An outline, era by era

Maya Preclassic and Classic periods

Classical Antiquity · ~500 BCE – ~500 CE

The Maya lived in southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and parts of Honduras and El Salvador. The Preclassic period is conventionally dated from about 2000 BCE to about 250 CE. It saw the rise of farming villages, the first large towns and the first monumental architecture, and late in the period the earliest known Maya writing, though the early evidence is fragmentary and debated. Sites such as Nakbe, El Mirador and Kaminaljuyu grew into centres with great platforms, pyramids and carved art.

The Classic period, about 250 to 900 CE, was the age of the great lowland city-states, among them Tikal, Calakmul, Copán, Palenque and Caracol. Ruled by divine kings, these cities left inscriptions in a script that records names, dates and wars, and they used a sophisticated calendar and mathematics that included a zero. They were rivals, not a single empire. Many of their stories can now be read directly from their own monuments, which makes the Maya one of the best documented early peoples of the Americas.

Things happened, and the rest is history

  1. The rise of El Mirador and the Preclassic cities

    Event

    What happened

    From about 1000 BCE, farming villages in the Maya lowlands begin to build ceremonial platforms. At Nakbe and then El Mirador in northern Guatemala, large pyramids and causeways are raised between about 300 BCE and 150 CE. The huge La Danta complex at El Mirador is among the biggest structures of its time in the Americas.

    The rest is history

    El Mirador and other Preclassic cities declined sharply around 100 to 200 CE, for reasons still debated, with environmental stress often suggested. Their architecture, including stucco masks of gods and kingly symbols, set patterns that Classic cities later followed. Survey and excavation in the Mirador Basin continue to reveal the scale of this early urbanism.

    Sources

    1. BookSharer, Robert J., and Loa P. Traxler. The Ancient Maya. 6th ed. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006.

  2. Early Maya writing and the Long Count

    Event

    What happened

    By the third century BCE, writing is in use in Mesoamerica. Painted signs from San Bartolo in Guatemala, dated to about 300 to 200 BCE, are among the earliest candidates for Maya writing, though their dating and reading are debated. The Long Count calendar, which counts days from a base date equal to 3114 BCE, appears on monuments in the late Preclassic. The earliest Maya Long Count date on a stone is 292 CE, on Stela 29 at Tikal.

    The rest is history

    Writing and the calendar became tools of royal power, since kings were recorded with dates, rituals and victories. Over the Classic period, the script grew into a full system of syllable and word signs. Scholars deciphered most of it in the later twentieth century, so that we can now read the names of kings.

    Sources

    1. BookCoe, Michael D., and Mark Van Stone. Reading the Maya Glyphs. 2nd ed. London: Thames & Hudson, 2005.
    2. ArticleSaturno, William A., David Stuart, and Boris Beltrán. "Early Maya Writing at San Bartolo, Guatemala." Science 311, no. 5765 (2006): 1281-1283.

  3. Tikal and the entrada of 378 CE

    Event

    What happened

    On 16 January 378 CE, according to Tikal's inscriptions, a man named Sihyaj K'ahk' arrives at Tikal. The same day, the Tikal king Chak Tok Ich'aak is recorded as dying. A new king, Yax Nuun Ayiin, linked to Teotihuacan imagery, is soon enthroned.

    The rest is history

    Scholars read this as a major intervention from the central Mexican world, though whether it was conquest or an alliance is debated. Tikal then became a leading power of the Classic period. Its monuments, such as Stela 31, record the new dynasty and its connection to Teotihuacan.

    Sources

    1. BookMartin, Simon, and Nikolai Grube. Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens. 2nd ed. London: Thames & Hudson, 2008.
    2. PrimaryStela 31, Tikal. Carved limestone monument, c. 445 CE. Tikal National Park, Guatemala.

  4. Tikal and Calakmul at war

    Event

    What happened

    In the sixth century CE, Calakmul builds a network of allies against Tikal. In 562 CE, Caracol, allied with Calakmul, defeats Tikal, according to the monuments of Caracol. Tikal then falls into a period of decline known as the Hiatus, with few new monuments for over a century.

    The rest is history

    Tikal recovered under Jasaw Chan K'awiil I, who defeated Calakmul in 695 CE. The long rivalry shows that Classic Maya politics were a contest between great powers and their allies, not a single state. Inscriptions at many sites record these wars.

    Sources

    1. BookMartin, Simon, and Nikolai Grube. Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens. 2nd ed. London: Thames & Hudson, 2008.
    2. BookMartin, Simon. Ancient Maya Politics: A Political Anthropology of the Classic Period 150-900 CE. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020.

  5. K'inich Janaab' Pakal of Palenque

    Event

    What happened

    Pakal becomes king of Palenque in 615 CE at the age of twelve and rules for about 68 years until 683 CE. During his reign the city builds the Temple of the Inscriptions and the palace. He is buried within the temple in a stone sarcophagus.

    The rest is history

    The tomb was found by Alberto Ruz Lhuillier in 1952. The long inscriptions in the temple tell the dynasty's history. Pakal's reign is one of the best documented lives of the Classic Maya.

    Sources

    1. BookMartin, Simon, and Nikolai Grube. Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens. 2nd ed. London: Thames & Hudson, 2008.
    2. BookSchele, Linda, and David Freidel. A Forest of Kings. New York: William Morrow, 1990.

  6. The Hero Twins in Xibalba

    Myth

    The legend

    In the Popol Vuh, the twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque descend to the underworld Xibalba, where the lords of death had killed their father One Hunahpu and his brother. The twins defeat the lords in a ball game and by trickery. Later in the story, humans are made from maize.

    The rest is history

    The Popol Vuh was written down in the K'iche' language in the 1550s and copied by Francisco Ximénez about 1700. Classic Maya pottery shows scenes that resemble parts of the story, including a youthful maize god and twin figures, so some of the tradition is likely old. Scholars debate how closely the Classic Maize God matches One Hunahpu, and whether the painted scenes at San Bartolo show the twins. The written text is later and shaped by colonial times.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryPopol Vuh. K'iche' Maya text, mid-16th century, copied by Francisco Ximénez, c. 1700.
    2. BookTedlock, Dennis. Popol Vuh: The Definitive Edition. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.

  7. The Maya as peaceful stargazers

    Popular belief

    The legend

    A widely repeated claim holds that the ancient Maya were a gentle people of priests and astronomers who lived in peace. Their cities are imagined as empty ceremonial centres.

    The rest is history

    This idea was common in the early twentieth century, notably in the writings of Sylvanus Morley. Decipherment of the glyphs showed that kings fought wars, took captives and recorded them. Murals at Bonampak, found in 1946, show a battle and captives. Maya astronomers were skilled, but their cities were crowded, political and often at war.

    Sources

    1. BookDemarest, Arthur. Ancient Maya: The Rise and Fall of a Rainforest Civilization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
    2. BookCoe, Michael D. Breaking the Maya Code. 3rd ed. London: Thames & Hudson, 2012.

  8. The 2012 end of the world

    Popular belief

    The legend

    Many people claim the Maya predicted the end of the world on 21 December 2012. They say the Long Count calendar simply stops on that date.

    The rest is history

    The date marked the end of a 13th b'ak'tun, a cycle of about 394 years, and the calendar simply rolls on to the next. A Maya text at Tortuguero mentions the date, but no known inscription predicts a disaster. Other monuments count dates thousands of years beyond it. Nothing happened on the day.

    Sources

    1. BookRestall, Matthew, and Amara Solari. 2012 and the End of the World: The Western Roots of the Maya Apocalypse. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011.
    2. BookAveni, Anthony F. The End of Time: The Maya Mystery of 2012. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2009.

  9. The mysterious vanishing of the Maya

    Popular belief

    The legend

    It is often said that the Maya mysteriously vanished around 900 CE, leaving their cities empty. Their descendants are sometimes thought not to exist.

    The rest is history

    Many southern lowland cities did decline between about 800 and 900 CE, and their kings stopped raising monuments. Drought, war and political change are all suggested, and scholars still debate the mix. Cities in the northern Yucatan, such as Chichén Itzá, kept thriving. Millions of Maya people live today in Guatemala, Mexico and Belize, and speak Maya languages.

    Sources

    1. BookWebster, David. The Fall of the Ancient Maya. London: Thames & Hudson, 2002.
    2. ArticleKennett, Douglas J., et al. "Development and Disintegration of Maya Political Systems in Response to Climate Change." Science 338, no. 6108 (2012): 788-791.

  10. Pakal and the ancient astronaut

    Popular belief

    The legend

    Some popular books claim the lid of Pakal's sarcophagus shows an astronaut at the controls of a spacecraft. It is said to prove contact with visitors from space.

    The rest is history

    The idea was published by Erich von Däniken in 1968. Maya art and texts show the lid carries a scene of the king falling into the underworld, with the world tree rising above him. The symbols match known Maya imagery of the maize god and cosmic tree. The lid was carved in 683 CE.

    Sources

    1. BookSchele, Linda, and David Freidel. A Forest of Kings. New York: William Morrow, 1990.
    2. BookMartin, Simon, and Nikolai Grube. Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens. 2nd ed. London: Thames & Hudson, 2008.

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