From what we now understand of the Maya Civilization, the Maya were at their peak during the Classic Period (ca. 250 to 900 C.E.). The civilization had a fully-developed written language, advanced mathematical knowledge, stunning works of art, and monumental architecture. They also had developed an intricate cosmology with detailed religious beliefs and rituals, and supported a dense population with a broad cultural interaction with surrounding peoples, goods and ideas.
The Maya lands once covered southern Mexico and Guatemala, western Honduras, and El Salvador. Today their living remnants are small in number. How did this great civilization get its start and what caused its great decline?
The Rise of the Maya
The Maya people seemed to have been in the vicinity of the lowlands of southern Mexico and Guatemala from 3000 years ago. The Maya may have been forced into this area due to overcrowding elsewhere, as it was not the ideal place to relocate. The Maya first arrived in what is today their homeland around 1000 B.C.E., a tropical rainforest and harsh jungle with colorful wildlife – splendid birds, wild cats, serpents, crocodiles and monkeys.
The Maya were able to produce harvests of maize, beans and squash to feed their ever-increasing populations utilizing slash and burn agriculture and the mud from the swamps to enrich the soil. They lived near lakes and rivers which provided water and fishing. They were able to eke out of this harsh and inhospitable land enough sustenance to provide for their ever-advancing magnificent artistic and religious works.
They began to create city-states, and beautifully decorated buildings enhanced with writings of their history, increasing a complex culture that included astronomy and a foundation of advanced mathematics. They remained politically-fragmented, however, until the late 4th century C.E.
They began to create city-states, and beautifully decorated buildings enhanced with writings of their history, increasing a complex culture that included astronomy and a foundation of advanced mathematics. They remained politically-fragmented, however, until the late 4th century C.E.
The Conqueror, Fire-Is-Born
In 378 C.E., a man named Fire-Is-Born arrived in Waka (today’s El Peru) in Guatemala. Fire-Is-Born came from Teotihuacan in the highlands near present-day Mexico City, a place of great influence in Mesoamerica. He appears to have been a military envoy from Teotihuacan commissioned by Spear-Thrower- Owl.
One alternate theory of the impetus for the conquering expeditions of Fire-Is-Born, is that a group had been expelled from Tikal and fled west to Teotihuacan. After a while they wanted to return to Tikal and overtake the city of their origin.
Fire-Is-Born first wanted to conquer Tikal, the most important city in the area, which was 80 kilometers (50 miles) to the east of Waka. About a week after his arrival in Waka, Fire-Is-Born overcame Tikal and Tikal’s king, Great-Jaguar-Paw, died on that day. The forces of Fire-Is-Born destroyed most of Tikal’s existing monuments covering the preceding 14 rulers. With Fire-Is-Born came military triumph, but also the seeds of eventual destruction and the self-annihilation of the Maya civilization.
After the take-over of Tikal, it became a superpower. Tikal then went on the offensive to subdue other city-states. But they were not alone. Another rival group, the Snake Lords of Calakmul to the north began to compete and great wars raged on.
By the 8th century, not only had the culture flourished, but the nobility had swelled beyond its capacity and the population had exceeded its limits, numbering, by some estimates, 10 million people in the Guatemala lowlands that today house about 360, 000 people.
The Beginning of the End of the Maya
From the late 8th to the early 9th century, city by city became obliterated, the nobility killed, their faces eradicated from many monuments. A great rivalry, not motivated by wealth but rather by hatred, tore the land apart. No longer was the history recorded in murals and monuments. Through warfare and draught, disease and famine, the cities withered away as their populations diminished and resources became scarce.
Palaces were abandoned, and the common people may have fled the killing and sought food and water elsewhere. The Mayans were never able to grow and store excess foods for future times of need, their land never yielded the type of crops needed for future planning, and these times of war were devastating.
The great Tikal outlasted most other Maya cities, but by 869, the last dated monument was created there. With increasing wars, fewer leaders were able to reestablish stability and growth and sustain their populations. The leaders lost the credibility they once had for their citizenry, and the great cities that had been carefully planned and built to feature great pageantry and godlike terrible strength disappeared.
In the end, the jungle was the eventual victor, reclaiming all that had been the Classic Maya Civilization.
Published at Suite101
Copyright Paula I. Nielson.
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