Ancient civilizationThe Mayans

The very word Maya evokes images of mystery - ancient pyramids soaring above trackless jungle, giant carved stones proclaiming artistic and intellectual prowess, a sudden and enigmatic demise

Sometime before A.D. 250 – during the period known to archaeologists as the Preclassic – the first Mesoamerican culture that we can confidently call Maya borrowed ideas from neighbors, added its own ingredients, and created one of the most brilliant civilizations of antiquity amid the rain forest in the heart of the Yucatan Peninsula.

In the ensuring Classic period, Maya society endured for nearly six centuries as a dynamic population of nobles, priests, scribes, craftsmen, warriors, and farmers located in cities ruled by hereditary dynasts who claimed divine ancestry.

The still unexplained collapse of this world – perhaps hastened by agricultural failure due to climate change and the population pressure of as many as 16 million people – was countered by the increasing strength of cultures to the west. The Postclassic period (circa 900-1500) saw the rise of new centers of power, along with expanded trade routes and a new elite.

Artifacts suggest a more cosmopolitan society but one still firmly grounded in traditional ways. The arrival of the Spaniards in the first decades of the of the 16th century violently closed this chapter of Maya civilization.

Yet the Maya live today. At least four million descendants still speak the Mayan languages. Though most are now Roman Catholic, they share the ancient myths and practice rituals based on the ancestral view of the cosmos. Despite centuries of often forced change, the Maya continue to leave an indelible mark of eastern Mesoamerica where the culture was born so long ago.

Chichen Itzá

Master builders, the lowland Maya flourished after A.D. 250 for at least a thousand years. Ruins of their cities dot the Yucatan Peninsula. While Europe endured the Dark Ages, the Maya established scores of city-states.

Governed by hereditary rules, city-states often shared power as political allies. The Maya developed the most sophisticated system of writing in the Western Hemisphere, traced the path of the planet Venus with great precision, and marked the passage of time with an elaborate calendar system.

Between A.D. 500 and 1200 the Maya built Chichen Itza. Encounters with other Mesoamerican cultures may have influenced the blend of architectural styles at this commercial and ceremonial center, where archaeologists have revealed steam baths, ball courts, temples, and what may be an observatory. The focal point of Chichen Itza is El Castillo, a 79-foot-high pyramid crowded bt a temple.

El Castillo is thought by many to be the Maya calendar constructed in stone. Its four staircases have 91 steps each; include the top platform and the total is 365, the number of days in a solar year. Inside the pyramid is yet another building of similar construction that houses a jade-inlaid throne in the image of a jaguar, a symbol of power.

Nearby a sculpted human figure, a Chac Mool, may have served as an altar for religious offerings.

by R.B.