin

20 = 20 Kin = 1 Uinal

360 = 18 Uinal = 1 Tun ~ 1 1

7 200 = 20 Tun = 1 Katun ~ 20 20

144 000 = 20 Katun = 1 Baktun ~ 395 400

The Long Count started at 13.0.0.0.0. The baktuns progress 13, 1, 2, ..., 12. Because of this progression, many start the Long Count at 0.0.0.0.0 rather than 13.0.0.0.0, even though the Maya glyph for their epoch literally means "the completion of 13 baktuns".

Correlations between Western calendars and the Maya calendar

Only one day in one calendar system has to be firmly established in the other to be able to translate all dates in one system to the other. The commonly established way of expressing the correlation between the Maya calendar and the Gregorian or Julian calendars is to give the offset in days from the start of the Julian Period to the Maya creation on 13.0.0.0.0 4 Ajaw 8 Kumk'u.

The most commonly accepted correlation is the "Goodman, Martinez-Hernandez, Thompson" correlation (nicknamed "GMT"). This correlation establishes that the 13.0.0.0.0 creation date occurred on 3114 BC September 6 (Julian) or 3114 BC August 11 (Gregorian), Julian day number (JDN) 584283, the number of days since the start of the Julian Period.

This correlation fits the astronomical, ethnographic, carbon dating, and historical sources best. However, there have been other correlations that have been proposed at various times. All of the following are only of historical interest, except that by Lounsbury, two days after the GMT correlation, which is still used by a few Maya scholars.

JDN correlations to the Maya creation date

(Thompson 1971)

Name Correlation

Willson 438906

Smiley 482699

Makemson 489138

Spinden 489384

Teeple 492662

Dinsmoor 497879

-4CR 508363

-2CR 546323

Stock 556408

Goodman 584280

Martinez-Hernandez 584281

GMT 584283

Lounsbury 584285

Pogo 588626

+2CR 622243

Kreichgauer 626927

+4CR 660203

Hochleitner 674265

Schultz 677723

Ramos 679108

Valliant 679183

Weitzel 774078

Many of the books about the Maya and most of the software available for Maya calendar conversions uses the proleptic Gregorian calendar. In this system all dates before the start of the Gregorian calendar are in the Gregorian calendar, rather than the Julian calendar used by most historians. This is how one converts the Long Count 0.0.0.0.0 to August 11th, 3114 BC.

The use of software that is based on the proleptic Gregorian calendar can be problematic for:

1. Historical research. For example the G.M.T. correlation is based on dates given to Bishops Diego de Landa in Yucatan and Bernardino de Sahagun in Mexico. If you were to try to correctly derive the G.M.T. correlation by using these dates in a program that used the proleptic Gregorian calendar you would fail because de Landa and Sahagun were using the Julian calendar.

2. Astronomical research. For example if you wanted to study ancient observations on stelae or in the codices you would first convert a Long Count to days, months, and years. Then you would enter this date into an astronomy program. You would then be making a major error if the astronomy program uses a different calendar than you did.

Obviously this is a nontrivial issue and since most people will buy computer software to do Maya calendar conversions it is imperative for them to know which system their program uses.

Calculating Long Count dates

Long count dates list number of the highest order period first (Baktun) and then the number of each successively smaller order periods until the number of days (kin) are listed. Then the Calendar Round date is given.

A typical Calendar Round date is 9.12.2.0.16 5 Cib 14 Yaxkin. One can check whether this date is correct by the following calculation.

It is perhaps easier to find out how many days there are since 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu, and show how the date 5 Cib 14 Yaxkin is derived.

9 × 144000 = 1296000

12 × 7200 = 86400

2 × 360 = 720

0 × 20 = 0

16 × 1 = 16

Total days = 1383136 kin

Calculating the Tzolkin date portion

The Tzolkin date is counted forward from 4 Ahau. To calculate the numerical portion of the Tzolkin date, we must add 4 to the total number of days given by the date, and then divide total number of days by 13.

(4 + 1383136) / 13 = 106395 and 5/13

This means that 106395 complete 13 day cycles have been completed, and the numerical portion of the Tzolkin date is 5.

To calculate the day, we divide the total number of days in the long count by 20 since there are twenty day names.

1383136 / 20 = 69156 and (16/20)

This means 16 day names must be counted from Ahau. This gives Cib. Therefore, the Tzolkin date is 5 Cib.

Calculating the Haab date portion

The Haab date 8 Cumhu is the ninth day of the eighteenth month. Since there are twenty days per month, there are eleven days remaining in Cumhu. The nineteeth and last month of the Haab year contains only five days, there are sixteen days until the end of the Haab year.

If we subtract 16 days from the total, we can then find how many complete Haab years are contained.

1383136 - 16 = 1383120

Dividing by 365, we have

1383120 / 365 = 3789 and (135/365)

Therefore, 3789 complete Haab have passed, with 135 days into the new Haab.

We then find which month the day is in. Dividing the remainder 135 days by 20, we have six complete months, plus 15 remainder days. So, the date in the Haab lies in the seventh month, which is Yaxkin. The fifteenth day of Yaxkin is 14, thus the Haab date is 14 Yaxkin.

So the date of the long count date 9.12.2.0.16 5 Cib 14 Yaxkin is confirmed.

End of the world?

The end of the 13th baktun is conjectured to have been of great significance to the Maya, but does not mark the end of the world. According to the Popol Vuh, a sacred book of the Maya, we are living in the fourth world. The Popol Vuh describes the first three creations that the gods failed in making and the creation of the successful fourth world where men were placed. The Maya believed that the fourth world would end in catastrophe and the fifth and final world would be created that would signal the end of mankind.

The last creation ended on a long count of 13.0.0.0.0. Another 13.0.0.0.0 will occur on December 21, 2012, and it has been discussed in many New Age articles and books that this will be the end of this creation or something else entirely. However, the Maya abbreviated their long counts to just the last five vigesimal places. There were an infinitely larger number of units that were usually not shown.

When the larger units were shown (notably on a monument from Coba), the end of the last creation is expressed as 13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.0.0.0.0, where the units are obviously supposed to be 13s in all larger places. In this age we are only approaching 0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.13.0.0.0.0, and the larger places are nowhere near the 13s that would match the end of the last creation. (Schele and Friedel 1990: 430)

This is confirmed by a date from Palenque, which projects forward in time to 1.0.0.0.0.0, which will occur on 13 October, 4772. The Classic Period Maya obviously did not believe that the end of this age would occur in 2012. According to the Maya, there will be a baktun ending in 2012, a significant event being the end of a 13th 400 year period, but not the end of the world.

Venus cycle

Another important calendar for the Maya was the Venus cycle. The Maya were excellent astronomers, and could calculate the Venus cycle extremely accurately. There are six pages in the Dresden Codex (one of the Maya codices) devoted to the accurate calculation of the location of Venus. The Maya were able to achieve such accuracy by careful observation over many years.

The Venus cycle was especially important because the Maya believed it was associated with war and used it to divine good times for coronations and war. Maya rulers planned for wars to begin when Venus rose. The Maya also possibly tracked other planets’ movements, including those of Mars, Mercury, and Jupiter.

Joe Monzo has interpreted the boundaries of the longcount to be defined by a periodic astronomical event: the triple conjunction just before sunrise of the moon, Venus, and Jupiter (see his webpage below in "external links"). However, this interpretation relies on modern astronomical calculations not used by the Maya

Mathematics

Mayan numeralsIn common with the other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya used a base 20 (vigesimal) and base 5 numbering system (see Maya numerals). Also, they independently developed the concept of zero by 357 AD (Europeans did not embrace zero until the 12th century).

Inscriptions show them on occasion working with sums up to the hundreds of millions and dates so large it would take several lines just to represent it. They produced extremely accurate astronomical observations; their charts of the movements of the moon and planets are equal or superior to those of any other civilization working from naked eye observation.

Also in common with the other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya utilized a highly accurate measure of the length of the solar year, far more accurate than that used in Europe as the basis of the Gregorian Calendar.

They did not use this figure for the length of year in their calendar, however. Instead, the Maya calendar(s) were based on a year length of exactly 365 days, which means that the calendar falls out of step with the seasons by one day every four years.

By comparison, the Julian calendar, used in Europe from Roman times until about the 16th Century, accumulated an error of one day every 128 years. The modern Gregorian calendar accumulates a day's error in approximately 3257 years.

For example, nineteen (19) is written as four dots in a horizontal row above three horizontal lines stacked upon each other.

In the calendar

In the "Long Count" portion of the Maya calendar, a variation on the strictly vigesimal numbering is used. The Long Count changes in the third place value; it is not 20×20 = 400, as would otherwise be expected, but 18×20, so that one dot over two zeros signifies 360.

This is supposed to be because 360 is roughly the number of days in a year. (Some hypothesize that this was an early approximation to the number of days in the solar year, although the Maya had a quite accurate calculation of 365.2422 days for the solar year at least since the early Classic era). Subsequent place values return to base-twenty.

In fact, every known example of large numbers uses this 'modified vigesimal' system, with the third position representing multiples of 18*20. It is reasonable to assume, but not proven by any evidence, that the normal system in use was a pure base-20 system.

Maya mythology refers to the pre-Columbian Maya civilization's extensive polytheistic religious beliefs. These beliefs had most likely been long-established by the time the earliest-known distinctively Maya monuments had been built and inscriptions depicting their deities recorded, considerably pre-dating the 1st millennium BC.

Over the succeeding millennia this intricate and multi-faceted system of beliefs was extended, varying to a degree between regions and time periods, but maintaining also an inherited tradition and customary observances.

The Maya shared many traditions and rituals with the other civilizations and cultures in the Mesoamerican region, both preceding and contemporary societies, and in general the entire region formed an interrelated mosaic of belief systems and conceptions on the nature of the world and human existence.

However, the various Maya peoples over time developed a unique and continuous set of traditions which are particularly associated with their societies, and their achievements.

Despite the ca. early 10th century "Terminal collapse", during which Maya monument construction and inscription recording effectively ceased over large areas and many centers were subsequently abandoned, the Maya peoples themselves endured and continued to maintain their assorted beliefs and traditions.

The maintenance of these traditions can be seen in the relics and products of those centers which flourished during the Post-Classic phase, such as in the northern Yucatán Peninsula, occasionally combined with other influences more characteristic of the Gulf coast and central Mexican regions.

Although the southern lowland and highland Maya regions of present-day Guatemala saw very little further monument building during this period, the maintenance of traditional beliefs among the local Maya is attested by the accounts and reports of the 16th and 17th century Spanish.

During and after the Spanish conquest, the stories and traditions of the Maya coninued to be handed down to succeeding generations, albeit much influenced and restricted by the influx of European practices and beliefs, Roman Catholicism in particular.

Many Maya have experienced considerable persecution for their beliefs and political oppression over the centuries since the first European arrivals; although there can be no doubt that Maya society and tradition has undergone substantial change, many Maya people today maintain an identity which is very much informed by their collective

history, traditions and beliefs– a heritage which is distinctively Maya even where substantially combined with the widespread adoption of Christianity.

Apart from epigraphic inscriptions on monuments (which deal primarily with commemorations and dynastic successions), only three complete Maya texts and a fragment of a fourth have survived through the years. The majority of the Maya codices were burned by Europeans like Bishop Diego de Landa during their conquest of Mesoamerica and subsequent efforts to convert the Mayan people to Christianity.

Available knowledge of Maya mythology, as such, is rather limited. What is known is drawn largely from 16th - 17th century accounts of post-conquest Maya beliefs and traditions, which do not necessarily correspond with the traditions which were maintained in earlier times.

Overview

The Maya believed there were five different cardinal directions four of which were associated with colors: north/white, south/yellow, east/red, west/black, and center which was associated with the tree of life, symbolised by a great ceiba tree that was the center of the cosmos. Mayan gods had different aspects based on these five directions as well as the different natural cycles that the Maya observed. The gods also had dualistic natures associating them with day or night, life or death. There were thirteen gods of the thirteen heavens of the Maya religion and nine gods of the nine underworlds.

Between the upperworlds of the heavens and the underworlds of the night and death was the earthly plane which is often shown in Mayan art as a two-headed caiman or a turtle lying in a great lake. Natural elements, stars and planets, numbers, crops, days of the calendar and periods of time all had their own gods. The gods' characters, malevolence or benevolence, and associations changed according to the days in the Maya calendar or the positions of the sun, moon, Venus, and the stars.

The Quiché Maya creation story is outlined in the Popol Vuh. This has the world created from nothing by the will of the Maya pantheon of gods. Man was made unsuccessfully out of mud and then wood before being made out of maize and being assigned tasks which praised the gods — silversmith, gem cutter, stone carver, potter, etc. Some argue this story adds credence to the belief that the Maya did not believe in art per se; all of their works were for the exaultation of the gods.

After the creation story, the Popol Vuh tells of the struggles of the legendary hero twins, Hunahpu and Ixbalanque, in defeating the lords of Xibalba, the underworld. The twins descend into the underworld, perish, and are eventually miraculously reborn. This myth provides a metaphor for the agricultural cycle and the annual rebirth of the crops. These two stories are focal points of Maya mythology and often found depicted in Maya art.

The Creation Myth

In Maya mythology, Tepeu and Gucumatz (also known as Kukulkan, and as the Aztec's Quetzalcoatl) are referred to as the Creators, the Makers, and the Forefathers. They were two of the first beings to exist and were said to be as wise as sages. Huracan, or the Heart of Heaven, also existed and is given less personification. He acts more like a storm, of which he is the god.

Tepeu and Gucumatz hold a conference and decide that, in order to preserve their legacy, they must create a race of beings who can worship them. Huracan does the actual creating while Tepeu and Gucumatz guide the process. Earth is created, but the gods make several false starts in setting humanity upon the earth. Animals were created first; however, with all of their howling and squawking they did not worship their creators and were thus banished forever to the forest.

Man is created first of mud, but they just crumbled and dissolved away. Other gods are summoned and man is next created of wood but has no soul, and they soon forgot their makers, so the gods turned all of their possessions against them and brought a black resinous rain down on their heads. Finally man is formed of masa or corn dough by even more gods and their work is complete. As such, the Maya believed that maize was not just the cornerstone of their diet, but they were also made of the same stuff.

Chaac - God of Rain and Thunder

Camazotz - Bat god, tries to kill the Hero Twins in the Popol Vuh.

Gucumatz - Snake god and creator.

Hunahpu - One of the Maya Hero Twins.

Huracan - Storm and fire god, one of the creator deities.

Ixbalanque - One of the Maya Hero Twins.

Ixchel - Earth and Moon goddess.

Ixtab - Goddess of suicide.

Zipacna - Underworld demon.

Bacabs

The Bacabs were four brothers, the sons of Itzamna and Ixchel. A creator god placed these skybearers at the four corners of the universe. Because each stands at one of the four cardinal directions, each is associated with a color and with a specific segment in the Maya calendar.

Hobnil (later replaced by Chaac) - bacab of the east, is assigned the color red and the Kan years.

Can Tzicnal - bacab of the north, is assigned the color white, and the Muluc years.

Zac Cimi - bacab of the west, is assigned the color black and the Ix years.

Hozanek - bacab of the south, is assigned the color yellow and the Cauac years.

References to the Bacabs are found in the writings of sixteenth-century historian Diego de Landa and the various Mayan histories known as the Chilam Balams. At some point, the brothers became associated with the figure of Chac, a Maya rain god. In the Yucatan, the Maya of Chan Kom referred to the four skybearers as the four Chacs.

They were also believed to be jaguar gods, and are associated with beekeeping. Like many other deities, the Bacabs were important in divination ceremonies, being approached with questions about crops, weather or the health of bees.

The First Humans

The Men

B'alam Agab

Meaning "night jaguar," he was the second of the men created from maize after the Great Flood sent by Hurakan. He married Choimha.

B'alam Quitze

Meaning "jaguar with the sweet smile," was the first of the men created from maize after the Great Flood sent by Hurakan. The gods created Caha-Paluma specifically for him to marry. Alernative names: Balam Quitze, Balam Quitzé

Iqi B'alam

Meaning "moon jaguar," he was the third of the men created from maize after the Great Flood sent by Hurakan. The gods created Cakixia specifically to be his wife.

Mahucatah

Meaning "distinguished name," he was the fourth of the men created from maize after the Great Flood sent by Hurakan. The woman Tzununiha was created just for him.

Their Wives

Caha-Paluma

Meaning "falling water," she was a woman created specifically to be the wife of Balam-Quitzé.

Cakixia

Meaning "water of parrots," she was a woman created specifically to be the wife of Iqi-Balam.

Choimha

Meaning "beautiful water", she was a woman created by the gods specifically to marry B'alam Agab.

Tzununiha

Meaning "house of the water," she was a woman created specifically to be the wife of one of the first men, Mahucatah.

Gods and Supernatural Beings

Ac Yanto

Considered responsible for the creation of European immigrants and their products. He appeared in the latter days of Maya civilization. His brother

is the creator god Hachacyum and his name means 'our helper.'

Acan

The god of wine. His name means 'groan.'

Acat

The god of tattoo artists.

Ah Bolom Tzacab

Meaning "the lead-nosed god," he was a god of agriculture, thunder and rain. He was depicted with a leaf in his nose. Alternative names: Ah Bolon Dz'acab, God K

Ah Cancum

A god of hunting.

Ah Chun Caan

The patron deity of the city of T'ho, modern Mérida, Yucatán.

Ah Chuy Kak

A god of war.

Ah Ciliz

A god of solar eclipses.

Ah Cun Can

A god of war.

Ah Cuxtal

A god of childbirth.

Ah Hulneb

Associated with the island of Cozumel, he was a god of war. Ah Hulneb means "he the spear thrower."

Ah Kin

Meaning "he of the sun," he was a solar deity and controlled disease and drought.

Ah Kumix Uinicob

Minor water gods.

Ah Mun

A maize god.

Ah Muzencab

The gods of bees.

Ah Patnar Uinicob

Minor water gods.

Ah Peku

The god of thunder.

Ah Tabai

The god of the hunt.

Ah Uincir Dz'acab

A god of healing and medicine.

Ah Uuc Ticab

A chthonic god of the Earth.

Ahau Chamahez

A god of medicine and good health.

Ahau-Kin

Meaning "lord of the sun face," he was a sun god and moon god; he had two manifestations. At night, he became a jaguar god and lord of the underworld.

Ahmakiq

An agriculture god who protected crops from the wind.

of Xibalba.

Ahulane

A war god, also called the archer. The island Cozumel was the location of Ahulane's shrine.

Ajbit

One of the thirteen creator gods who helped construct humanity from maize.

Ajtzak

One of the thirteen creator gods who helped construct humanity from maize.

Akhushtal

The goddess of childbirth.

Akna

Meaning "mother," she was a goddess of fertility and childbirth.

Alaghom Naom

A goddess of wisdom, consciousness, education and the intellect. Also known as Alaghom Naom Tzentel and the Mother of Mind.

Alom

A sky god and one of the creator deities who participated in the last two attempts at creating humanity.

Backlum Chaam

The god of masculine sexual prowess.

Balam

Any of a group of jaguar gods who protected people and communities against threats.

Balam-Agab

Meaning "night jaguar," he was the second of the men created from maize after the Great Flood sent by Hurakan. He married Choimha.

Bitol

A sky god and one of the creator deities who participated in the last two attempts at creating humanity.

Bolontiku

A group of underworld gods.

Buluc Chabtan

Sometimes referred to as "God F," he was a war god who received human sacrifices.

Cabaguil

A sky god.

Cabrakan

A god of mountains and earthquakes. He was a son of Vucub Caquix and Chimalmat. He had six children, though only the name of one survives: Chalybir.

Cacoch

A creator god.

Cakulha

A lightning god, an underling of Yaluk. His brother was Coyopa.

Camaxtli

A god of hunting, war, fate and fire (which he invented). He was one of the four creator gods, who made the Earth. The Chichimec considered him their tribal deity.

Camulatz

A bird that ate the heads of the first men.

Cay

A water deity.

Chac Uayab Xoc

A fish god and the patron deity of fishermen. He blessed their catches, yet also ate them if they drowned.

Chalybir

The son of Cabrakan. He is only mentioned once in the surviving literature, in the epic "On the Shores of the Dead".

Chamer

A god of death, particularly popular in Guatemala. He was married to Ixtab.

Chaob

The four wind gods.

Chibirias

A goddess of the earth.

Chiccan

A group of four rain gods who live in lakes and make rain clouds from the water in those lakes. Each of the rain gods was associated with a cardinal direction, similar to the Bacabs. Chiccan was also the name of a day in the Tzolkin cycle of the maya calendar.

Chirakan

A fertility goddess.

Cit-Bolon-Tum

A boar-headed god of medicine and healing.

Chimalmat

A giant who, by Vucub Caquix, was the mother of Cabrakan and Zipacna.

Cizin

A god of death who lived in Metnal.

Colel Cab

A mother and fertility goddess.

Colop U Uichkin

A god of the sky.

Coyopa

The god of thunder and brother of Cakulha.

Cum Hau

A god of death and the underworld.

Ekchuah

Also spelled Ek Chuah, the "black war chief" was the patron god of warriors and merchants, depicted carrying a bag over his shoulder. In art, he was a dark-skinned man with circles around his eyes, a scorpion tail and dangling lower lip. In early modern studies of Maya art and iconography, he was sometimes referred to as God M before his identity was firmly established.

Ghanan

An agricultural and fertility god.

Hacha'kyum

Worshipped by the Lacandon people, he was their patron deity.

Hun Came

A demonic lord of the underworld Xibalba who, along with Vucub Caquix, killed Hun Hunahpu. They were killed by his sons, the Maya Hero Twins.

Hun Hunahpu

The father of the Maya Hero Twins Ixbalanque and Hun-Apu by a virgin. He was beheaded in Xibalba, the underworld, by the rulers of Xibalba, Hun Came and Vucub Caquix. His sons avenged his death.

Hunab Ku

The highest god. He rebuilt the world after three Great Floods, which came from the mouth of a sea monster. He is father of Itzamna and husband of Ixazalvoh.

Hunahpu-Gutch

One of the thirteen creator gods who helped construct humanity.

Itzamna

The founder of the Maya culture, he taught his people to grow maize and cacao, as well as writing, calendars and medicine. With Ixchel, he was the father of the Bacabs. He was associated with snakes and mussels. His father was Kinich Ahau or Hunab Ku. The city of Izamal was sacred to him.

Itzananohk'u

The patron god of the Lacandon people.

Ixmucane

One of the thirteen creator gods who helped construct humanity.

Ixpiyacoc

One of the thirteen creator gods who helped construct humanity.

Ixzaluoh

A goddess of water and weaving.

Kan-u-Uayeyab

A protector of cities.

Kan-xib-yui

A creator god.

Kianto

The god of foreign aliens, and the disease they brought with them.

K'in

Meaning "Sun" or day, he was a solar deity.

Kinich Ahau

A solar deity and father of Itzamna.

Kinich Kakmo

A solar deity represented by a macaw.

Nacon

A god of war.

Naum

The god who invented the mind and consciousness.

Nohochacyum

A creator god, he is the most important deity of the Lacandon. His name means "Our True Lord".

Qaholom

one of the second set of creator gods.

Tecumbalam

A bird that dearly injured the first men.

Tepeu

A sky god and one of the creator deities who participated in all three attempts at creating humanity.

Tlacolotl

A god of evildoers and villains.

Tohil

Tohil is the Quiché name for Huracan and was their patron deity. There was a great temple to him at their ancient capital of Rotten Cane (Q'umaraq aj or Gumarcaj).

Voltan

An earth and drum god (originally a human hero who was deified), married to Ixchel.

Vucub Caquix

A powerful ruling demon in the underworld, Xibalba, and, by Chimalmat, the father of the demonic giants Cabrakan and Zipacna. He and his children were arrogant and the divine twins Hunahpu and Ixbalangue killed Vucub Caquix and Zipacna, along with Vucub Caquix's co-regent in the underworld, Hun Came, as revenge for the beheading of their father Hun Hunahpu.

Xaman Ek

A god of travelers and merchants, who gave offerings to him on the side of roads while traveling.

Xecotcovach

A bird which tore the eyes out of the first men.

Xmucane and Xpiayoc

A deific creator god couple who helped creat the first humans. They are also the parents of Hun Hunahpu (one hunahpu) and Vucub Hunahpu (seven hunahpu). They were called Grandmother of Day, Grandmother of Light and Bearer twice over, begetter twice over and given the titles midwife and matchmaker.

Yaluk

The chief lightning god, and ruled over the lesser ones, such as Cakulha.

Yum Caax

The personification of maize and a god of agriculture and nature. Alternative names: Yum Kaax, God E

Zotz

The god of bats, caves and the patron of the Tzotzil people. Zotz was also the name of one of the months of the Maya calendar. Alternative name: Zotzilaha, Sotz'

Metnal

The lowest and most horrible of the nine hells of the underworld. It was ruled by Ah Puch. Ritual healers would intone healing prayers banishing diseases to Metnal.

Xibalba

Also known as Xibalbá or Xibalbay, is a dangerous underworld ruled by the demons Vucub Caquix and Hun Came. The road to it is said to be steep, thorny and very forbidding. Much of the Popol Vuh describes the adventures of the Maya Hero Twins in their struggle with the evil lords.

Vision Serpent

The Vision Serpent is an important creature in Pre-Columbian Maya mythology.

The serpent was a very important social and religious symbol, revered by the Maya. Maya mythology describes serpents as being the vehicles by which celestial bodies, such as the sun and stars, cross the heavens. The shedding of their skin made them a symbol of rebirth and renewal.

They were so revered, that one of the main Mesoamerican deities, Quetzalcoatl, was represented as a feathered serpent. The name means "quetzal serpent" (Michael Coe, pg 79).

The Vision Serpent is thought to be the most important of the Maya serpents. "It was usually bearded and had a rounded snout. It was also often depicted as having two heads or with the spirit of a god or ancestor emerging from its jaws". During Mayan bloodletting sacrifices, participants would experience visions in which they communicated with the ancestors or gods.

These visions took the form of a giant serpent "which served as a gateway to the spirit realm". The ancestor or god who was being contacted was depicted as emerging from the serpent’s mouth. The vision serpent thus came to be the method in which ancestors or Gods manifested themselves to the Mayas. Thus for them, the Vision Serpent was direct link between the spirit realm of the gods and the physical world. (Schele, 1990:395)

The Vision Serpent goes back to earlier Maya conceptions, and lies at the center of the world as they conceived it. "It is in the center axis atop the World Tree. Essentially the World Tree and the Vision Serpent, representing the king, created the center axis which communicates between the spiritual and the earthly worlds or planes. It is through ritual that the king could bring the center axis into existence in the temples and create a doorway to the spiritual world, and with it power". (Schele, 1990: 68)

The Vision Serpent is prevalent in Bloodletting ceremonies, in Mayan religious practices, Mayan jewelry, pottery and their architecture.

The Maya Vision Serpent and Bloodletting

Many have attempted to explain the manifestation of the Vision Serpent in association with Maya bloodletting. One conclusion is "that massive blood loss causes the brain to release an abundance of natural endorphins, which are chemically related to opiates. As the body goes into shock, a hallucinatory vision occurs". Once the actual bloodletting was over, the blood soaked ceremonial papers were burned, releasing a column of smoke.

The smoke provided the perfect medium for the Vision Serpent to appear. Every major political or religious event involved bloodletting because it provided a medium by which the gods could be called upon to witness and actually participate in the ceremony. Sometimes the spirits of ancestors were also called upon to give guidance. The Hauberg Stela (A. D. 199) from the Maya Lowlands "is one of the first dated monuments that depict the Vision Serpent's connection to bloodletting".

Lintel 25 depicts one of the bloodletting rituals. "One of Shield Jaguar's wives, is seen gazing up towards an enormous bicephalous Vision Serpent. In her left hand, she holds a bowl containing a stingray spine, an obsidian lancet, and papers spattered with blood. The Vision Serpent appears to be emanating from the bowl. From the jaws of the Vision Serpent, spews forth an ancestral Tlaloc warrior complete with spear and shield". (Grahan, Ian and Eric Von Euw. Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscription. Vol. 3 Part 1. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Peabody Museum of Harvard University, 1977.)

Lintel 17 refers to "Bird Jaguars as Blood Lord of Yaxchilan" and shows him preparing to draw blood from his penis with a stingray spine. Opposite Bird Jaguar is Lady Balam-Ix, who proceeds to pass course rope through a gouge in her tongue. The blood is being collected in the vessel near Bird Jaguar's feet. The Vision Serpent's mouth is green and, the trickles of blood characteristic of bloodletting are red". (Grahan, Ian and Eric Von Euw. Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscription. Vol. 3 Part 1. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Peabody Museum of Harvard University, 1977.)

Lintel 15 depicts the appearance of this Vision Serpent. "The serpent can be seen rising out of the bowl with trickles of blood along a column of blood scrolls. This lintel shows the queen of Yaxchilan involved in a visionary experience following an elaborate bloodletting ceremony. She holds the ritual paraphernalia in her arms while the vision serpent rises from a bowl of blood stained paper". (Grahan, Ian and Eric Von Euw. Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscription. Vol. 3 Part 1. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Peabody Museum of Harvard University, 1977.)

The Vision Serpent and Maya Religion

There was a Vision Serpent named Och-Kan, lord of Kalak'mul.

One of the most common rituals associated with the Vision serpent involved invoking ancestral sprits. Especially during coronation rites, the kings would contact the spirits for guidance and blessings. It is the Vision Serpent who provides the medium for contacting these deities.

It is believed that Lord Pakal's sarcophagus lid, which was located at Palenque, is probably “the single most comprehensive image which relates the Vision Serpent to Maya religion”. It depicts the death of Pakal and his descent into the Underworld. “The bicepalous serpent bar is placed horizontally on the World Tree and is the conduit for this transition. In the same way that the Vision Serpent represents a conduit between the physical world and the spirit realm of the ancestors, this bicephalous serpent bar represents a conduit between the realm of the living and the realm of the dead”.

Vision Serpent and Maya jewelry and pottery

A piece of Maya jewelry depicts an “anthropomorphic, bicephalous serpent”. It is believed to have been worn during a bloodletting ceremony. It clearly shows the arrival of an ancestor from the spirit realm.

The portrayal of the Vision Serpent was very prevalent in Maya pottery. Vessels used during bloodletting ceremonies, depict the Vision serpent. The vessels below are excellent examples. They are carved in stone and are “some of the earliest depiction of Vision Serpent iconography. Blood spews forth from the open jaws of the front head. Although the rear is not physically attached, it sits just above the serpent's tail and also represents blood”. (Schele, Linda and Ellen Miller. The Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art. New York: George Braziller, Inc., 1986.)

Vision Serpent and Mayan architecture

The Vision Serpent also finds a place in Maya architecture and is especially prominent in the decoration of pillars on the interior and exterior of Mayan temples.

”In the palace at Labna, serpents adorn the corners of the principle facade. Characteristic of the Vision Serpent, there appears to be either an anthropomorphic deity or the spirit of an ancestor emanating from the gaping jaws of the serpent's mouth”. (Ivanoff, Pierre. Monuments of Civilization: Maya. New York: Brosset & Dunlap, 1973.)

Vision Serpent today

Remnants of the Vision Serpent have survived until modern times. As recently as “60 years ago, a documentary was done in San Antonio, Belize, revealing that the Q'eqchi Maya still perform a ritual very similar to the vision quest of the classic Maya. The ritual marks the initiation of a new shaman for the village.

Although there are not many remnants of the bloodletting ceremony, the participant comes into direct contact with a giant serpent, Ochan (Och-Kan)”, (Lost Empires, Living Tribes. Washington D.C.: National Geographic Society, 1982). It is through this experience that he completes his initiation rites and gains the knowledge that is needed to become a powerful shaman. Thus, modified vision quests still include contact with the Vision Serpent, among the Maya today.

Cuando el tecolote canta... el indio muere (When the great owl sings, the Indian dies)

It is also known as Hun ahau (where the first /a/ is sometimes omitted if the words are pronounced continuously).

Also spelled Ek Chuah, the "black war chief" was the patron god of warriors and merchants, depicted carrying a bag over his shoulder.

In art, he was a dark-skinned man with circles around his eyes, a scorpion tail and dangling lower lip. In early modern studies of Maya art and iconography, he was sometimes referred to as God M before his identity was firmly established.

Earth, Sky, Underworld

Horizontally, the earth could be conceived as a square with its four directional - or, perhaps, solstitial - points, each with its own colour, tree / mountain, deity, and aspect, or as a circle without such fixed points; in the centre is the tree of life / dominant mountain.

The square earth could be conceived as a maize field, the circular earth as a turtle floating in the waters; the centre as a ceiba or a maize tree. Vertically, the sky was divided into thirteen layers, while the underworld is usually assumed to have consisted of nine layers, even though the underworld of the Popol Vuh does not know such a division;

moreover, in Classic Maya texts and iconography, it is rather common to find deities linked to some of the thirteen skies, but similar references to layers of the underworld have not been identified. A central axis served as a means of communication between the various spheres.

In the Classic period, earth and sky are embodied as cosmic serpents and dragons which serve as vehicles for deities and ancestors, making them appear from their maws. Dragons combine the features of serpents, crocodiles, and deer.

Eschatology and Cosmogony
Within the framweork of the post-Classic cycle of thirteen katuns (the so-called 'Short Count'), some of the Yucatec Books of Chilam Balam describe the collapse of the sky, the subsequent deluge, and the re-establishment of the world and its five world trees. In this cosmic drama, the Lightning deity (Bolon Dzacab), the Earth Crocodile (Itzam Cab Ain), and the divine carriers of sky and earth (the Bacabs) had an important role to play. The Quichean Popol Vuh does not mention the collapse of the sky and the establishment of the five trees, but focuses instead on a a succession of previous mankinds, the last of which was destroyed by a flood.

For the Classic Mayas, the base date of the Long Count (4 Ahau 8 Cumku) is generally assumed to have been the focus of acts of creation especially, though not exclusively, connected to the mythology of the Maya maize god. References to these primordial events (as on Quirigua stela C) are few in number, seemingly incoherent, and hard to interpret (among these is an obscure conclave of seven deities in the underworld, and a concept of "three stones", usually taken to refer to a hearth).

Man

Soul and 'Co-essence'
The traditional Mayas believe in the existence, within each individual, of various souls, usually described in quasi-material terms (such as 'shadow', 'breath', 'blood', and 'bone'). The loss of one or more souls results in specific diseases (generically called 'soul-loss', 'fright', or susto). In Classic Maya texts, certain glyphs are read as references to the soul. Much more is known about the so-called 'co-essences', that is, animals or other natural phenomena (comets, lightnings) linked with the individual and protecting him.

In some cases (often connected to black sorcery), one can change into these 'co-essences' (see also nagual). The Classic Mayan grandees had a whole array of such 'soul companions', usually of a menacing nature, and called wayob; these were distinguished by specific hieroglyphic names. Among them were also stars.

Afterlife: Underworld and Paradise
In the pre-Spanish past, there may never have existed a unified concept of the afterlife. Among the Pokoman Mayas of the Verapaz, Xbalanque was to accompany the dead king,[8] which suggests a descent into the underworld (called xibalba 'place of fright') like that described in the Popol Vuh Twin myth.

The Yucatec Mayas had a double concept of the afterlife: Evildoers descended into an underworld (metnal) to be tormented there (a view still held by the 20th-century Lacandons), while others went to a sort of paradise; into such a paradise, those who had committed suicide were conducted by the goddess Ixtab.

The ancestors of Maya kings (Palenque tomb of Pakal, Berlin pot) are shown sprouting from the earth like fruit trees, again suggestive of some concept of paradise. To judge by the aquatic imagery associated with Classic burials and depictions of ancestors, this paradise may have been the Mayan variant of the rain gods' paradise (Tlalocan) in Central Mexico.