Maya

Maya* civilization encompassed 200,000 square miles of foothills, rain forests, and plains in the national territories of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador. It endured for nearly 2,000 years, from about 400 BCE, when the first kings raised temple-mountains in royal cities such as El Mirador and Cerros, until 1697, when the Spaniards defeated King Kan-Ek of the Itzá at Tayasal in the Petén region of Guatemala. Maya civilization attained its highest development between 250 and 900 CE (the Classic period) and is known for the architecture of such cities as Palenque, Tikal, and Copán; its fully developed hieroglyphic writing system; achievements in astronomy and mathematics; and an incomparably refined art style.

Within this vast territory, the Maya created several distinctive regional expressions of their civilization. The Southern Lowlands witnessed the rise of great dynastic kingdoms. The Northern Lowland Maya chose another path during the Classic period and established governments in which councils shared power with kings. The Maya of the highlands of Guatemala created yet another variety of civilized life in which hieroglyphic writing played only a minor role. Transcending the diversity were common understandings of religion and philosophy which distinguished the Maya ethnically from other highly developed civilizations in Mesoamerica.

The Maya refined and extended the concept of the god-king. Maya kings were masters of soul-force, or holiness (ch'ul), and were responsible for maintaining the balance of birth, death, and rebirth demonstrated in cycles of mythological and historical time. When these resplendently costumed kings appeared before their people in ritual performances, they embodied the ancestral gods of Maya creation, from whom they channeled power into the world of man so that rain would fall, crops would grow, enemies would falter, and children would prosper.

Maya civilization was fundamentally urban, and its major centers harnessed the abilities of artists, scribes, astronomers, architects, and engineers. Maya cities were capitals of kingdoms, each ruled by a hero king whose authority derived from direct communication with gods and ancestors. Maya kingdoms maintained grand alliances for purposes of war and trade. The central plazas of Maya cities frequently rang with noisy celebrations marking the birth, accession, and death of a king. Among the most powerful of Maya cities was Tikal in the department of El Petén in Guatemala. There, in 695 CE, King Hasaw-ka'an-k'awil celebrated his military victory over the king of Kalakmul by reshaping the city's ancestral temple-mountains into three great pyramids that represented the first Three-Stone-Place where First Father was reborn as Maize on creation eve. The king's ambitious architectural plan echoed that of the earlier Olmec center of La Venta.

* Maya / Mayan - In current scholarship, the word Maya (without an "n") is the preferred term when referring to Maya people, Maya culture, and Maya art. The word Maya can be used as a noun or as an adjective. The word Mayan (with an "n") is used only in reference to Mayan languages.

VIDEO ASSETS  

12934121: UMO. Video: MayanBallgame - 5/7/2003, "Mayan Ballgame," Documentation: Demonstration of ballgame with players in Ross Avenue Plaza. 

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