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Who Were the Ancient Maya?
The ancient Maya entered the territory known as Mesoamerica 1000BC. The florescence of their civilization occurred during the Classic Period that began about AD 250 and ended with a general collapse of the political and religious centers in most of the Maya region by AD 900. However, a Maya Postclassic way of life continued in northern Belize and in the Yucatan area of Mexico until the Conquest by the Spanish in 1541.
The Maya were organized into families that recognized blood ties through males and marriage through females. Authority and inheritance focused on the oldest male child and extended families combined into a lineage that acknowledged a common ancestor. Deification of ancestors soon became a part of their religious belief.
The society that emerged had strongly marked classes and hierarchical ranking between families. At the top was the ruler, usually the eldest son of the ranking family. The sublords, or nobles, who shared the genealogy of the ruler held principal political, military, and religious offices. The scribes/artists belonged to the highest class and were often men and women of the royal family. Beneath this class were wealthy farmers, merchants, and artisans. The commoners were the workers, probably holding use rights on smaller parcels of lineage lands. At the bottom were the slaves, often commoners captured in war.
The number of Maya kingdoms started with about a dozen in the first century BC and expanded to as many as 60 in the eighth century AD, with an average size of 30,000 to 50,000 subjects. Tikal was one of the largest city-states, estimated to have ruled about half a million people. The cities were separate entities with a complex political geography of rivalries and alliances, much like the city-states of Classical Greece. Extensive trade existed between them as well as numerous military confrontations.
Although the ancient Maya were a stone-age people, they developed advanced mathematics, accurate calendars, and astronomical records, skill and proficiency in architecture and arts, and a sophisticated written language.
The Maya view of the world was expressed through religion and ritual, which explained the role of humans in nature, the workings of the sacred, and the mysteries of life and death. It encompassed practical matters of politics and economics. For the ancient Maya, experience was manifested in two complementary dimensions: the world of daily life and the domain of gods and ancestors.
Periods of Ancient Maya History:
Preclassic: 1100 BC - AD 250
Classic: AD 250 - AD 900
Postclassic: AD 900 - AD 1341 |