Proposal, Mayan City States [preclassic and classic]

[Lion.Kanzen]

Highland and Lowland Maya

The Maya civilization covered an enormous area with a large variation of environments, economies, and growth of the civilization. Scholars address some of the Maya cultural variation by studying separate issues related to the climate and environment of the region. The Maya Highlands are the southern part of the Maya civilization, included the mountainous region in Mexico (particularly Chiapas state), Guatemala and Honduras.

The Maya Lowlands make up the northern segment of the Maya region, including Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, and adjacent parts of Guatemala and Belize. A Pacific coastal piedmont range north of the Soconusco had fertile soils, dense forests and mangrove swamps.

See Maya Lowlands and Maya Highlands for in-depth information.

The Maya civilization was certainly never an "empire", inasmuch as one person never ruled the entire region. During the Classic period, there were several strong kings at Tikal, Calakmul, Caracol and Dos Pilas, but none of them ever conquered the others.It's probably best to think of the Maya as a collection of independent city-states, who shared some ritual and ceremonial practices, some architecture, some cultural objects. The city-states traded with one another, and with the Olmec and Teotihuacan polities (at different times), and they also warred with one another from time to time.

Environment: The Maya Lowland region below 800 meters is tropical with rainy and dry seasons. There is little-exposed water except in lakes in limestone faults, swamps, and cenotes-natural sinkholes in the limestone that are geologically a result of the Chicxulub crater impact. Originally, the area was blanketed with multiple canopied forests and mixed vegetation.

The Highland Maya regions include a string of volcanically active mountains.

Eruptions have dumped rich volcanic ash throughout the region, leading to deep rich soils and obsidian deposits. Climate in the highland is temperate, with rare frost. Upland forests originally were mixed pine and deciduous trees.

Edited November 28, 2018 by Lion.Kanzen

[Lion.Kanzen]

Maya Civilization Ritual

Intoxicants: Chocolate (Theobroma), blache (fermented honey and an extract from the balche tree; morning glory seeds, pulque (from agave plants), tobacco, intoxicating enemas, Maya Blue

Sweat baths: Piedras Negras, San Antonio, Cerén

Astronomy: The Maya tracked the sun, moon, and Venus. Calendars include eclipse warnings and safe periods, and almanacs for tracking Venus.

Observatories: built at Chichén Itzá

Maya Gods: What we know of Maya religion is based on writings and drawings on codices or temples. A few of the gods include: God A or Cimi or Cisin (god of death or flatulent one), God B or Chac, (rain and lightning), God C (sacredness), God D or Itzamna (creator or scribe or learned one), God E (maize), God G (sun), God L (trade or merchant), God K or Kauil, Ixchel or Ix Chel (goddess of fertility), Goddess O or Chac Chel. There are others; and in the Maya pantheon, there are sometimes combined gods, glyphs for two different gods appearing as one glyph.

Death and Afterlife: Ideas about death and the afterlife are little known, but the entry to the underworld was called Xibalba or "Place of Fright"

 

[Lion.Kanzen]

The Maya economy, which is to say the subsistence and trade networks of the Classic Period Maya [ca AD 250-900], was dependent to a large extent on the way the various centers interacted with each other and with the rural areas under their control. The Maya were never one organized civilization under one leader, they were a loose collection of independent city-states whose individual power waxed and waned. Much of that variation in power was the result of the changes in the economy, in particular, the exchange network that moved elite and ordinary goods around the region.

 

The city states are collectively designated "Maya" by and large because they shared a religion, architecture, economy, and political structure: today there are over twenty different Maya languages.

 

Subsistence

The subsistence methodology for people who lived in the Maya region during the Classic Period was primarily farming and had been since about 900 BC. People in the rural areas lived in sedentary villages, relying heavily on a combination of domestic maize, beans, squash, and amaranth. Other plants domesticated or exploited by Maya farmers included cacao, avocado, and breadnut. Only a handful of domesticated animals were available to the Maya farmers, including dogs, turkeys, and stingless bees.

 

Highland and Lowland Maya communities both had difficulties with obtaining and controlling water. Lowland sites like Tikal built immense water reservoirs to keep potable water available throughout the dry season; highland sites like Palenque built underground aqueducts to avoid frequent flooding of their plazas and residential areas. In some places, the Maya people used raised field agriculture, artificially raised platforms called chinampas, and in others, they relied on slash and burn agriculture.

 

Maya architecture also varied. Regular houses in the rural Maya villages were typically organic pole buildings with thatched roofs. Classic period Maya urban residences more elaborate than rural ones, with stone building features, and higher percentages of decorated pottery. In addition, Maya cities were supplied with agricultural products from the rural areas--crops were grown in fields immediately adjoining the city, but supplements such as exotic and luxury goods were brought in as trade or tribute.

 

Long Distance Trade

The Maya engaged in long distance trade, beginning at least as early as 2000-1500 BC, but little is known about its organization. Trade connections are known to have been established between pre-classic Maya and people in Olmec towns and Teotihuacan. By about 1100 BC, the raw material for goods such as obsidian, jade, marine shell, and magnetite was brought into the urban centers. There were periodic markets established in most of the Maya cities. The volume of trade varied over time--but much of what archaeologists use to identify a community that was hooked into the "Maya" sphere was the shared material goods and religion that were no doubt established and supported by the trade networks.

 

Symbols and iconographic motifs depicted on highly crafted items like pottery and figurines were shared over a widespread area, along with ideas and religion. The interregional interaction was driven by the emergent chiefs and elites, who had greater access to specific classes of goods and information.

 

Craft Specialization

During the Classic period certain artisans, especially those makers of polychrome vases and carved stone monuments, produced their goods specifically for the elites, and their production and styles were controlled by those elites. Other Maya craft workers were independent of direct political control. For example, in the Lowland region, the production of everyday pottery and chipped stone tool manufacture took place in smaller communities and rural settings. Those materials were likely moved partly through market exchange and through non-commercialized kin-based trade.

 

By 900 AD Chichén Itzá had become the dominant capital with a larger region than any other Maya city center. Along with Chichén's militaristic regional conquest and the extraction of tribute came a large increase in the number and variety of prestige goods flowing through the system. Many of the previously independent centers found themselves voluntarily or forcibly integrated into Chichén's orbit.

 

Post-classic trade during this period included cotton cloth and textiles, salt, honey and wax, slaves, cacao, precious metals, and macaw feathers. American archaeologist Traci Ardren and colleagues note that there is an explicit reference to gendered activities in the Late Post Classic imagery, suggesting that women played an enormous role in the Maya economy, particularly in spinning and weaving, and manta production.

Maya Canoes 

There is no doubt that increasingly sophisticated sailing technology impacted the amount of trade that moved along the Gulf Coast. Trade was moved along riverine routes, and Gulf Coast communities served as key intermediaries between the highlands and the Peten lowlands. Waterborne commerce was an ancient practice among the Maya, extending back to the late Formative period; by the Post-classic they were using seagoing vessels that could carry much heavier loads than a simple canoe.

 

During his 4th voyage to the Americas, Christopher Columbus reported that he met a canoe off the coast of Honduras. The canoe was as long as a galley and 2.5 meters (8 feet) wide; it held a crew of about 24 men, plus the captain and a number of women and children. The vessel's cargo included cacao, metal products (bells and ornamental axes), pottery, cotton clothing, and wooden swords with inset obsidian (macuahuitl).

 

Elite Classes and Social Stratification

Maya economics were intimately tied to hierarchical classes. The social disparity in wealth and status separated the nobles from ordinary farmers, but only slaves were a sharply bounded social class. Craft specialists--artisans who specialized in making pottery or stone tools--and minor merchants were a loosely defined middle group that ranked below the aristocrats but above common farmers.

 

In Maya society, slaves were made up of criminals and prisoners obtained during warfare. Most slaves performed domestic service or agricultural labor, but some became victims for the sacrificial rituals.

 

The men--and they were mostly men--who ruled the cities had sons whose family and lineage connections led them to continue family political careers. Younger sons who had no available offices to step into or were unsuited for political life turned to commerce or went into the priesthood.

[Lion.Kanzen]

Kukulkan El Castillo Detail

Head of the feathered serpent Kukulkan at the base of the Chichen Itza pyramid. Photo ©2009 Jackie Craven

Just as modern-day architects design structures to capitalize on natural lighting, the Maya of Chichén Itzá built El Castillo to take advantage of a seasonal lighting phenomenon. The Pyramid of Kukulcan is positioned such that the sun's natural light is shadowed off the steps twice a year, creating an effect of a feathered serpent. Called the god Kukulcan, the serpent appears to slither down the pyramid's side during the spring and autumn equinox. The animated effect culminates at the base of the pyramid, with the carved feathered head of the serpent.

In part, this detailed restoration has made Chichén Itzá a UNESCO World Heritage site and top tourist attraction.

 

Mayan Temples

Temple of the Warriors in Chichen Itza, Mexico. Photo ©2009 Jackie Craven

The Temple de los Guerreros—Temple of the Warriors—at Chichén Itzá demonstrates the cultural spirituality of a people. The columns, both square and round, are not so different from the columns found in many parts of the world, including the Classical architecture of Greek and Rome. The Group of the Thousand Columns at the Temple of the Warriors no doubt held up an elaborate roof, which covered those humans being sacrificed and the statues that held human remains.

The reclining statue of Chac Mool atop this temple may have held a human offering to the god Kukulcan, as the Temple of the Warriors faces the great Pyramid of Kukulcan El Castillo at Chichén Itzá.

The most grand building of the ancient Mayan city is known to us today as a castle pyramid. In Tulum, the castle overlooks the Caribbean Sea. Although Mayan pyramids are not always built alike, most all have steep stairways with a low wall called an alfarda on each side—similar in use to a balustrade.

Archeologists call these large ceremonial structures Monumental Architecture. Modern architects may call these buildings Public Architecture, as they are places where the public gathers. In comparison, the well-known pyramids in Giza have smoother sides and were built as tombs. Astronomy and mathematics were important to Mayan civilization. In fact, Chichén Itzá has an observatory building similar to ancient structures found around the world.

Many of the great ancient cities and territories had walls around them. Although built thousands of years ago, ancient Tulum is really not that different from urban centers or even vacation getaways we know today. The walls of Tulum may remind you of Golden Oak Residences at Walt Disney World Resort, or, indeed, of any modern-day gated community. Then, as now, residents wanted to create a safe, protected environment for work and play.

[Lion.Kanzen]

This month, researchers from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are combing the eastern Mexican coast for remnants of the Maya civilization, which once boasted a rich and sophisticated seafaring tradition. The current expedition focuses on the ancient port city of Vista Alegre, located where the Caribbean meets the Gulf of Mexico at the northeastern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula. The remote island site is thought to have been an important harbor and maritime trade stronghold for intermittent periods of time between 800 B.C. and the mid-15th century.

“The maritime Maya have been described much like ancient seagoing Phoenicians,” Dominique Rissolo, one of the expedition’s chief scientists, said in a statement. “Maya trade was far-ranging between the Veracruz coast of modern Mexico and the Gulf of Honduras, with each port a link in a chain connecting people and ideas. Yet there is still much to learn about the extensive history and importance of the maritime Maya and how they adapted to life by the sea.”

Historians believe that Maya sea commerce reached its zenith between 1100 and 1521 A.D., when the Spanish conquered the region and hastened the decline of indigenous Mesoamerican cultures. The Maya traded in a vast array of goods from across Mexico and Central America, including cotton, salt, jade, obsidian, cocoa, tropical bird feathers and slaves, Rissolo said.

Previous expeditions to Vista Alegre in 2005 and 2008 revealed 29 structures, including platforms, mounds, raised causeways and a pyramid within a central plaza that may have been used by lookouts to monitor canoes. Researchers also found a narrow walkway linking the island port to a temple on the mainland.

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During the current expedition, the team especially hopes to uncover remains of Maya trading canoes, which Christopher Columbus’ son Ferdinand described in 1502 as fashioned from a single tree trunk and with a structure “not unlike those of Venetian gondolas.” These vessels could carry crews of 25 paddlers along with additional passengers and were piled high with cargo. (It was after capturing one of these boats that Ferdinand and his father puzzled over almond-like beans prized by the Maya and used to make a flavorful drink, becoming the first Europeans to encounter chocolate.)

Accessible only by boat, the secluded Vista Alegre site is frequently battered by tropical storms, offers little drinking water and teems with various jungle- and lagoon-dwelling creatures, including mosquitoes, snakes, spiders and crocodiles. How, then, did the ancient Maya survive in such a hostile environment? The port city had to support not only a permanent population of several hundred people but also passing traders who would paddle up in their canoes, requiring food, water and a place to stay, according to the researchers.

“In addition to understanding the role that Vista Alegre played in facilitating maritime trade and commerce, we also want to understand how the ancient Maya here at Vista Alegre and along this hidden coast transformed and interacted with their maritime landscape,” Rissolo explained in a video podcast earlier this month. “The Maya were primarily agriculturalists; they would tend to live in areas of deeper, fertile soils and access to fresh water. This is a very marginal landscape…so this is a challenge for us to figure out how the Maya were able to endure here for centuries, for millennia.”

https://www.history.com/news/researchers-explore-the-seafaring-culture-of-the-maya

During the 1500s and early 1600s, when Spanish explorers were first making contact with the indigenous inhabitants of the Florida, they made contact with a powerful nation on the southwest coast between Charlotte Harbor and Cape Sable. ¹ The first contact was made in 1513 by Juan Ponce de Leon, when he landed at the mouth of the Caloosahatchee River in southwest Florida. His landing boats were attacked by Calusa war canoes, lined with round shields. Ponce de Leon’s description of the canoes was identical to murals of Chontal Maya war canoes in the Yucatan Peninsula.

The region where most of its towns lay was in present day Charlotte and Lee Counties. ² Calusa village sites can be found along the western half of the Caloosahatchee River. Various Spanish accounts called them either Calus, Calius, Caalius or Carlos. Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda, a Spaniard held captive by the Calusa in the 16th century, recorded that Calusa meant fierce people in their language. This may or may not be true. Kalos is the Muskogean root word for “star.” ³

^{https://www.accessgenealogy.com/florida/calusa-people.htm}

[Lion.Kanzen]

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/maya-maps-1.htm

[Lion.Kanzen]

 

[Lion.Kanzen]

https://www.artelista.com/en/artwork/7779872543934801-temploderosalila.html

Para

[Lion.Kanzen]

@Sundiata can you help me with this? please.

Spoiler

 

Edited November 28, 2018 by Lion.Kanzen

[Trinketos]

10 hours ago, Lion.Kanzen said:

 

I've noticed that the music of the Zapotec of Terra Magna sounds more African(or somenting like that) than Mesoamerican

 

[Lion.Kanzen]

Rosalila the best preserved temple.

Quote

Unlike other buildings archaeologists have found, the ancient Mayans did not destroy Rosalila. Instead, it was carefully, and ceremoniously buried. Its rooms, moldings, and niches were carefully filled with mud and stones, while its elaborate stucco panels were covered with a thick layer of white plaster, which still protects much of the original paint.

Rosalila was the principal religious sanctuary at Copán in the late 6th century CE. When it was discovered, numerous artifacts were found that reflect the several practices the Mayans once performed at the site. Among the remains found at the site were seven ceramic incense burners with charcoal still inside, two of which lay upon sculpted, stone jaguar pedestals; offerings of flint knives (for sacrificing); nine elaborate, ceremonial scepters, wrapped in the remnants of a deep blue bag or cloth; carved jade jewelry; conch shells; stingray spines (used for blood-letting rites); shark vertebrae; jaguar claws; and remains of flower petals and pine needles. Some of these remains (particularly the incense burners and the flowers) recall religious practices still in use among the modern Maya.

Due to the deforestation of the Copán valley, the Rosalila building was the last structure at the site to use such elaborate stucco decoration. The tradition was discontinued due to the vast quantities of firewood required, which could no longer be spared to reduce limestone to plaster. A life-size copy of the Rosalila building has also been built at the Copán site museum so that you can experience what it would have looked like when it was in use.

Other temples.

https://snag.gy/QRSTre.jpg

2007 was revealed a new discovery at the Mayan Acropolis of Copan, located in Honduras: A temple called "The Golden Oriole", which was underneath another temple and next to the famous Temple "Rosa Lila" (Between Mayans was a common practice to build above previous rulers' constructions). The reporter Juan Carlos Rivera and I went there to visit the new temple and interview the archaeologists in charge. I was working on this piece just one day because was the big news of the moment, need to be quick!

[Lion.Kanzen]

8 minutes ago, Trinketos said:

I've noticed that the music of the Zapotec of Terra Magna sounds more African(or somenting like that) than Mesoamerican

 

I'm not very good with Non mediterranean music , was made by Niektb and or Lordgood.

[Sundiata]

2 hours ago, Lion.Kanzen said:

@Sundiata can you help me with this? please.

I can  As usual, I'll take a few days...

[Lion.Kanzen]

Just now, Sundiata said:

I can  As usual, I'll take a few days...

No problem; im not rushing this one.

[Lion.Kanzen]

https://archive.archaeology.org/0909/maya_copan/

Quote

The Maya kings of Copán were not interested in moving mountains. They preferred to build their own, like the pyramid now known as Temple 16. Rising 100 feet above the city's Great Plaza, it is the highest point among a group of holy buildings that archaeologists have dubbed "the Acropolis." Inside an excavation tunnel deep beneath the pyramid's surface, the face of the sun-king scowls at me from the wall of his temple. The city's ancient rulers built their temples--one on top of the next--to suit the needs of the moment. The moment I am visiting occurred shortly after A.D. 540 when the first of four temples was built around a small plaza at the top of the Acropolis.

The sun-king's face adorns the first floor of Rosalila, a temple that was once painted a brilliant, bloody shade of red. His image wears a headdress of red, yellow, and green plumage--the feathers of a quetzal and a macaw--and curving lines in his eyes associate him with depictions of the sun god. The Maya words for each of these sculptural elements spells his name, K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo', which translates as "Sun-Eyed Resplendent Quetzal Macaw," the first king of Copán. Forty-three feet below the floor of the temple, the sun-king's tomb was found inside one of the first buildings to be constructed on the Acropolis. Beginning around A.D. 426, the time that K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo' came to power, Temple 16 underwent seven major phases of construction, as well as dozens of smaller renovations and additions. The last phase took place in A.D. 775 shortly before the city, which encompassed 520 acres and held a population of about 28,000 people at its peak, was largely abandoned.

Ricardo Agurcia, the director of a research and sustainable tourism organization called the Copán Association, discovered Rosalila in 1989. Copán lies in north-central Honduras at what was the southern edge of the Maya region. Finding Rosalila revolutionized what was known of the city's early history and the Maya's southern frontier. Now he has uncovered an adjacent temple called Oropéndola, and discovered the king who was laid to rest beneath it.

Agurcia invited me here to see the finds, and we have stopped at Rosalila for a little orientation in Maya iconography. The building facade soars three stories into the darkness overhead. Standing in the narrow space separating the temple from the tunnel wall, I see another face staring from the second floor. Agurcia tells me it is the mountain monster, Witz, symbolizing the temple's role as a ceremonial mountain. The Maya understood mountains to be powerful places; they believed the rain god stored water in them and the caves that penetrated them were portals to the underworld. Rosalila was buried around A.D. 700. The temple was coated with white plaster, which Agurcia interprets as a symbolic embalming of the building. Construction fill was carefully placed against the temple preserving it almost perfectly.

The pyramid called Temple 16 rises 100 feet above the ground. Beneath its outer layer lie the remnants of dozens of holy buildings dating back to the earliest days of Maya rule, A.D. 426. Two temples remain mostly intact within the pyramid. (Courtesy Proyecto Oropéndola)

Agurcia and his field director, Molly Fierer-Donaldson, take me to a low, narrow tunnel that leads to Oropéndola. We leave the sun-king, now pallid and lighted only by a string of naked incandescent bulbs.

From a biological standpoint, Agurcia seems poorly adapted to his chosen environment. Agurcia stands six feet, four inches tall, and has to bend like a question mark as we move through the tunnels. On his first trip into the tunnels, he learned that he suffers from claustrophobia. "When I started, I told [friend and colleague William Fash] that I would go down there, but that I reserved the right to come running out of the tunnel screaming," he told me later.

Archaeologists have dug more than two miles of tunnels through the Acropolis, every foot of space paid for with hours of labor and at the cost of destabilizing the stones above it. Understandably, Agurcia's tunnels tend to be a little larger than those dug by others. He also makes sure there are two or three ways out of wherever he is working. Over time, his tunnels have become a familiar space that no longer triggers his phobia, and he feels he has good reason to face his fear day after day. "The stuff I've found has been outrageous, totally off the wall," he says. "The work has been fascinating. Who would have dreamed I would find two almost complete buildings."

This jade monkey head was part of a necklace buried with the king. It symbolizes the noble title Ahau, which means "Lord." Exporting jade was a major source of wealth for Cop´n's rulers. (Courtesy Proyecto Oropéndola)

 

Agurcia folds himself into a tunnel and the three of us head deeper into the pyramid, turning on our flashlights as we enter a newly excavated section of tunnel. A gradual incline leads to Oropéndola's second story, where I am unwittingly looking at another image of the mountain monster, Witz. Its face nearly stretches across the width of the entire temple.

Oropéndola was not as carefully preserved as Rosalila. The entire third floor and about one-third of the rest of the structure was destroyed during later construction. The two buildings were also designed differently. Instead of decorations made entirely from plaster, allowing the sculptors to create fluid lines and intricate details, Oropéndola's decorations were made of stone blocks covered by a thin layer of painted plaster. The blocks make the artwork look like it was assembled out of Legos, and the plaster is almost completely gone. The image of Witz is 17 feet wide but only a few feet high, so the face is squat and stretched out. It is a radical change from the monster's portrayal on Rosalila.

I wonder why the differences in artwork between two temples that were built just a few years apart are so striking. "It could have just been a whim," says Agurcia, "but I think it had to do with access to plaster." Whether it was getting enough limestone or firewood to heat the stone to produce lime is a subject of debate, but after Rosalila was completed, Copán's temple-builders used much less plaster. If firewood did become scarce, the change in artwork may also mark an episode of environmental degradation. In the 200 years or so after Rosalila was built, stone carving became much more prevalent and Copán became known for its unique sculptures and architectural decorations. "I think [Oropéndola] really was the beginning of a sculptural revolution at Copán that gives way to the great sculptures that come later on," Agurcia says.

In the Maya belief system, night is the time that the sun spends in the underworld. It travels through a watery place inhabited by gods and the dead. The jaguar, a nocturnal predator and one of the few cats that swims and spends time in the water, represents the sun at night. Oropéndola is covered with jaguar icons. On the northern facade's second floor, a large image of a mythical bird spreads across the building, flanked by feline heads with curving stone fangs. On the north face's first floor, a jaguar looks out from the mouth of the mountain monster. Rosalila appears to be the temple of the sun during the day. Oropéndola, on the other hand, is the temple of the sun at night, a ceremonial mountain of the jaguar, and perhaps a passage to the underworld.

This spiny oyster shell found in a king's tomb contains a large jade bead. The Maya associated shells with the underworld and jade with the human soul. The two together may represent the king's soul in the underworld. (Courtesy Proyecto Oropéndola)

 

Unlike the sculptural decorations on Rosalila, Oropéndola's do not spell out the name of any known king. "Rosalila has a huge sun-bird on the side of it because the sun-king is buried beneath it," says Agurcia. "So, I've been thinking that the iconography [in Oropéndola] reflects the identity of the guy we found just below but I can't make it add up just yet. We don't have the names of the early rulers," he says. "If his name was Bird-Jaguar, I'd be really happy, but we can't make that connection."

We descend through more tunnels, contorting ourselves into narrow spaces and climbing down ladder rungs set into the walls. Ten feet below the floor of Oropéndola, Agurcia points out some long, flat stones laid side-by-side, the kind that are typically used to cover a tomb. His team found the capstones at the end of a field season when their grant money was about to run out and most of the crew had committed to working on other jobs. So he had to wait three months for new funding and a new crew of excavators.

Fierer-Donaldson was brought in to be the crew's field director. She had to dig another tunnel hoping to come in below the capstones and through the sidewall of the tomb. But instead she had to excavate six-feet of loose soil before reaching the three layers of capstones that actually cover the tomb. "We were looking for a vault," Agurcia tells me. "All of the early tombs have vaults." That wasn't the only strange thing about the tomb. "We didn't find any offerings on top of the capstones like you might expect," says Fierer-Donaldson.

"We realized by the elevation and stratigraphy that we were in the earliest levels of the Acropolis," Agurcia says. Radiocarbon dating indicates that the king was buried sometime between A.D. 450 and 550. The artifacts and decorations point to a date prior to A.D. 500. Agurcia believes the tomb belonged to the second king, the son of Yax K'uk' Mo', but acknowledges that it could be any king between the second and fifth rulers in the dynasty. Although the king's name is still unknown, the tomb provides some clues about Copán's growing prosperity at the time, as well as the role the king played in creating it.

The tomb is empty when I visit. We are about 16 feet below the first floor of Oropéndola and almost 60 feet below the top of the pyramid, deep enough that the air is noticeably cooler and drier. The excavation team has spent the past year recording, cataloguing, and removing everything from the tomb so that the objects can be analyzed in their laboratory nearby. There isn't much to see, but I am surprised at the size of the tomb. Even though Fierer-Donaldson is slender and five feet, eight inches tall, it seems cramped as she climbs inside to point out where different objects were found.

Archaeologists Molly Fierer-Donaldson and Nereyda Alonso perch on a wooden platform as they lift artifacts from the tomb of the early Maya king discovered beneath the Oropéndola temple. (Courtesy Proyecto Oropéndola)

 

Agurcia and I sit in the tunnel outside the tomb as he explains some of the surprises it held. "In many ways, this is an intermediate tomb," he says, "they try to do capstones, but they don't really know how to do it. They haven't really learned to make the flat roof. The walls of the tomb aren't very good, they are more like a stone facing."

Although we are sitting next to the tomb, Agurcia can't actually point out the roof because it collapsed some time after Oropéndola was built and crushed everything inside. "The bones were in terrible shape," says Fierer-Donaldson, pointing out that they can't get basic information, such as age, from the skeleton. They can't even be certain that the remains belonged to a male. But the roof collapse had one important benefit--it seems to have helped preserve some of the fragile organic remains, such as the very fine fabric of the king's clothing. Lynn Grant of the University of Pennsylvania is conserving the textiles. Further analysis may reveal the color and type of garment the king wore.

His body had been laid out on a platform, probably made of wood, that has completely rotted away along with the woven mats that covered the floor. A layer of powdered cinnabar (mercury oxide) was scattered over the body. The cinnabar shows up inside some of the skeleton's joints, revealing that the vibrant red pigment was added after the flesh and most of the tendons had rotted away.

A small number of scallop shells lay on the floor near his right shoulder. Two piles of spiny oyster shells were at his feet. Seashells were luxury items associated with the watery underworld. Three scallop shells and one spiny oyster shell contained a jade bead, Agurcia believes the jade may have symbolized the soul, and placing the bead inside the shell represented the soul in the underworld.

The king wore a necklace made of 20 jade beads and 40 shell beads. A large chunk of jade carved into the symbol for the Maya word "K'inich," meaning "Eye of the Sun" or "Embodiment of the Sun," had been placed in the corpse's mouth. A second necklace containing a large piece of jade, carved in the likeness of a monkey head, symbolizing the word Ahau meaning "Lord," was draped across his pelvis. According to Agurcia, these two emblems are clear indicators that the tomb's occupant was a king. But the mass of wealth and exotic goods also reveal something about the king's role in making Copán a major center of trade.

"The city was kind of a gateway for stuff like jade and obsidian going out of the Maya areas. What was coming in is still less documented," Robert Sharer of the University of Pennsylvania and the excavator of Yax K'uk' Mo's tomb, told me in a phone interview. When the dynasty was established, the economic situation in the area around Copán underwent a profound change. "The economy is one manifestation of a more centralized organization in the Copán Valley," he continues. "Tying people in by the economy is just one way that they become more dependent upon and available to manipulation by these centralized rulers."

The stylized face of Yax K'uk' Mo', the founder of Copán's Maya dynasty, adorns the wall of the Rosalila temple. The markings in his eyes, and the quetzal bird headdress, connect him to the sun god. (Ken Garrett)	The curving fangs of a jaguar protrude from a corner of the Oropéndola temple. The stone-block sculptures were once covered with a thin layer of brightly painted plaster, which may have been a scarce resource when the temple was built. (Ken Garrett)

Copán lies near the Motagua River, a major source of jade, which was an important luxury item--not just because it was beautiful, but also because it had ritual associations with rainfall and maize. Being able to control access to jade may have presented a big opportunity for the person in this tomb. "The trade here was very important," says Agurcia. "They were plugged into a network, and had access to these very exotic goods."

Agurcia interprets the large number of shell artifacts as an indicator that the kings of Copán may have increased their trade with settlements on the coasts. Sharer thinks that the shell artifacts may only indicate that the king liked shells.

Items such as four pyrite mirrors and hundreds of tiny green-obsidian beads show that the Maya of Copán were in contact with city-state of Teotihuacán, more than 700 miles north in central Mexico. "Trade with Teotihuacán became very important," says Agurcia. "It was like the Wall Street of its time." Gaining access to trade goods from all over the Maya areas would have drastically increased Copán's prosperity. "So, this guy is showing splendorous wealth that shows major success," Agurcia tells me. "This is the guy who nails the state of Copán into place."

Completing the story of how the early kings of Copán established their state is likely to require many more trips into the tunnels. There were two other temples that sat around the courtyard next to Rosalila and Oropéndola, nicknamed Jiquilite and Peach-Colorado. Their foundations are still intact and they may also have tombs beneath them. Agurcia estimates that finding and excavating these tombs might take another 10 years and he still has a lot of work to do on Oropéndola. "There could be tombs under the other temples," Agurcia says with a smile, "but I'm not going to look for them."

Zach Zorich is a Senior Editor at ARCHAEOLOGY.

• Go to the rest of our September/October 2009 issue.

© 2009 by the Archaeological Institute of America
archive.archaeology.org/0909/maya_copan/

 

A temple over other very like Mayan stuff, a single faction feature.

 

 

Quote

Archaeologists have found a previously-undiscovered pyramid hidden inside Mexico’s ancient Mayan temple of Kukulkan.

The giant Chichen Itza temple dates back to the 9th century but historians believe the second 10-meter tall structure, hidden within, is part of an earlier Mayan tribute to the gods.

Archaeologists from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (NAUM) and the National Institute of Anthropology and History discovered the inner substructure using a tomographic x-ray technique to penetrate below layers of the stone without incurring any damage.

A secret inner section has been found inside Chichen Itza before. A 20-meter high pyramid had been uncovered in the mid-1930s, and the new development suggests Kukulkan was a kind of ‘matryoshka doll’ building.

Research professor Denisse Argote, of the National University of Anthropology and History, said it is not yet known whether there are any more design secrets contained inside the towering pyramid.

Edited November 29, 2018 by Lion.Kanzen

[Lion.Kanzen]

My idea is the temple start little like rosalila and upgrade similar to kukulkan temple.

[Lion.Kanzen]

Quote

Cities were not laid out with formalized plans. However, they have many of the same characteristics. They all had open courtyards, terraced pyramids, palaces, shrines, sweat baths, and ball courts. However, architectural styles of the Maya are not all uniform.

Most of the Mayan territory sits on calcified rock called limestone. Limestone was the construction material that made it possible for the Maya to build such impressive buildings. It is not known exactly how long ago the Mayans discovered lime, but it is believed to have been sometime around the time of the birth of Christ. Probably, it was discovered by accident. After a long campfire, someone mixed the lime with white dirt and water. The result was the discovery of mortar, cement, and stucco. The Mayan people today produce their lime in very much the same way. The problem is that it takes an enormous amount of firewood to make a small amount of lime.

Uxmal, on the Yucatan Peninsula, probably represents the finest example of Mayan architecture. Its educational center is called the “Nunnery Quadrangle” and it is truly magnificent. This was the ancient Mayan version of a modern university. One of the most important architectural styles is the Peten Style. It is found primarily in Guatemala, and it is characterized by steep pyramids and false facades that add additional ornamentation to the fronts of the buildings. Both the Rio Bec Style and the Chenes Style featured entrances that represented enormous serpents mouths. Snakes, especially rattlesnakes are featured throughout the Mayan areas. The Mayans believed that the serpent was the symbol of life and fertility. They also believed that the most fertile lands were the ones where the rattlesnakes lived. When the Toltec arrived in the Yucatan, the serpents were carved and painted with plumes on them. This was in honor of the Toltec god Quetzalcoatl. The Maya-Toltec Style is easily recognized with its colonnades, and ball courts which look very similar to the Mexican high plains architecture. Also, of interest are the reclining idols called Chacmool. Many of the names for the pyramids and temples were named by the archaeologist that restored them. Others were named by the Spaniards when they first arrived.
 

http://mayaincaaztec.com/maar.html

[Lion.Kanzen]

More music.

 

[Lion.Kanzen]

Other references.

Teothihucan skirmisher

Detail of colossal stucco mask from façade flanking stairs of structure 5d-33-2nd. mask represents open-mouthed witz ("pyramid" or "mountain").

More stucco facade

Palenque Style buildings.

Details from upper registers d and e, interior wall, lower temple of the jaguar showing captain sun disk and captain serpent facing warriors with spears and atlatls ("spearthrowers").

Edited November 29, 2018 by Lion.Kanzen

[Lion.Kanzen]

Honduran lenca warrior probably barbarian to Mayans but are same zone, the highlands of Honduras and Guatemala.

Modern Honduran soldiers with US marines from Bravo Task Force.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch'orti'_people

Other minor group is Ch orti or Chorti  mayan descendant.

Modern chorti in my country.

And Guatemala the most country with mayan influence with Belize the only British country.

[Lion.Kanzen]

Neighbors  cultures.

 

Pre Columbian Central america and Mexico.

 

THis other is actual state of these cultures.

 

Quote

 

You can see more detailed American(continent) history here.

http://www.essential-humanities.net/world-history/meso-south-america/

All cultural areas of this continent. (Pre columbian)

Mesoamerican antiquity. Before post-classic that would be equivalent to mesoamerican medieval ages.

 

Central Mexico is very important for mayan culture.

Spoiler

The history of Mesoamerican civilization can be divided into three periods: Formative (ca. 1500 BC-100 AD), Classic (ca. 100-900), and Postclassic (ca. 900-1520).

The Formative period began with the Olmec age (ca. 1500-500 BC), during which the Olmec culture flourished (in the Olmec region). Although the Olmec started out as a non-urban people, they bloomed into an urban society at some point during the Olmec age, thus initiating urban life in the Americas. Their culture diffused widely, becoming the foundation of all subsequent Mesoamerican civilizations; consequently, they are referred to as the mother culture of Mesoamerica. Olmec culture included a distinct style of sculpture, a calendar, a pantheon of gods, ball courts (to play the famous Mesoamerican game), an early form of writing, and the practice of centring a settlement around a plaza lined with pyramids

North Rivals.

 

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The Teotihuacanos ruled central Mexico from the great city of Teotihuacan. (They are referred to simply as "Teotihuacanos" because their language is unknown.) Meanwhile, the kingdom of the Zapotecs, with their magnificent capital of Monte Alban, dominated Oaxaca.11 Maya civilization flourished throughout the Maya region (especially in the south) in the form of numerous independent city-states, the largest of which included Tikal, Copan, and Palenque.7

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Each of these three peoples experienced their great flourishing during the Classic period. Teotihuacan was the mightiest, exerting political dominance throughout the Mesoamerican world.11 Yet the Maya are the most famous Classic civilization, for they were the foremost scholars and artists of Mesoamerica (see Mesoamerican Art). The Maya excelled particularly in astronomy, architecture, and sculpture.10

In the Postclassic period, the Toltecs conquered central Mexico and succeeded Teotihuacan as the strongest Mesoamerican state.11 The Toltecs, whose capital city was Tula, were in turn conquered by the Aztecs, whose capital was Tenochtitlan. The Aztecs, also known as the Mexica (from which the word "Mexico" is derived), are infamous for their obsession with human sacrific

The rest of America.

Quote

South American civilization flourished in the Andes, the world's longest mountain range, which runs down the continent's western coast. The extreme elevations of this region, which cause it to have soils of limited fertility and wide daily temperature fluctuations (hot days and cold nights), make it an unlikely home for urban settlement. Farmland, which was quickly exhausted, was painstakingly cultivated with terracing and underground channels.7,11

One incentive for mountain life was the llama, which thrives at high elevations. The llama was the only large domesticated animal in the entire pre-colonial Americas. Consequently, of all the indigenous cultures of the New World, only the Andean peoples could obtain animal products (namely meat and clothing) through raising (rather than hunting) large animals.11,30

Another Andean advantage was the ability to preserve food simply by leaving it outside. In much of the Andes, temperatures fluctuate between scorching days and freezing nights; exposing food to these conditions will preserve it for years. The English word "jerky" derives from a native Andean word for meat preserved in this manner (ch'arki).

North Rivals were Teotihuacan culture.  maps from 300 BC, 100-500 AD.

https://www.timemaps.com/history/mexico-central-america-200bc/

You can check timeline maps here.

Trade routes before Columbus.

Edited November 30, 2018 by Lion.Kanzen

[Lion.Kanzen]

Teotihuacan. (Mexican Valley culture)

Quote

Context.

300 BC

By this time, the centres in the Olmec heartland are in decline. Several of them have experienced the mysterious fate of having their ceremonial structures and objects deliberately and elaborately desecrated, and their central areas deserted.

Elsewhere in Mexico and Mesoamerica, other centres, such as those of the Zapotec, the Mixtec and the early Maya, continue to develop. Indeed, this is a period of strong population growth, especially in the Mayan heartland of the Yucatan lowlands and in the central Valley of Mexico. Some centres are growing into the earliest cities of Mesoamerica, most notably at Monte Alban, in the west, and Teotihuacan, in the Valley of Mexico.

As well as physical expansion, these Mesoamerican societies experience continued cultural advance. Almost certainly by this date the first writing system has been developed, and the highly sophisticated Mesoamerican calendar, which involves two separate but inter-meshing dating systems, has appeared.

30 BC

It is in the plateau of central Mexico, however, that the most dramatic development is taking place. Over recent centuries, a large farming population has become established here, taking advantage of the fertile volcanic soil and the system of lakes and streams with their plentiful supply of aquatic food.  On this base, several large states emerged, their capitals dominated by pyramid mounds. From c. 300 BC, however, a major city suddenly appeared to the north, Teotihuacan. This now probably houses as many as 60,000 people and dwarfs any other urban settlements in area (and indeed, in the entire New World). This indicates that its ruler has eliminated the other states; the new city has certainly drawn in the populations of the older capitals, and it will continue to grow in the future.

Spoiler

Rest of world

 

Quote

What is happening in Mexico and Central America in 200AD

A widespread network of city-states spreads over Mesoamerica, all sharing common cultural traits but each region bearing distinctive features. In the Yucatan Peninsula, a group of city-states are developing which will, over the coming century, become the home of the classic Mayan civilization. Some of these are already large cities by this date, major centres of high culture.

Most dramatically, a huge city, one of the largest in the world at this time, has appeared in the Valley of Mexico. Teotihuacan has a population of some 150,000-200,000 people by this time. It is sustained by an intensive system of irrigation agriculture, and has sucked in the population from a large area of the surrounding country. The centre of the great city of Teotihuacan has been remodelled on an imperial scale, with the huge pyramids of the Sun and the Moon the centrepieces.

Quote

Teotihuacan, located in the Basin of Central Mexico, was the largest, most influential, and certainly most revered city in the history of the New World, and it flourished in Mesoamerica's Golden Age, the Classic Period of the first millennium CE. Dominated by two gigantic pyramids and a huge sacred avenue, the city, its architecture, art, and religion would influence all subsequent Mesoamerican cultures, and it remains today the most visited ancient site in Mexico.

In relation to other Mesoamerican cultures Teotihuacan was contemporary with the early Classic Maya (250 - 900 CE) but earlier than the Toltec civilization (900-1150 CE). Located in the valley of the same name, the city first formed between 150 BCE and 200 CE and benefitted from a plentiful supply of spring water which was channelled through irrigation. The largest structures at the site were completed before the 3rd century CE, and the city reached its peak in the 4th century CE with a population as high as 200,000. Teotihuacan is actually the Aztec name for the city, meaning "Place of the Gods"; unfortunately, the original name is yet to be deciphered from surviving name glyphs at the site.

The city's prosperity was in part based on the control of the valuable obsidian deposits at nearby Pachuca, which were used to manufacture vast quantities of spear and dart heads and which were also a basis of trade. Other goods flowing in and out of the city would have included cotton, salt, cacao to make chocolate, exotic feathers, and shells. Irrigation and the natural attributes of local soil and climate resulted in the cultivation of crops such as corn, beans, squash, tomato, amaranth, avocado, prickly pear cactus, and chili peppers. These crops were typically cultivated via the chinampa system of raised, flooded fields which would later be used so effectively by the Aztecs. Turkey and dogs were husbanded for food, and wild game included deer, rabbits, and peccaries, whilst wild plants, insects, frogs, and fish also supplemented a diverse diet. In addition, the city displays evidence of textile manufacturing and crafts production. Teotihuacan also had its own writing system which was similar to, but more rudimentary than, the Maya system and generally limited in use to dates and names, at least in terms of surviving examples.

At its peak between 375 and 500 CE, the city controlled a large area of the central highlands of Mexico and probably exacted tribute from conquered territories via the threat of military attack. Teotihuacan's fearsome warriors, as depicted on murals, carry atlatl dart-throwers and rectangular shields, and they wear impressive costumes of feather headdresses, shell goggles, and mirrors on their backs. Evidence of cultural contact in the form of Teotihuacan pottery and luxury goods is found in elite burials across Mexico and even as far south as the contemporary Maya centres of Tikal and Copan.

Mysteriously, around 600 CE, the major buildings of Teotihuacan were deliberately destroyed by fire, and artworks and religious sculptures were smashed in what must have been a complete changing of the ruling elite. The destroyers may have been from the rising city of Xochicalco or from within in an uprising motivated by a scarcity in resources, perhaps acerbated by extensive deforestation (wood was desperately needed to burn huge quantities of lime for use in plaster and stucco), soil erosion, and drought. Whatever the reason, after this climatic event, the wider city remained populated for another two centuries but its regional dominance became only a memory. 

 

Edited November 30, 2018 by Lion.Kanzen

[Lion.Kanzen]

 

[Lion.Kanzen]

But Mesoamerica have more mysteries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Ciudad_Blanca

Spoiler

However, the archaeological discoveries generated criticism from several Honduran archaeologists, who asserted that Ciudad Blanca was and remains a myth and not a "discovery".^[7][97] Honduran archaeologist Ricardo Agurcia remarked, "What I have been able to see has very little scientific merit. What I find strange as well is that news of this type comes out first published outside Honduras"

And other mayan

https://www.fastcompany.com/90159465/a-lost-city-of-the-mayan-snake-kings-has-been-discovered

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Now, archaeologists and historians have to rethink what they know about Mayan culture. Previously, the Mayan population was calculated at roughly 5 million people. Looking at these newly discovered structures, though, they believe that number may have been closer to 10 to 15 million people. In fact, the archaeologists say that, around A.D. 250-900, this megalopolis was about “twice the size of medieval England and far more densely populated.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isthmo-Colombian_Area

Edited November 30, 2018 by Lion.Kanzen

[Lion.Kanzen]

Quote

Combing through the scans, Acuña and her colleagues, an international 18-strong scientific team, tallied 61,480 structures. These included: 60 miles of causeways, roads and canals that connected cities; large maize farms; houses large and small; and, surprisingly, defensive fortifications that suggest the Maya came under attack from the west of Central America.

“We were all humbled,” said Tulane University anthropologist Marcello Canuto, the study’s lead author. “All of us saw things we had walked over and we realized, oh wow, we totally missed that.”

Preliminary images from the survey went public in February, to the delight of archaeologists like Sarah Parcak. Parcak, who was not involved with the research, wrote on Twitter, “Hey all: you realize that researchers just used lasers to find *60,000* new sites in Guatemala?!? This is HOLY [expletive] territory.”

They discover a whole new structures under Guatemalan forest

 

Quote

In the past, archaeologists had argued that small, disconnected city-states dotted the Maya lowlands, though that conception is falling out of favor. This study shows that the Maya could extensively “exploit and manipulate” their environment and geography, Acuña said. Maya agriculture sustained large populations, who in turn forged relationships across the region.

Very large populations , so deforestation was brutal.

Quote

Beneath the thick jungle, ruins appeared. Lots and lots of them. Extrapolated over the 36,700 square miles, which encompasses the total Maya lowland region, the authors estimate the Maya built as many as 2.7 million structures. These would have supported 7 million to 11 million people during the Classic Period of Maya civilization, around the years 650 to 800, in line with other Maya population estimates.

Have sense the collapse there so many people to that.

Quote

Archaeologist Arlen Chase, a Maya specialist at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas who was not involved with this survey, said for years he has argued that the Maya society was more complex than widely accepted. In 1998, he and archaeologist Diane Chase, his wife, described elaborate agricultural terraces at the Maya city of Caracol in Belize. “Everybody would not believe we had terraces!” he said.

Quote

Could you imagine, Canuto said, what might be found through a lidar survey of the Amazon? With technology like this, no forested frontiers are final.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2018/09/27/this-major-discovery-upends-long-held-theories-about-maya-civilization/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.794278fe73b3