THE MAYAN CITY-STATES

The Maya lived mainly in Guatemala, Belize, and the Mexican states of Yucatan, Quitana Roo and Tabasco, where their ancestors still live today. There they developed an urban culture that shared in the traditions of Mesoamerica yet also developed unique features. Mayan cities developed over a long period of time. They evolved from small agricultural villages that began to appear in the lowlands around 1000 - 600 B.C. These villages developed into a fully urban system of small states by 100 B.C. These citystates were united by similar languages and by a number of practices, like the use,of the Long Count (discussed further on in the text), that made them unique in Mesoamerica.

Trade and militarism linked the elite of the Maya world. Many cities conquered their neighbors and ruled their area for several decades or centuries before decaying for unknown reasons. No city seems to have succeeded in becoming the capital of an empire.. However, there is evidence of inter-marriage between the ruling families of each city-state. Stelae (rectangular limestone monuments on which portraits of rulers were carved with accompanying historical commentaries) and murals often portray rulers with military gear, and captives are frequently shown at their feet. The captives were probably sacrificed.

Trade in elite goods, such as fine multicolored pottery, jade, the green tail-feathers 'of the quetzal bird, obsidian for tool manufacture, cotton, cacao, and other commodities was an important facet of the economies of Maya city-states throughout their histories. Most of these commodities were probably consumed by the elite, but obsidian was used in commoner households as well. Mesoamerica, until the Postclassic period, (after the 10th century to the conquest) was a neolithic society (non-metal using). By the time the Spanish arrived, though, gold working and the manufacture of tools from copper had become important and were also traded. Salt was also important. The northern coast of Yucatan has some of the world"s finest saltbeds and these provided an important source of income through trade.

Even before the birth of Christ, the elite of eastern M4soamerica, including the Maya, had developed complex writing and calendrical systems. By the Classic period (A.D. 278 to circa A.D. 950), the Maya had perfected a very sophisticated writing system with which they recorded historical events as well as religious events. After many, decades of study, scholars known as enigraphers are beginning to understand much of the Mayan systems of writing and calendrics. The Mayan hieroglyphics (the term used to describe their writing system) were sophisticated enough to record political histories dating back to more than a thousand years before the arrival of the Spanish.

The Maya also used a system of interrelated calendars which make it possible now to date specific historical events of these ancient city-states. Other Mesoamerican civilizations also used a calendrical system, but what made the Mayan system unique was its use of the Long Count, a method of calculating time which was used to pinpoint and name any date in a span of over 5000 years.

Besides its use in recording history, the calendar regulated religious celebrations and planting and harvesting ceremonies. In addition, the calendrical system was used for predicting the future. Time was conceived as a set of cycles which repeated, bringing similar fates. Days in the Maya Almanac, for instance, could be described as good or bad. Important projects, such as military campaigns and trading expeditions, were undertaken only on favorable days.

The focus of Maya civilization during the Classic period (A.D. 278 to A.D. 950) was the Peten of Guatemala. At the end of the Classic period the prosperity population of the Peten went into steep decline and many centers were abandoned. Well known Classic period sites include Palenque, Tikal, Copan, Bonampak, and Yaxchilan. Towards the north, however, cities continued to prosper until the Spanish Conquest. While Maya cities in both the Peten andthe Northern Lowlands shared many traits, such as stelae and pyramids with temples, there were differences as well. Regional architectural and'art styles developed.

Structures built in the core of Mayan cities included elite residences, ball courts, and buildings which may have served administrative and religious functions. We know that some of the buildings were aligned to each other to mark events of astronomical importance. Mayan astronomical knowledge was reflected in their writings as well as their architecture. Monuments from the Classic period record astronomical events. Tables in the surviving Mayan books of the Postclassic period (A.D.950 to 1520) track the behavior of Venus, Mars,and solar and lunar eclipses. These tables not only recorded the phenomena the Mayan astronomers had observed, but also made very accurate predictions of future astronomic events.

Between large Maya cities were smaller towns and villages. Many of the smaller towns and cities near large Maya centers were subject to the larger centers. Glyphs on monuments record these relationships and give archaeologists an idea of the Classic Lowland Maya political order. Power was not centralized in any one city; instead many large centers, such as Tikal, thrived during the Classic era.

The major Postclassic Mayan city-states were located on the Yucatan peninsula to the north of the Peten. Many towns and small cities developed there and still exist today. For example, Merida, the capital of the modern state of Yucatan, was first founded as the Maya city, T'Ho. While we know less about the Classic period history of the region, we do know that by the 14th century, the northern lowlands of the peninsula had been united under a single regional government centered at the now ruined city.of Mayapan.

Before Mayapan, much of the north western part of the peninsula seems to have been economically, and perhaps politically, linked to the much larger site of Chichen Itza. Chichen Itza developed at roughly A.D. 1100 and was one of the largest sites on the Yucatan peninsula. Specific architectural and sculptural traditions at Chichen Itza link it to the central highlands of Mexico, particularly to the Toltec state. Chichen Itza's importance continued even after its political and economic collapse. Even after the arrival of the Spanish, offerings of incense,jade, gold, and humans were made to the underworld-gods by tossing them into a large sinkhole or "cenotell near the center of the site. The sinkhole, caused by the collapse of an underground limestone cavern, is known as the "Sacred Cenote."

The Mayapan conformation came into existence at roughly the same time as the Aztec state was first developing and consolidating its conquests in the central valley of Mexico. Mayapan fell before the arrival of the first Europeans to the New World. Political friction between the most powerful families had brought an end to the rule of Mayapan sometime around 1451, a date reconstructed from Mayan histories.

In these histories, the Maya kept record of such political events, so we have an historical outline for Postclassic Yucatan. Of the fall of Mayapan one of the surviving texts written in Maya says:

There was
Crushed stone inside the walls
Of Mayapan
Because of the seizure of the walls
By crowd rule
In the city
Of Mayapan*.

The northern portion of the peninsula, when the Spanish arrived, was not united into a single state, but rather was divided into a series of small provinces ruled by noble families. Indeed, while the Conquest wrought many radical changes on Maya society, man~ of the traditions which had become established in the'Classic period continue to survive in some form in modern Maya villages.