Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as its spectacular art, monumental architecture, and sophisticated mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Preclassic period, many of these reached their apogee of development during the Classic period (c. 250 to 900), and continued throughout the Postclassic period until the arrival of the Spanish. At its peak, it was one of the most densely populated and culturally dynamic societies in the world.
The Maya civilization shares many features with other Mesoamerican civilizations due to the high degree of interaction and cultural diffusion that characterized the region. Advances such as writing, epigraphy, and the calendar did not originate with the Maya; however, their civilization fully developed them. Maya influence can be detected as far as central Mexico, more than 1000 km (625 miles) from the Maya area. Many outside influences are found in Maya art and architecture, which are thought to result from trade and cultural exchange rather than direct external conquest.
The Maya peoples never disappeared, neither at the time of the Classic period decline nor with the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores and the subsequent Spanish colonization of the Americas. Today, the Maya and their descendants form sizeable populations throughout the Maya area and maintain a distinctive set of traditions and beliefs that are the result of the merger of pre-Columbian and post-Conquest ideologies (and structured by the almost total adoption of Roman Catholicism). Many different Mayan languages continue to be spoken as primary languages today; the Rabinal Achí, a play written in the Q'eqchi' language, was declared a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2005.
geographic extent of the Maya civilization, known as the Maya area, extended throughout the northern Central American region, including the present-day nations of Guatemala, Belize, western Honduras and El Salvador, as well as the southern Mexican states of Chiapas, Tabasco, and the Yucatán Peninsula states of Quintana Roo, Campeche and Yucatán.
As the largest sub-region in Mesoamerica, it encompassed a vast and varied landscape, from the mountainous regions of the Sierra Madre to the semi-arid plains of northern Yucatán. Climate in the Maya region can vary tremendously, as the low-lying areas are particularly susceptible to the hurricanes and tropical storms that frequent the Caribbean.
The Maya area is generally divided into three loosely defined zones: the southern Maya highlands, the southern (or central) Maya lowlands, and the northern Maya lowlands. The southern Maya highlands include all of elevated terrain in Guatemala and the Chiapas highlands. The southern lowlands lie just north of the highlands, and incorporate the Petén of northern Guatemala, Belize, and the southern portions of the Mexican states of Campeche and Quintana Roo. The northern lowlands cover the remainder of the Yucatán Peninsula, including the Puuc hills.
History
Preclassic
While the Maya area was initially inhabited around the 10th millennium BC, the first clearly “Maya” settlements were established in approximately 1800 BC in Soconusco region of the Pacific Coast. This point in time, known as the Early Preclassic, [1] was characterized by sedentary communities and the introduction of pottery and fired clay figurines.[2]
Archaeological evidence suggests the construction of ceremonial architecture in Maya area by approximately 1000 BC. The earliest configurations of such architecture consist of simple burial mounds, which would be the precursors to the stepped pyramids subsequently erected in the Late Preclassic. Prominent Middle and Late Preclassic settlement zones are located in the southern Maya lowlands, specifically in the Mirador and Petén Basins. Important sites in the southern Maya lowlands include Nakbe, El Mirador, Cival, and San Bartolo. Mid-sized Maya communities also began to develop in the northern Maya lowlands during the Middle and Late Preclassic, though these lacked the size, scale, and influence of the large centers of the southern lowlands. Two important Preclassic northern sites include Komchen and Dzibilchaltun.
There is some disagreement about the boundaries which differentiate the physical and cultural extent of the early Maya and neighboring Preclassic Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Olmec culture of the Tabasco lowlands and the Mixe-Zoque– and Zapotec–speaking peoples of Chiapas and southern Oaxaca, respectively. Many of the earliest significant inscriptions and buildings appeared in this overlapping zone, and evidence suggests that these cultures and the formative Maya influenced one another.[3]
Classic
The ruins of Palenque.The Classic period (c. 250 - 900) witnessed the peak of large-scale construction and urbanism, the recording of monumental inscriptions, and a period of significant intellectual and artistic development, particularly in the southern lowland regions.[4] They developed an agriculturally intensive, city-centered empire consisting of numerous independent city-states. This includes the well-known cities of Tikal, Palenque, Copán and Calakmul, but also the lesser known Dos Pilas, Uaxactun, Altun Ha, and Bonampak, among others. The Early Classic settlement distribution in the northern Maya lowlands is not as clearly known as the southern zone, but does include a number of population centers, such as Oxkintok, Chunchucmil, and the early occupation of Uxmal.
The most notable monuments are the pyramids they built in their religious centers and the accompanying palaces of their rulers. The palace at Cancuen is the largest in the Maya area, though the site, interestingly, lacks pyramids. Other important archaeological remains include the carved stone slabs usually called stelae (the Maya called them tetun, or "tree-stones"), which depict rulers along with hieroglyphic texts describing their genealogy, military victories, and other accomplishments.[5]
The Maya participated in long distance trade with many of the other Mesoamerican cultures, including Teotihuacan, the Zapotec, and other groups in central and gulf-coast Mexico, as well as with more distant, non-Mesoamerican groups. For example, archaeologists found gold from Panama in the sacred cenote of Chichen Itza.[6] Important trade goods included cacao, salt, sea shells, jade and obsidian.
The Maya "collapse"
Main article: Maya collapse
For reasons that are still debated, the Maya centers of the southern lowlands went into decline during the 8th and 9th centuries and were abandoned shortly thereafter. This decline was coupled with a cessation of monumental inscriptions and large-scale architectural construction. Although there is no universally accepted theory to explain this “collapse,” current theories fall into two categories: non-ecological and ecological.
Non-ecological theories of Maya decline are divided into several subcategories, such as foreign invasion, peasant revolt, and the collapse of key trade routes. Ecological hypotheses include environmental catastrophe, epidemic disease, and climate change.
Postclassic period
Early Postclassic temple at Topoxte. Note the straight walls and flat ceiling, typical of Postclassic Maya architectureDuring the succeeding Postclassic period (from the 10th to the early 16th century), development in the northern centers persisted, characterized by an increasing diversity of external influences. The Maya cities of the northern lowlands in Yucatán continued to flourish for centuries more; some of the important sites in this era were Chichen Itza, Uxmal, Edzná, and Coba. After the decline of the ruling dynasties of Chichen and Uxmal, Mayapan ruled all of Yucatán until a revolt in 1450. (This city's name may be the source of the word "Maya", which had a more geographically restricted meaning in Yucatec and colonial Spanish and only grew to its current meaning in the 19th and 20th centuries). The area then degenerated into competing city-states until the Yucatán was conquered by the Spanish.
The Itza Maya, Ko'woj, and Yalain groups of Central Peten survived the "Classic Period Collapse" in small numbers and by 1250 reconstituted themselves to form competing city-states. The Itza maintained their capital at Tayasal (also known as Noh Petén), an archaeological site thought to underlay the modern city of Flores, Guatemala on Lake Petén Itzá. It ruled over an area extending across the Peten Lakes region, encompassing the community of Eckixil on Lake Quexil. The Ko'woj had their capital at Zacpeten. Postclassic Maya states also continued to survive in the southern highlands. One of the Maya kingdoms in this area, the Quiché, is responsible for the best-known Maya work of historiography and mythology, the Popol Vuh.
Colonial Period
Main article: Spanish conquest of Yucatán
See also: Spanish conquest of Mexico and Spanish colonization of the Americas
Shortly after their first expeditions to the region, the Spanish initiated a number of attempts to subjugate the Maya and establish a colonial presence in the Maya territories of the Yucatán Peninsula and the Guatemalan highlands. This campaign, sometimes termed "The Spanish Conquest of Yucatán," would prove to be a lengthy and dangerous exercise for the conquistadores from the outset, and it would take some 170 years before the Spanish established substantive control over all Maya lands.
Unlike the Spanish campaigns against the Aztec and Inca Empires, there was no single Maya political center which once overthrown would hasten the end of collective resistance from the indigenous peoples. Instead, the conquistador forces needed to subdue the numerous independent Maya polities almost one by one, many of which kept up a fierce resistance. Most of the conquistadores were motivated by the prospects of the great wealth to be had from the seizure of precious metal resources such as gold or silver, however the Maya lands themselves were poor in these resources. This would become another factor in forestalling Spanish designs of conquest, as they instead were initially attracted to the reports of great riches in central Mexico or Peru.
The last Maya states, the Itza polity of Tayasal and the Ko'woj city of Zacpeten, were continuously occupied and remained independent of the Spanish until late in the 17th century. They were finally sub subdued by the Spanish in 1697.
Political structures
A typical Classic Maya polity was a small hierarchical state (ajawil, ajawlel, or ajawlil) headed by a hereditary ruler known as a ajaw (later k’uhul ajaw).[7] Such kingdoms were usually no more than a capital city with its neighborhood and several lesser towns, although there were greater kingdoms, which controlled larger territories and extended patronage over smaller polities.
Each kingdom had a name that did not necessarily correspond to any locality within its territory. Its identity was that of a political unit associated with a particular ruling dynasty. For instance, the archaeological site of Naranjo was the capital of the kingdom of Saal. The land (chan ch’e’n) of the kingdom and its capital were called Wakab’nal or Maxam and were part of a larger geographical entity known as Huk Tsuk. Interestingly, despite constant warfare and eventual shifts in regional power, most kingdoms never disappeared from the political landscape until the collapse of the whole system in the 9th century AD. In this respect, Classic Maya kingdoms are highly similar to late Post Classic polities encountered by the Spaniards in Yucatán and Central Mexico: some polities could be subordinated to hegemonic rulers through conquests or dynastic unions and yet even then they persisted as distinct entities.
Mayanists have been increasingly accepting a "court paradigm" of Classic Maya societies which puts the emphasis on the centrality of the royal household and especially the person of the king. This approach focuses on Maya monumental spaces as the embodiment of the diverse activities of the royal household. It considers the role of places and spaces (including dwellings of royalty and nobles, throne rooms, temples, halls and plazas for public ceremonies) in establishing power and social hierarchy, and also in projecting aesthetic and moral values to define the wider social realm.
Spanish sources invariably describe even the largest Maya settlements as dispersed collections of dwellings grouped around the temples and palaces of the ruling dynasty and lesser nobles. None of the Classic Maya cities shows evidence of economic specialization and commerce of the scale of Mexican Tenochtitlan. Instead, Maya cities could be seen as enormous royal households, the locales of the administrative and ritual activities of the royal court. They were the places where privileged nobles could approach the holy ruler, where aesthetic values of the high culture were formulated and disseminated, where aesthetic items were consumed. They were the self-proclaimed centers and the sources of social, moral, and cosmic order. The fall of a royal court as in the well-documented cases of Piedras Negras or Copan would cause the inevitable "death" of the associated settlement.
Art
Main article: Maya art
A stucco relief from Palenque depicting Upakal K'inich
Carved jade used for pectoral decortation (195mm high)Many consider Maya art of their Classic Era (c. 200 to 900 AD) to be the most sophisticated and beautiful of the ancient New World. The carvings and stucco reliefs at Palenque and the statuary of Copán are especially fine, showing a grace and accurate observation of the human form that reminded early archaeologists of Classical civilization of the Old World, hence the name bestowed on this era. We have only hints of the advanced painting of the classic Maya; mostly what have survived are funerary pottery and other Maya ceramics. Also a building at Bonampak holds ancient murals that survived by serendipity. A beautiful turquoise blue colour that has survived through the centuries due to its unique chemical characteristics, is known as Maya Blue or Azul maya, and it is present in Bonampak, Tajín Cacaxtla, Jaina, and even in some Colonial Convents. The use of Maya Blue survived until the XVI century when the technique was lost. Some murals have been discovered at Bonampak. With the decipherment of the Maya script it was discovered that the Maya were one of the few civilizations where artists attached their name to their work.
Architecture
Main article: Maya architecture
As unique and spectacular as Greek or Roman architecture, Maya architecture spans many thousands of years; yet, often the most dramatic and easily recognizable as Maya are the fantastic stepped pyramids from the Terminal Pre-classic period and beyond.
There are also cave sites that are important to the Maya. These cave sites include Jolja Cave, the cave site at Naj Tunich, the Candelaria Caves, and the Cave of the Witch. There are also cave-origin myths among the Maya. Some cave sites are still used by the modern Maya in the Chiapas highlands.
It has been suggested that, in conjunction to the Maya Long Count Calendar, every fifty-two years, or cycle, temples and pyramids were remodeled and rebuilt. It appears now that the rebuilding process was often instigated by a new ruler or for political matters, as opposed to matching the calendar cycle. However, the process of rebuilding on top of old structures is indeed a common one. Most notably, the North Acropolis at Tikal seems to be the sum total of 1,500 years of architectural modifications. In Tikal and Yaxhá, there are the Twin Pyramid complexes (7 in Tikal and 1 in Yaxhá, that commemorate the end of a Baktún
Through observation of the numerous consistent elements and stylistic distinctions, remnants of Maya architecture have become an important key to understanding the evolution of their ancient civilization.
Urban design
As Maya cities spread throughout the varied geography of Mesoamerica, site planning appears to have been minimal. Maya architecture tended to integrate a great degree of natural features, and their cities were built somewhat haphazardly as dictated by the topography of each independent location. For instance, some cities on the flat limestone plains of the northern Yucatán grew into great sprawling municipalities, while others built in the hills of Usumacinta utilized the natural loft of the topography to raise their towers and temples to impressive heights. However, some semblance of order, as required by any large city, still prevailed.
Classic Era Maya urban design could easily be described as the division of space by great monuments and causeways. Open public plazas were the gathering places for people and the focus of urban design, while interior space was entirely secondary. Only in the Late Post-Classic era did the great Maya cities develop into more fortress-like defensive structures that lacked, for the most part, the large and numerous plazas of the Classic.
At the onset of large-scale construction during the Classic Era, a predetermined axis was typically established in a cardinal direction. Depending on the location of natural resources such as fresh-water wells, or cenotes, the city grew by using sacbeob (causeways), (singular: Sacbé) to connect great plazas with the numerous platforms that created the sub-structure for nearly all Maya buildings. As more structures were added and existing structures re-built or remodeled, the great Maya cities seemed to take on an almost random identity that contrasted sharply with other great Mesoamerican cities such as Teotihuacan and its rigid grid-like construction.
At the heart of the Maya city were large plazas surrounded by the most important governmental and religious buildings, such as the royal acropolis, great pyramid temples and occasionally ball-courts. Though city layouts evolved as nature dictated, careful attention was placed on the directional orientation of temples and observatories so that they were constructed in accordance with Maya interpretation of the orbits of the heavenly bodies. Immediately outside of this ritual center were the structures of lesser nobles, smaller temples, and individual shrines; the less sacred and less important structures had a greater degree of privacy. Outside of the constantly evolving urban core were the less permanent and more modest homes of the common people.
Building materials
A surprising aspect of the great Maya structures is their lack of many advanced technologies that would seem to be necessary for such constructions. Lacking metal tools, pulleys and maybe even the wheel, Maya architecture required one thing in abundance: manpower. Yet, beyond this enormous requirement, the remaining materials seem to have been readily available. All stone for Maya structures appears to have been taken from local quarries. They most often utilized limestone, which remained pliable enough to be worked with stone tools while being quarried, and only hardened once removed from its bed. In addition to the structural use of limestone, much of their mortar consisted of crushed, burnt, and mixed limestone that mimicked the properties of cement and was used just as widely for stucco finishing as it was for mortar. However, later improvements in quarrying techniques reduced the necessity for this limestone-stucco as their stones began to fit quite perfectly, yet it remained a crucial element in some post and lintel roofs. In the case of the common Maya houses, wooden poles, adobe, and thatch were the primary materials; however, instances of what appear to be common houses of limestone have been discovered as well.
Also notable throughout Maya architecture is the corbel arch (also known as a "false arch"), whose limitations kept their structures generally weighty rather than airy.
Notable constructions
Ceremonial platforms were commonly limestone platforms of typically less than four meters in height where public ceremonies and religious rites were performed. Constructed in the fashion of a typical foundation platform, these were often accented by carved figures, altars and perhaps tzompantli, a stake used to display the heads of victims or defeated Mesoamerican ballgame opponents.
Palaces were large and often highly decorated, and usually sat close to the center of a city and housed the population's elite. Any exceedingly large royal palace, or one consisting of many chambers on different levels might be referred to as an acropolis. However, often these were one-story and consisted of many small chambers and typically at least one interior courtyard; these structures appear to take into account the needed functionality required of a residence, as well as the decoration required for their inhabitants stature.
E-Groups are specific structural configurations present at a number of centers in the Maya area. These complexes are oriented and aligned according to specific astronomical events (primarily the sun’s solstices and equinoxes) and are thought to have been observatories. These structures are usually accompanied by iconographic reliefs that tie astronomical observation into general Maya mythology. The structural complex is named for Group E at Uaxactun, the first documented in Mesoamerica.
Temple of the Cross at Palenque. Note the intricate roof comb and corbeled arch.Pyramids and temples. Often the most important religious temples sat atop the towering Maya pyramids, presumably as the closest place to the heavens. While recent discoveries point toward the extensive use of pyramids as tombs, the temples themselves seem to rarely, if ever, contain burials. Residing atop the pyramids, some of over two-hundred feet, such as that at El Mirador, the temples were impressive and decorated structures themselves. Commonly topped with a roof comb, or superficial grandiose wall, these temples might have served as a type of propaganda. As they were often the only structure in a Maya city to exceed the height of the surrounding jungle, the roof combs atop the temples were often carved with representations of rulers that could be seen from vast distances.
Observatories. The Maya were keen astronomers and had mapped out the phases of celestial objects, especially the Moon and Venus. Many temples have doorways and other features aligning to celestial events. Round temples, often dedicated to Kukulcan, are perhaps those most often described as "observatories" by modern ruin tour-guides, but there is no evidence that they were so used exclusively, and temple pyramids of other shapes may well have been used for observation as well.
Ball courts. As an integral aspect of the Mesoamerican lifestyle, the courts for their ritual ball-game were constructed throughout the Maya realm and often on a grand scale. Enclosed on two sides by stepped ramps that led to ceremonial platforms or small temples, the ball court itself was of a capital "I" shape and could be found in all but the smallest of Maya cities.
Writing and literacy
Writing system
Main article: Maya script
The Maya writing system (often called hieroglyphs from a superficial resemblance to the Ancient Egyptian writing) was a combination of phonetic symbols and logograms. It is most often classified as a logographic or (more properly) a logosyllabic writing system, in which syllabic signs play a significant role. It is the only writing system of the Pre-Columbian New World which is known to completely represent the spoken language of its community. In total, the script has more than a thousand different glyphs, although a few are variations of the same sign or meaning, and many appear only rarely or are confined to particular localities. At any one time, no more than around 500 glyphs were in use, some 200 of which (including variations) had a phonetic or syllabic interpretation.
The earliest inscriptions in an identifiably-Maya script date back to 200 - 300 BC.[8] However, this is preceded by several other writing systems which had developed in Mesoamerica, most notably that of the Zapotecs, and possibly the Olmecs. There is a pre-Mayan writing known as "Epi-Olmec script" (post Olmec) which some researchers believe may represent a transitional script between the Olmec writing and Maya writing, but since there are yet no clear examples of Olmec writing, the matter is unsettled. On January 5, 2006, National Geographic published the findings of Maya writings that could be as old as 400 BC [1], suggesting that the Maya writing system is nearly as old as the oldest Mesoamerican writing found so far, Zapotec. In the succeeding centuries the Maya developed their script into a form which was far more complete and complex than any other that has yet been found in the Americas.
Since its inception, the Maya script was in use up to the arrival of the Europeans, peaking during the Maya Classical Period (c. 200 to 900). Although many Maya centers went into decline (or were completely abandoned) during or after this period, the skill and knowledge of Maya writing persisted amongst segments of the population, and the early Spanish conquistadors knew of individuals who could still read and write the script. Unfortunately, the Spanish displayed little interest in it, and as a result of the dire impacts the conquest had on Maya societies, the knowledge was subsequently lost, probably within only a few generations.
At a rough estimate, around 10,000 individual texts have so far been recovered, mostly inscribed on stone monuments, lintels, stelae and ceramic pottery. Maya civilization also produced thousands of texts using paper called amatl manufactured from the processed bark of fig trees in a folded book-format, called a codex. Shortly after the conquest, all of these latter which could be found were ordered to be burnt and destroyed by zealous Spanish priests, notably Bishop Diego de Landa. Out of these Maya codices, only three reasonably-intact examples are known to have survived through to the present day. These are now known as the Madrid, Dresden, and Paris codices. A few pages survive from a fourth, the Grolier codex, whose authenticity is sometimes disputed, but mostly is held to be genuine. Further archaeology conducted at Mayan sites often reveals other fragments, rectangular lumps of plaster and paint chips which formerly were codices; these tantalizing remains are, however, too severely damaged for any inscriptions to have survived, most of the organic material having decayed.
The decipherment and recovery of the now-lost knowledge of Maya writing has been a long and laborious process. Some elements were first deciphered in the late 19th and early 20th century, mostly the parts having to do with numbers, the Maya calendar, and astronomy. Major breakthroughs came starting in the 1950s to 1970s, and accelerated rapidly thereafter. By the end of the 20th century, scholars were able to read the majority of Maya texts to a large extent, and recent field work continues to further illuminate the content.
In reference to the few extant Maya writings, Michael D. Coe, a prominent linguist and epigrapher at Yale University stated:
"[O]ur knowledge of ancient Maya thought must represent only a tiny fraction of the whole picture, for of the thousands of books in which the full extent of their learning and ritual was recorded, only four have survived to modern times (as though all that posterity knew of ourselves were to be based upon three prayer books and 'Pilgrim's Progress')." (Michael D. Coe, The Maya, London: Thames and Hudson, 4th ed., 1987, p. 161.)
Most surviving pre-Columbian Maya writing is from stelae and other stone inscriptions from Maya sites, many of which were already abandoned before the Spanish arrived. The inscriptions on the stelae mainly record the dynasties and wars of the sites' rulers. Also of note are the inscriptions that reveal information about the lives of ancient Maya women. Much of the remainder of Maya hieroglyphics has been found on funeral pottery, most of which describes the afterlife.
Writing tools
Although the archaeological record does not provide examples, Maya art shows that writing was done with brushes made with animal hair and quills. Codex-style writing was usually done in black ink with red highlights, giving rise to the Aztec name for the Maya territory as the "land of red and black".
Scribes and Literacy
Scribes held a prominent position in Maya courts. Maya art often depicts rulers with trappings indicating they were scribes or at least able to write, such as having pen bundles in their headdresses. Additionally, many rulers have been found in conjunction with writing tools such as shell or clay inkpots.
Although the number of logograms and syllabic symbols required to fully write the language numbered in the hundreds, literacy was not necessarily widespread beyond the elite classes. Graffiti uncovered in various contexts, including on fired bricks, shows nonsensical attempts to imitate the writing system.
Mathematics
Mayan numeralsIn common with the other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya used a base 20 (vigesimal) and base 5 numbering system (see Maya numerals). Also, the preclassic Maya and their neighbors independently developed the concept of zero by 36 BC. Inscriptions show them on occasion working with sums up to the hundreds of millions and dates so large it would take several lines just to represent it. They produced extremely accurate astronomical observations; their charts of the movements of the moon and planets are equal or superior to those of any other civilization working from naked eye observation.
Also in common with the other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya utilized a highly accurate measure of the length of the solar year, far more accurate than that used in Europe as the basis of the Gregorian Calendar. They did not use this figure for the length of year in their calendar, however. Instead, the Maya calendar(s) were based on a year length of exactly 365 days, which means that the calendar falls out of step with the seasons by one day every four years. By comparison, the Julian calendar, used in Europe from Roman times until about the 16th Century, accumulated an error of one day every 128 years. The modern Gregorian calendar accumulates a day's error in approximately 3257 years.
Astronomy
Uniquely, there is some evidence to suggest the Maya appear to be the only pre-telescopic civilization to demonstrate knowledge of the Orion Nebula as being fuzzy, i.e. not a stellar pin-point. The information which supports this theory comes from a folk tale that deals with the Orion constellation's area of the sky. Their traditional hearths include in their middle a smudge of glowing fire that corresponds with the Orion Nebula. This is a significant clue to support the idea that the Maya detected a diffuse area of the sky contrary to the pin points of stars before the telescope was invented.[9] Many preclassic sites are oriented with the Pleiades and Eta draconnis, as seen in La Blanca, Ujuxte, Monte Alto, and Takalik Abaj.
The Maya were very interested in zenial passages, the time when the sun passes directly overhead. The latitude of most of their cities being below the Tropic of Cancer, these zenial passages would occur twice a year equidistant from the solstice. To represent this position of the sun overhead, the Maya had a god named Diving God.[citation needed]
The Dresden Codex contains the highest concentration of astronomical phenomena observations and calculations of any of the surviving texts (it appears that the data in this codex is primarily or exclusively of an astronomical nature). Examination and analysis of this codex reveals that Venus was the most important astronomical object to the Maya, even more important to them than the sun.
Religion
Main article: Maya religion
Chaac, the god of Rain and thunderLike the Aztec and Inca who came to power later, the Maya believed in a cyclical nature of time. The rituals and ceremonies were very closely associated with celestial/terrestrial cycles which they observed and inscribed as separate calendars. The Maya shaman had the job of interpreting these cycles and giving a prophetic outlook on the future or past based on the number relations of all their calendars.
Much of the Maya religious tradition is still not understood by scholars, but it is known that the Maya, like most pre-modern societies, believed that the cosmos has three major planes, the underworld, the sky, and the earth. The Maya Underworld is reached through caves and ball courts. It was thought to be dominated by the aged Maya gods of death and putrefaction. The Sun and Itzamna, both aged gods, dominated the Maya idea of the sky. The night sky was considered a window showing all supernatural doings. The Maya configured constellations of gods and places, saw the unfolding of narratives in their seasonal movements, and believed that the intersection of all possible worlds was in the night sky.
Maya gods were not discrete, separate entities like Greek gods. The gods had affinities and aspects that caused them to merge with one another in ways that seem unbounded. There is a massive array of supernatural characters in the Maya religious tradition, only some of which recur with regularity. Good and evil traits are not permanent characteristics of Maya gods, nor is only "good" admirable. What is inappropriate during one season might come to pass in another since much of the Mayan religious tradition is based on cycles and not permanence.
The life-cycle of maize lies at the heart of Maya belief. This philosophy is demonstrated on the Maya belief in the Maize God as a central religious figure. The Maya bodily ideal is also based on the form of the young Maize God, which is demonstrated in their artwork. The Maize God was also a model of courtly life for the Classical Maya.
The Maya believed that the universe was flat and square, but infinite in area. They also worshiped the circle, which symbolized perfection or the balancing of forces.
It is sometimes believed that the multiple "gods" represented nothing more than a mathematical explanation of what they observed. Each god was literally just a number or an explanation of the effects observed by a combination of numbers from multiple calendars. Among the many types of Maya calendars which were maintained, the most important included a 260-day cycle, a 365-day cycle which approximated the solar year, a cycle which recorded lunation periods of the Moon, and a cycle which tracked the synodic period of Venus.
Philosophically, the Maya believed that knowing the past meant knowing the cyclical influences that create the present, and by knowing the influences of the present one can see the cyclical influences of the future.
Even in the 19th century, there was Maya influence in the local branch of Christianity followed in Chan Santa Cruz. Among the Ki’che's in the western highlands of Guatemala these same nine months are replicated, until this very day, in the training of the ajk'ij, the keeper of the 260-day-calendar called ch'olk'ij.
Agriculture
Main article: Maya diet and subsistence
See also: Agriculture in Mesoamerica
The ancient Maya had diverse and sophisticated methods of food production. It was formerly believed that shifting cultivation (swidden) agriculture provided most of their food but it is now thought that permanent raised fields, terracing, forest gardens, managed fallows, and wild harvesting were also crucial to supporting the large populations of the Classic period in some areas. Indeed, evidence of these different agricultural systems persist today: raised fields connected by canals can be seen on aerial photographs, contemporary rainforest species composition has significantly higher abundance of species of economic value to ancient Maya, and pollen records in lake sediments suggest that corn, manioc, sunflower seeds, cotton, and other crops have been cultivated in association with deforestation in Mesoamerica since at least 2500 BC.
Contemporary Maya peoples still practice many of these traditional forms of agriculture, although they are dynamic systems and change with changing population pressures, cultures, economic systems, climate change, and the availability of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.
Rediscovery of the Pre-Columbian Maya
False-color IKONOS image of a bajo (lowland area) in Guatemala. The forest covering sites of Mayan ruins appears yellowish, as opposed to the red color of surrounding forest. The more sparsely vegetated bajos appear blue-green.
A Middle Preclassic palace structure at Nakbé, the Mirador Basin.Spanish American Colonies were largely cut off from the outside world, and the ruins of the great ancient cities were little known except to locals. In 1839 United States traveler and writer John Lloyd Stephens, after hearing reports of lost ruins in the jungle, visited Copán, Palenque, and other sites with English architect and draftsman Frederick Catherwood. Their illustrated accounts of the ruins sparked strong interest in the region and the people, and they have once again regained their position as a vital link in Mesoamerican heritage.
However, in many locations, Maya ruins have been overgrown by the jungle, becoming dense enough to hide structures just a few meters away. To help find ruins, researchers have turned to satellite imagery. The best way to find them is to look at the visible and near-infrared spectra. Due to their limestone construction, the monuments affected the chemical makeup of the soil as they deteriorated. Some moisture-loving plants stayed away, while others were killed off or discolored. The effects of the limestone ruins are still apparent today to some satellite sensors.
Much of the contemporary rural population of the Yucatán Peninsula, Chiapas (both in Mexico), Guatemala and Belize is Maya by descent and primary language.
This article is about the people of the former Maya civilization after the conquest by Spain. See Maya civilization for the pre-Columbian culture.
The Maya peoples constitute a diverse range of the Native American peoples of southern Mexico and northern Central America. The overarching term "Maya" is a convenient collective designation to include the peoples of the region who share some degree of cultural and linguistic heritage; however the term embraces many distinct populations, societies and ethnic groups who each have their own particular traditions, cultures and historical identity.
There are an estimated 6 million Maya living in this area at the start of the 21st century. Some are quite integrated into the modern cultures of the nations in which they reside, others continue a more traditional culturally distinct life, often speaking one of the Mayan languages as a primary language.
The largest populations of contemporary Maya are in the Mexican states of Yucatán, Campeche, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, and Chiapas, and in the Central American countries of Belize, Guatemala, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador.The largest group of modern Maya can be found on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. They commonly identify themselves simply as "Maya" with no tribe (unlike in the Highlands of Western Guatemala), and speak the language which anthropologists term "Yucatec Maya", but is identified by speakers and Yucatecos simply as "Maya". The Spanish language is commonly spoken as well. Especially in the western areas, even those of mostly or all Maya descent who speak Maya at home often identify themselves as "Mestizo", showing a degree of assimilation and identification with mainstream Mexican culture.
The Yucatán's Mestizo population began after two shipwrecked Spanish sailors came ashore in 1511. One of the sailors, Gonzalo Guerrero, started a family with a Maya woman. Later relations between the Spanish and the Maya were less cordial. Conflicts with the Spanish and vulnerability to their diseases reduced the Yucatec Maya population to less than 10,000 by 1850. Those in the jungles of Quintana Roo to the east were more cut off from the Spanish, enabling them to survive more easily. Historically, the population in the eastern half of the peninsula was less affected by and less integrated with Hispanic culture than those of the western half.
A large 19th century revolt by the Yucatec Maya, known as the Caste War of Yucatán, was one of the most successful modern Native American revolts; results included the temporary existence of the Maya state of Chan Santa Cruz, recognized as an independent nation by the British Empire.
[edit] Chiapas
Chiapas was for many years one of regions of Mexico that were least touched by the reforms of the Mexican Revolution. The Zapatista Army of National Liberation, which launched a rebellion against the Mexican state in Chiapas in January 1994, declared itself to be an indigenous movement and drew its strongest and earliest support from Chiapan Mayans, some of whom still support it today.
Maya groups in Chiapas include the Tzotzil and Tzeltal, in the highlands of the state, the Tojolabales, concentrated in the lowlands around Las Margaritas, and the Ch'ol in the jungle.
[edit] Tabasco
The Mexican state of Tabasco is home to the Chontal Maya.
[edit] Guatemala
In Guatemala, the largest and most traditional Maya populations are in the western highlands.
In Guatemala the Spanish colonial pattern of keeping the native population legally separate and subservient continued well into the 20th century. This resulted in many traditional customs being retained, as the only other option than traditional Maya life open to most Maya was entering the Hispanic culture at the very bottom rung.
Considerable identification with local and linguistic affinities, often corresponding to pre-Columbian nation states, continues, and many people wear traditional clothing that displays their specific local identity. Clothing of women tends to be more traditional than that of the men, as the men have more interaction with the Hispanic commerce and culture.
Maya peoples of the Guatemala highlands include the K'iche', Mam, poqomam, Kaqchikel, Ixil, Q'eqchi', Tz'utujil, and Jakaltek.
The southeastern region of Guatemala (bordering with Honduras) includes groups such as the Ch'orti'.
[edit] Other Maya groups
The most traditional of Maya groups are the Lacandon, a small population avoiding contact with outsiders until the late 20th century by living in small groups in the rain forests.Mayan languages (alternatively: Maya languages)[1] constitute a language family spoken in Mesoamerica and northern Central America. Mayan languages are spoken by at least 6 million indigenous Maya, primarily in Guatemala, Mexico, and Belize. In 1996, Guatemala formally recognized twenty-one Mayan languages by name,[2] and Mexico recognizes a further eight.
The Mayan linguistic family is one of the best documented and most studied in the Americas.[3] The modern Mayan languages descend from a common ancestor known as Proto-Mayan. This ancestor language is thought to have been spoken at least 5000 years ago and has been partially reconstructed using the comparative method.
The Mayan languages form part of the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area, an area of linguistic convergence developed throughout millennia of interaction between the peoples of Mesoamerica. All of the Mayan languages display the basic diagnostic traits of this linguistic area. For example, all use relational nouns instead of prepositions to indicate spatial relationships. Mayan languages also possess a set of grammatical and typological features that set them apart from other languages of Mesoamerica and which are explained in detail below. These features include the use of ergativity in the grammatical treatment of verbs and their subjects and objects, specific inflectional categories on verbs, and a special word class of "positionals" which is typical of all Mayan languages.
During the pre-Columbian era of Mesoamerican history, some Mayan languages were written in the Maya hieroglyphic script. The use of this script was particularly widespread during the Classic period of Maya civilization (c. 250-900 CE). The surviving corpus of over 10,000 known individual Maya inscriptions on buildings, monuments, pottery and bark-paper codices,[4] combined with the rich postcolonial literature in Mayan languages written in the Latin alphabet, provides a basis for the modern understanding of pre-Columbian history unparalleled in the Americas.Mayan languages are the descendants of a proto-language called Proto-Mayan or, in K'iche' Maya, Nab'ee Maya' Tzij ("the old Maya Language").[5] The Proto-Mayan language is believed to have been spoken in the Cuchumatanes highlands of central Guatemala in an area corresponding roughly to where Q'anjobalan is spoken today.[6] The first division occurred around 2200 BCE when Huastecan split away from Mayan Proper, its speakers having moved northwest along the Gulf Coast. Proto-Yucatecan and Proto-Ch'olan speakers subsequently split off from the main group and moved north into the Yucatán peninsula. Speakers of the western branch moved south into the areas now inhabited by Mamean and Quichean people. When speakers of proto-Tzeltalan later separated from the Ch'olan group and moved south into the Chiapas highlands, they came into contact with speakers of Mixe-Zoquean languages.
In the Archaic period (before 2000 BCE), a number of loanwords from Mixe-Zoquean languages seem to have entered the proto-Mayan language. This has led to hypotheses that the early Maya were dominated by speakers of Mixe-Zoquean languages, possibly the Olmec culture.[7] In the case of the Xinca and Lenca languages, on the other hand, Mayan languages are more often the source than the receiver of loanwords. This suggests a period of Mayan dominance over the Lencan and Xinca people, possibly during the Classic period (250-900 CE).[8]
Approximate migration routes and dates for various Mayan language families. The region shown as Proto-Mayan is now occupied by speakers of the Q'anjobalan branch (light blue in other figures).[9]The split between Proto-Yucatecan (in the north, that is, the Yucatán Peninsula) and Proto-Ch'olan (in the south, that is, the Chiapas highlands and Petén Basin) had already occurred by the Classic period, when the majority of extant Maya inscriptions were written. Both variants are attested in hieroglyphic inscriptions at the Maya sites of the time, and both are commonly referred to as "Classic Maya language."
During the Classic period all the major branches diversified into separate languages. However, the glyphic texts only record two varieties of Mayan, namely a Ch'olan variety found in texts written in the southern Maya area and the highlands, and a Yucatecan variety found in the texts from Yucatán peninsula.[10]
It has recently been suggested that the specific variety of Ch'olan found in the glyphic texts is best understood as "Classic Ch'olti'an", the ancestor language of modern Ch'orti' and Ch'olti'. This language is thought to have originated in western and south-central Petén Basin; it would have been used in the inscriptions and perhaps also spoken by the elites and priests.[11] The reason why only two linguistic varieties are found in the glyphic texts is probably that these served as prestige dialects throughout the Maya region; hieroglyphic texts would have been composed in the language of the elite.[12] Nevertheless, the common Mayan people must already have spoken a number of distinct languages by the Classic period.
During the Spanish colonization of Central America, all indigenous languages were eclipsed by Spanish which became the new prestige language. The Mayan languages were no exception, and their use in many important domains of society, including administration, religion and literature, came to an end. Yet the Maya area was more resistant to outside influence than others,[13] and perhaps for this reason many Maya communities retain a high percentage of monolingual speakers to this day. Nonetheless, the Maya area is now dominated by Spanish. While a number of Mayan languages are moribund or are considered endangered, others remain quite viable, with speakers across all age groups and native language use in all domains of society.[14]
As Maya archaeology advanced during the 20th century and nationalist and ethnic-pride-based ideologies spread, the Mayan-speaking peoples began to develop a shared ethnic identity as Maya, the heirs of the great Maya civilization.[15]
The word "Maya" was likely derived from the postclassical Yucatán city of Mayapan; its more restricted meaning in pre-colonial and colonial times points to an origin in a particular region of the Yucatán Peninsula. The broader meaning of "Maya" now current, while defined by linguistic relationships, is also used to refer to ethnic or cultural traits. Most Mayans identify themselves first and foremost with a particular ethnic group, e.g. as "Yucatec" or "K'iche'"; however, they also recognize a shared Mayan kinship.[16]
Language has been fundamental in defining the boundaries of that kinship.[17] Paradoxically perhaps, this pride in unity has led to an insistence on the separateness of different Mayan languages, some of which are so closely related that they could easily be referred to as dialects of a single language. However, given that the term "dialect" has been used by some with racialist overtones in the past, making a spurious distinction between Amerindian "dialects" and European "languages", the preferred usage in recent years has been to designate the linguistic varieties spoken by different ethnic group as separate languages.[18]
In Guatemala, matters such as developing standardized orthographies for the Mayan languages are governed by the Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala (ALMG; Guatemalan Academy of Mayan Languages) which was founded by Mayan organisations in 1986. Following the 1996 peace accords it has been gaining growing recognition as the regulatory authority on Mayan languages both among Mayan scholars and the Maya peoples themselves.
[edit] Genealogy and classification
[edit] Relations with other families
The Mayan linguistic family does not have any demonstrated genetic ties to other linguistic families - the similarities that exist between Mayan and some of the languages of Mesoamerica is now understood to be the result of diffusion of linguistic traits from neighboring languages into Mayan and not the result of common ancestry. Mesoamerica has been proven to be an area of substantial linguistic diffusion[19]
A wide range of proposals have attempted to link the Mayan family to other language families or isolates, but none of these proposed affiliations have obtained general support across the linguistic community. Examples of such proposals include linking Mayan with Chipaya-Uru, Mapudungun, Lenca, P'urhépecha and Huave. Mayan has also been included in various Hokan and Penutian hypotheses. The linguist Joseph Greenberg included Mayan in his highly controversial Amerind hypothesis, which is rejected by most historical linguists as unsupported by available evidence.
According to Lyle Campbell, an expert in Mayan languages, the most promising proposal is the "Macro-Mayan" hypothesis, which posits linkages between Mayan, Mixe-Zoquean languages and Totonacan, but the current state of research is insufficient to securely support the hypothesis.[20]
[edit] Internal subdivisions
The Mayan language family is extremely well-documented, and its internal genealogical classification scheme is widely accepted and established, notwithstanding some minor unresolved differences.
One point still at issue is the position of Ch'olan and Q'anjobalan-Chujean. Some scholars think these form a separate Western branch[21] (as in the diagram below). Other linguists do not support the positing of an especially close relationship between Ch'olan and Q'anjobalan-Chujean; consequently they classify these as two distinct branches emanating directly from the proto-language.Huastecan branch
Wastek (also spelled Huastec and Huaxtec) is spoken in the Mexican states of Veracruz and San Luis Potosí by around 110,000 people.[22] It is the most divergent of modern Mayan languages. Chicomuceltec was a language related to Wastek and spoken in Chiapas that became extinct some time before 1982.[23]
[edit] Yucatecan branch
Yucatec Maya (known simply as "Maya" to its speakers) is the most commonly spoken Maya language in Mexico. It is currently spoken by approximately 900,000 people in the Yucatán Peninsula.[24] It has a rich post-colonial literature, and remains common as the first and even second language in rural areas in Yucatán.
The other three Yucatecan languages are Mopan, spoken by around 10,000 speakers primarily in Belize; Itza', an extinct or moribund language from Guatemala's Petén Basin;[25] and Lacandón or Lakantum, also severely endangered with about 1,000 speakers in a few villages on the outskirts of the Selva Lacandona, in Chiapas.
Western branch
[edit] Ch'olan
The Ch'olan languages were formerly widespread throughout the Maya area, but today the language with most speakers is Ch'ol, spoken by 130,000 in Chiapas.[26] Its closest relative, the Chontal Maya language,[27] is spoken by 55,000[28] in Tabasco state, Mexico. Another related language, now endangered, is Ch'orti', which is spoken by 30,000 in Guatemala.[29] It was previously also spoken in extreme western Honduras and El Salvador but the El Salvador variant is now extinct and that of Honduras is considered moribund. Ch'olti', a sister language of Ch'orti', is also extinct.
Ch'olan languages are believed to be the most conservative in vocabulary and phonology, and are closely related to the language of the Classic-era inscriptions found in Central Lowlands. They may have served as prestige languages, coexisting with other dialects in some areas. This assumption provides a plausible explanation for the geographical distance between the Ch'orti' zone and the areas where Ch'ol and Chontal are spoken.[30]
[edit] Tzeltalan
The closest relatives of the Ch'olan languages are the languages of the Tzeltalan branch, Tzotzil and Tzeltal, both spoken in Chiapas by large and stable or growing populations (265,000 for Tzotzil and 215,000 for Tzeltal).[31] Tzotzil and Tzeltal have large numbers of monolingual speakers.
[edit] Q'anjobalan
Q'anjob'al is spoken by 77,700 in the Huehuetenango Department of Guatemala,[32] with small populations elsewhere.[33] Jakaltek (also known as Popti'[34]) is spoken by almost 100,000 in several municipalities[35] of Huehuetenango. Another member of this branch is Akatek, with over 50,000 speakers in San Miguel Acatán and San Rafael La Independencia.
Chuj is spoken by 40,000 people in Huehuetenango district, and by 9,500 people, primarily refugees, over the border in Mexico, in the municipality of Trinitaria, Chiapas, and the villages of Tziscau and Cuauhtémoc Tojolab'al is spoken in eastern Chiapas by 36,000 people.[36]
[edit] Eastern branch
[edit] Quichean-Mamean
The Quichean-Mamean languages and dialects, with two sub-branches and three subfamilies, are spoken in the Guatemalan highlands.
Q'eqchi' (sometimes spelled Kekchi), which constitutes its own sub-branch within Quichean-Mamean, is spoken by about 400,000 people in the southern Petén and Alta Verapaz Departments of Guatemala, and also in Belize by 9,000 speakers. In El Salvador it is spoken by 12,000 as a result of recent migrations.[37]
The Uspantek language, which also springs directly from the Quichean-Mamean node, is native only to the Uspantán municipio in the department of El Quiché, and has 3,000 speakers, one of whom is the Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú.[38]
[edit] Mamean
The largest language in this branch is Mam, spoken by 150,000 people in the departments of San Marcos and Cuchumatanes. Awakatek is the language of 20,000 inhabitants of central Aguacatán, another municipality of Huehuetenango. Ixil is spoken by 18,000 in the "Ixil Triangle" region of the department of El Quiché.[39] Tektitek (or Teko) is spoken by over 1,000 people in the municipality of Tectitán, and 1,000 refugees in Mexico. According to the Ethnologue the number of speakers of Tektitek is growing.[40]
[edit] Core Quichean
K'iche',[41] the Mayan language with the largest number of speakers, is spoken by more than 2,000,000 people in the Guatemalan highlands, around the towns of Chichicastenango and Quetzaltenango and in the Cuchumatán mountains, as well as by urban emigrants in Guatemala City.[42] The famous Maya mythological document, Popol Vuh, is written in an antiquated K'iche' often called Classical Quiché. The K'iche' culture was at its pinnacle at the time of the Spanish conquest. Utatlán, near the present-day city of Santa Cruz del Quiché, was its economic and ceremonial center.[43]
Achi is spoken by 85,000 people in Cubulco and Rabinal, two municipios of Baja Verapaz. In some classifications, e.g. the one by Campbell, Achi is counted as a form of K'iche'. However, owing to a historical division between the two ethnic groups, the Achi Maya do not regard themselves as K'iche'.[44]
The Kaqchikel language is spoken by about 400,000 people in an area stretching from Guatemala City westward to the northern shore of Lake Atitlán.[45] Tz'utujil has about 90,000 speakers in the vicinity of Lake Atitlán.[46] Other members of the K'ichean branch are Sakapultek, spoken by somewhat fewer than 40,000 people mostly in El Quiché department, and Sipakapense, which is spoken by 8,000 people in Sipacapa, San Marcos. The Annals of the Cakchiquels, written in Kaqchikel, is an important literary work dating from the 16th century that traces the history of the ruling classes of the Kaqchikel people.
[edit] Poqom
The Poqom languages are closely related to Core Quichean, with which they constitute a Poqom-K'ichean sub-branch on the Quichean-Mamean node.[47]
Poqomchi' is spoken by 90,000 people[48] in Purulhá, Baja Verapaz, and in the following municipalities of Alta Verapaz: Santa Cruz Verapaz, San Cristóbal Verapaz, Tactic, Tamahú and Tucurú. Poqomam is spoken by around 30,000 people[49] in several small pockets, the largest of which is in the department of Alta Verapaz. Formerly Poqomam was also spoken in El Salvador.
[edit] Phonology
[edit] The Proto-Mayan sound system
Proto-Mayan (the common ancestor of the Mayan languages as reconstructed[50] using the comparative method) has a predominant CVC syllable structure, only allowing consonant clusters across syllable boundaries.[51] Most Proto-Mayan roots were monosyllabic except for a few disyllabic nominal roots. Due to subsequent vowel loss many Mayan languages now show complex consonant clusters at both ends of syllables. Following the reconstruction of Lyle Campbell and Terrence Kaufman, the Proto-Mayan language had the following sounds;[52] the sounds present in the modern languages are largely similar to this root set.
Proto-Mayan vowels Front Central Back
Short Long Short Long Short Long
High [i] [iː] [u] [uː]
Mid [e] [eː] [o] [oː]
Low [a] [aː]
Proto-Mayan consonants Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Plain Implosive Plain Ejective Plain Ejective Plain Ejective Plain Ejective Plain
Stops [p] [ɓ] [t] [t’] [tʲ] [tʲ’] [k] [k’] [q] [q’] [ʔ]
Affricates [ts] [ts’] [tʃ] [tʃ’]
Fricative [s] [ʃ] [χ] [h]
Nasals [m] [n] [ŋ]
Liquids [l] [r]
Glides [j] [w]
[edit] Phonological evolution of Proto-Mayan
Main article: Proto-Mayan
The classification of Mayan languages is based on changes shared between groups of languages. For example languages of the western group (such as Huastecan, Yucatecan and Ch'olan) all changed the Proto-Mayan phoneme */r/ into [j], some languages of the eastern branch retained [r] (K'ichean), and others changed it into [ʧ] or, word-finally, [t] (Mamean).[53] The shared innovations between Huastecan, Yucatecan and Ch'olan show that they separated from the other Mayan languages before the changes found in other branches had taken place.
Reflexes of Proto-Mayan *[r] in daughter languages Proto-Mayan Wastek Yucatec Mopan Tzeltal Chuj Q'anjob'al Mam Ixil K'iche' Kaqchikel Poqomam Q'eqchi'
*[raʔʃ]
"green" [jaʃ] [jaʔʃ] [jaʔaʃ] [jaʃ] [jaʔaʃ] [jaʃ] [ʧaʃ] [ʧaʔʃ] [raʃ] [rɐʃ] [raʃ] [raːʃ]
*[war]
"sleep" [waj] [waj] [wɐjn] [waj] [waj] [waj] [wit]
(Awakatek) [wat] [war] [war] [wɨr] [war]
The palatalized plosives ([tʲ’] and [tʲ] are not found in any of the modern families. Instead they are reflected differently in different branches, allowing a reconstruction of these phonemes as palatalized plosives. In the eastern branch (Chujean-Q'anjobalan and Ch'olan) they are reflected as [t] and [t’]. In Mamean they are reflected as [ʦ] and [ʦ’] and in Quichean as [ʧ] and [ʧ’]. Yucatec stands out from other western languages in that its palatalized plosives are sometimes changed into [ʧ] and sometimes [t].[54]
Reflexes of Proto-Mayan [tʲ’] and [tʲ][55] Proto-Mayan Yucatec Q'anjob'al Popti' Mam Ixil K'iche' Kaqchikel
*[tʲeːʔ]
"tree" [ʧeʔ] [teʔ] [teʔ] [ʦeːʔ] [ʦeʔ] [ʧeːʔ] [ʧeʔ]
*[tʲaʔŋ]
"ashes" [taʔn] [tan] [taŋ] [ʦaːx] [ʦaʔ] [ʧaːx] [ʧax]
The Proto-Mayan velar nasal *[ŋ] is reflected as [x] in the eastern branches (Quichean-Mamean), [n] in Q'anjobalan, Ch'olan and Yucatecan, [h] in Huastecan, and only conserved as [ŋ] in Chuj and Jakaltek.[56]
Reflexes of Proto-Mayan [ŋ][55] Proto-Mayan Yucatec Q'anjobal Jakaltek Ixil K'iche'
*[ŋeːh]
"tail" [neːh] [ne] [ŋe] [xeh] [xeːʔ]
[edit] Other innovations
The subgrouping of the Mayan family is based on shared linguistic innovations. Some phonological developments that have been used to establish the current classification are described here.
The divergent status of Huastecan is revealed by a number of innovations not shared by other groups. Huastecan is the only branch to have changed Proto-Mayan *[w] into [b]. Wastek (but not Chicomuceltec) is also the only Mayan language to have a phonemic labialized velar phoneme [kʷ]; however, this is known to be a postcolonial development: comparing colonial documents in Wastek to modern Wastek, it can be seen that instances of modern [kʷ] were originally sequences of *[k] followed by a rounded vowel and a glide. For example, the word for "vulture", which in modern Wastek is pronounced [kʷiːʃ], was written
in colonial Wastek, and pronounced *[kuwiːʃ].
The grouping together of the Ch'olan and Yucatecan branches is partly based on the innovative change of short *[a] to [ɨ]. All Cholan languages have changed the Proto-Mayan long vowels *[eː] and *[oː] to [i] and [u] respectively. The independent status of Yucatecan is evident in that all Yucatecan languages shifted proto-Mayan *[t] to [ʧ] in word-final position.
Quichean-Mamean, and some Q'anjobalan languages, have retained Proto-Mayan uvular stops ([q] and [q’]); in all other branches these sounds merged with [k] and [k’], respectively. Thus the Quichean-Mamean grouping can be said to rest mostly on shared retentions rather than innovations.
Mamean is largely differentiated from K'ichean by a chain shift which changed *[r] into [t], *[t] into [ʧ], *[ʧ] into [ʈʂ] and *[ʃ] into [ʂ]. These retroflex affricates and fricatives later spread to Q'anjob'alan through language contact.[57]
Within the Quichean branch, Kaqchikel and Tz'utujil differ from Quichean proper in having changed a final Proto-Mayan *[w] and *[ɓ] into [j] and [ʔ] respectively in polysyllabic words.[58]
Some other changes are general throughout the Mayan family. For example, the Proto-Mayan glottal fricative *[h], which no language has retained as such, has numerous reflexes in the various daughter languages depending on its position within a word. In some cases it lengthened a preceding vowel in languages which retained vowel length. In other languages it became [w], [j], [ʔ], [x], or disappeared.[59]
Other sporadic innovations have occurred independently in several branches. For example distinctive vowel length has been lost in Q'anjobalan-Chujean (except for Mocho' and Akateko), Kaqchikel and Ch'olan. Other languages have transformed the length distinction into one of tense versus lax vowels, later losing the distinction in a majority of cases. However, Kaqchikel has preserved a centralized lax, schwa-like vowel as a reflex of Proto-Mayan [a].[60] Two languages, Yucatec and Uspantek, as well as one dialect of Tzotzil,[61] have introduced a tonal distinction in vowels, with high and low tones corresponding to former vowel length as well as reflecting *[h] and *[ʔ].
[edit] Grammar
The grammar of Mayan languages is simpler than that of other Mesoamerican languages,[62] yet its morphology is still considered agglutinating and polysynthetic.[63] Verbs are marked for aspect or tense, the person of the subject, the person of the object (in the case of transitive verbs), and for plurality of person. Possessed nouns are marked for person of possessor. There are no cases or genders in Mayan languages.
[edit] Word order
Proto-Mayan is thought to have had a basic Verb Object Subject word order with possibilities of switching to VSO in certain circumstances, such as complex sentences, sentences where object and subject were of equal animacy and when the subject was definite.[64] Today Yucatecan, Tzotzil and Tojolab'al have a basic fixed VOS word order. Mamean, Q'anjob'al, Jakaltek and one dialect of Chuj have a fixed VSO one. Only Ch'orti' has a basic SVO word order. Other Mayan languages allow both VSO and VOS word orders.
[edit] Numeral classifiers
When counting it is necessary to use numeral classifiers which specify the class of items being counted; the numeral cannot appear without an accompanying classifier. Class is usually assigned according to whether the object is animate or inanimate or according to an object's general shape.[65] Thus when counting "flat" objects, a different form of numeral classifier is used than when counting round things, oblong items or people. In some Mayan languages such as Chontal, classifiers take the form of affixes attached to the numeral; in others such as Tzeltal, they are free forms. In Jakaltek the classifiers can also be used as pronouns.
The meaning denoted by a noun may be altered significantly by changing the accompanying classifier. In Chontal, for example, when the classifier -tek is used with names of plants it is understood that the objects being enumerated are whole trees. If in this expression a different classifier, -ts'it (for counting long, slender objects) is substituted for -tek, this conveys the meaning that only sticks or branches of the tree are being counted:[66]
Semantic differences in numeral classifiers (from Chontal) untek wop (one-tree Jahuacte) "one jahuacte tree" unts'it wop (one-stick jahuacte) "one stick from a jahuacte tree"
un- tek wop un- ts'it wop
one- "plant" jahuacte tree one- "long.slender.object" jahuacte tree
[edit] Possession
The morphology of Mayan nouns is fairly simple: they inflect for number (plural or singular), and, when possessed, for person and number of their possessor.
Pronominal possession is expressed by a set of possessive prefixes attached to the noun, as in Kaqchikel ru-kej "his/her horse". Nouns may furthermore adopt a special form marking them as possessed.
For nominal possessors, the possessed noun is inflected as possessed by a third-person possessor, and followed by the possessor noun, e.g. Kaqchikel ru-kej ri achin "the man's horse" (literally "his horse the man"). This type of formation is a main diagnostic trait of the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area and recurs throughout Mesoamerica.[67]
Mayan languages often contrast alienable and inalienable possession by varying the way the noun is (or is not) marked as possessed. Jakaltek, for example, contrasts inalienably possessed wetʃel "my photo (in which I am depicted)" with alienably possessed wetʃele "my photo (taken by me)". The prefix we- marks the first person singular possessor in both, but the absence of the -e possessive suffix in the first form marks inalienable possession.[68]
[edit] Relational nouns
Mayan languages which have prepositions at all normally have only one. To express location and other relations between entities, use is made of a special class of "relational nouns" . This pattern is also recurrent throughout Mesoamerica and is another diagnostic trait of the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area. In Mayan most relational nouns are metaphorically derived from body parts so that "on top of," for example, is expressed by the word for head.[69]
Relational nouns are possessed by the constituent that is the reference point of the relation, and the relational noun names the relation. Thus in Mayan one would say "the mountain's head" (literally "its head the mountain") to mean "on (top of) the mountain". Thus in the Classical Quiché of the Popol Vuh we read u-wach ulew "on the earth" (literally "its face the earth").
[edit] Subjects and objects
Mayan languages are ergative in their alignment. This means that the subject of an intransitive verb is treated similarly to the object of a transitive verb, but differently from the subject of a transitive verb.
Mayan languages have two sets of affixes that are attached to a verb to indicate the person of its arguments. One set (often referred to in Mayan grammars as set A) indicates the person of subjects of intransitive verbs, and of objects of transitive verbs. They can also be used with adjective or noun predicates to indicate the subject.
Set A Usage Example Language of example Translation
Subject of an intransitive verb x-ix-ok Kaqchikel "You guys entered"
Object of a transitive verb x-ix-ru-chöp Kaqchikel "He/she took you guys"
Subject of an adjective predicate ix-samajel Kaqchikel "You guys are hard-working."
Subject of a noun predicate 'antz-ot
Tzotzil "You are a woman."
Another set (set B) is used to indicate the person of subjects of transitive verbs, and also the possessors of nouns (including relational nouns).[70]
Set B Usage Example Language of example Translation
Subject of a
transitive verb x-ix-ru-chöp Kaqchikel "He/she took you guys"
Possessive marker ru-kej ri achin Kaqchikel "the man’s horse" (literally: "his horse the man")
Relational marker u-wach ulew Classical Quiché "on the earth" (literally: "its face the earth", i.e. "face of the earth")
[edit] Verbs
In addition to subject and object (agent and patient), the Mayan verb has affixes signalling aspect, tense, and mood as in the following example:
Mayan verb structure Aspect/mood/tense Class A prefix Class B prefix Root Aspect/mood/voice Plural
k- in- a- ch'ay -o
Incompletive 1st person sg. Patient 2nd person sg. Agent hit Incompletive
(K'iche') kinach'ayo "You are hitting me"
Tense systems in Mayan languages are generally simple. Jakaltek, for example, contrasts only past and non-past, while Mam has only future and non-future. Aspect systems are normally more prominent. Mood does not normally form a separate system in Mayan, but is instead intertwined with the tense/aspect system.[71] Kaufman has reconstructed a tense/aspect/mood system for proto-Mayan that includes seven aspects: incompletive, progressive, completive/punctual, imperative, potential/future, optative, and perfective.[72]
Mayan languages tend to have a rich set of grammatical voices. Proto-Mayan had at least one passive construction as well as an antipassive rule for downplaying the importance of the agent in relation to the patient. Modern K'iche' has two antipassives: one which ascribes focus to the object and another that emphasizes the verbal action.[73] Other voice-related constructions occurring in Mayan languages are the following: mediopassive, incorporational (incorporating a direct object into the verb), instrumental (promoting the instrument to object position) and referential (a kind of applicative promoting an indirect argument such as a benefactive or recipient to the object position).[74]
[edit] Statives and positionals
In Mayan languages, words are usually viewed as belonging to one of four classes: verbs, statives, adjectives, and nouns.
Statives are a class of predicative words expressing a quality or state, whose syntactic properties fall in between those of verbs and adjectives in Indo-European languages. Like verbs, statives can sometimes be inflected for person but normally lack inflections for tense, aspect and other purely verbal categories. Statives can be adjectives, positionals or numerals.
Positionals, a word class characteristic of, if not unique to, the Mayan languages, are statives with meanings related to the position or shape of an object or person. Mayan languages have between 250 and 500 distinct positional roots:
Telan ay jun naq winaq yul b'e.
"There is a man lying down fallen on the road"
Woqan hin k'al ay max ek'k'u.
"I spent the entire day sitting down"
Yet ewi xoyan ay jun lob'aj stina.
"Yesterday there was a snake lying curled up in the entrance of the house"
In these three Q'anjob'al sentences,[75] the positionals are telan ("something large or cylindrical lying down as if having fallen"), woqan ("person sitting on a chairlike object"), and xoyan ("curled up like a rope or snake").
[edit] Word formation
Compounding of noun roots to form new nouns is commonplace; there are also many morphological processes to derive nouns from verbs. Verbs also admit highly productive derivational affixes of several kinds, most of which specify transitivity or voice.[76]
Some Mayan languages allow incorporation of noun stems into verbs, either as direct objects or in other functions. However, there are few affixes with adverbial or modal meanings.
As in other Mesoamerican languages, there is widespread metaphorical use of roots denoting body parts, particularly to form locatives and relational nouns (see below), e.g. Tzeltal/Tzotzil ti' na "door" (lit. "mouth of house"), or Kaqchikel chi ru-pam "inside" (lit. "mouth its-stomach").
[edit] Writing systems
A complex script, used to write Mayan languages in pre-Columbian times and known today from engravings at several Maya archaeological sites, has been deciphered almost completely. This was a mixed, partly logographic and partly syllabic writing system.[77]
In colonial times Mayan languages came to be written in a script derived from the Latin alphabet; orthographies were developed mostly by missionary grammarians.[78] Not all modern Mayan languages have standardized orthographies, but the Mayan languages of Guatemala use a standardized, Latin-based phonemic spelling system developed by the Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala (ALMG). Orthographies for the languages of Mexico are currently being developed by the Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas (INALI).
[edit] Glyphic writing
Main article: Maya script
The pre-Columbian Maya civilization developed and used an intricate and versatile writing system which is the only Mesoamerican script that can be said to be almost fully deciphered. Earlier-established civilizations to the west and north of the Maya homelands that also had scripts recorded in surviving inscriptions include the Zapotec, Olmec, and the Zoque-speaking peoples of the southern Veracruz and western Chiapas area - but their scripts are as yet largely undeciphered. It is generally agreed that the Maya writing system was adapted from one or more of these earlier systems, and a number of references identify the undeciphered Olmec script as its most likely precursor.[79]
In the course of the deciphering of the Maya hieroglyphic script it has become evident that it was a fully-functioning writing system in which it was possible to express any sentence of the spoken language unambiguously. The system is of a type best classified as logosyllabic,[80] in which symbols (glyphs or graphemes) can be used as either logograms or syllables.
The script has a complete syllabary (although not all possible syllables have yet been identified), and a Maya scribe would have been able to write anything out phonetically, syllable by syllable, using these symbols.[81] In practice however, almost all inscriptions of any length were written employing a combination of syllabic signs and word signs (called logograms).
Maya glyphs in stucco at the Museo de sitio in Palenque, MexicoAt least two major Mayan languages have been confidently identified in hieroglyphic texts, with at least one other language probably identified. An archaic language variety known as Classic Maya predominates in these texts, particularly in the Classic-era inscriptions of the southern and central lowland areas. This language is most closely related to the Ch'olan branch of the language family, modern descendants of which include Ch'ol, Ch'orti' and Chontal.
Inscriptions in an early Yucatecan language (the ancestor of the main surviving Yucatec language) have also been recognised or proposed, mainly in the Yucatán Peninsula region and from a later period. Three of the four extant Maya codices are based on Yucatec. It has also been surmised that some inscriptions found in the Chiapas highlands region may be in a Tzeltalan language whose modern descendants are Tzeltal and Tzotzil.[82] Other regional varieties and dialects are also presumed to have been used, but have not yet been identified with certainty.[83]
Use and knowledge of the Maya script continued until the 16th century Spanish conquest at least. Bishop Diego de Landa described the use of hieroglyphic writing in the religious practices of Yucatecan Maya, which he actively prohibited. De Landa and the Spanish colonizers of the Mayan area destroyed large numbers of codices written in hieroglyphs, effectively ending the Mesoamerican tradition of literacy in a native script.
[edit] Modern orthography
Since the colonial period, practically all Maya writing has used Latin characters. Formerly spelling was generally based on Spanish, and it is only recently that standardized orthographic conventions have started to arise. The first widely-accepted orthographic standards were set in Yucatec Maya by the authors and contributors of the Diccionario Maya Cordemex, a project directed by Alfredo Barrera Vasquez and first published in 1980.[84] Subsequently, the Guatemalan Academy of Mayan Languages (known by its Spanish acronym ALMG), founded in 1986, adapted these standards to the 21 Mayan languages of Guatemala.
ALMG orthography for the phonemes of Mayan languages Vowels Consonants
ALMG IPA ALMG IPA ALMG [A]IPA [B]ALMG IPA ALMG IPA ALMG IPA ALMG IPA ALMG IPA
a [a] aa [aː] ä [ɐ] b' [ɓ] b [b] ch [ʧ] ch' [ʧ’] h [h]
e [e] ee [eː] ë [ə] j [x] k [k] k' [k’] l [l] m [m]
i [i] ii [iː] ï [ɪ] n [n] nh [ŋ] p [p] q [q] q' [q’]
o [o] oo [oː] ö [ʌ] r [r] s [s] t [t] t' [t’] tz [ʦ]
u [u] uu [uː] ü [ʊ] tz' [ʦ’] w [w] x [ʃ] y [j] ' [ʔ]
A B These vowels and signs are only used in Kaqchikel
For the languages that make a distinction between palato-alveolar and retroflex affricates and fricatives (Mam, Ixil, Tektitek, Awakatek, Q'anjob'al, Popti', and Akatek) the following set of conventions is applied.
ALMG convention for palato-alveolar and retroflex consonants ALMG IPA ALMG IPA
ch [ʧ] ch' [ʧ’]
tx [ʈʂ] tx' [ʈʂ’]
xh [ʃ] x [ʂ]
One element of the revised orthographies that is not widely accepted, especially outside the Guatemalan context, is the conversion of proper nouns (such as names of archaeological sites, modern settlements, and cultures). Thus, the Cordemex continues to use the term "Yucatan" (rather than "Yukatan") in its preface, despite the fact that its orthography does not utilize a "c", and most scholarly archaeological texts continue to print the original spellings for archaeological sites and cultures that have been canonized in the literature over the centuries.
[edit] Literature
Main article: Mesoamerican literature
From the Classic period to the present day, a body of literature has been written in Mayan languages. The earliest texts to have been preserved are largely monumental inscriptions documenting rulership, succession, and ascension, conquest and calendrical and astronomical events. It is likely that other kinds of literature were written in perishable media such as codices made of bark, only four of which have survived the ravages of time and the campaign of destruction by Spanish missionaries.[85]
Shortly after the Spanish conquest, the Mayan languages began to be written with Latin letters. Colonial-era literature in Mayan languages include the famous Popol Vuh, a mythico-historical narrative written in 17th-century Classical Quiché but believed to be based on an earlier work written in the 1550s, now lost. The Título de Totonicapán and the 17th century theatrical work the Rabinal Achí are other notable early works in K'iche', the latter in the Achí dialect.[86] The Annals of the Cakchiquels from the late 16th century, which provides a historical narrative of the Kaqchikel, contains elements paralleling some of the accounts appearing in the Popol Vuh. The historical and prophetical accounts in the several variations known collectively as the books of Chilam Balam are primary sources of early Yucatec Maya traditions.[87] The only surviving book of early lyric poetry, the Songs of Dzitbalche by Ah Bam, comes from this same period.[88]
In addition to these singular works, many early grammars of indigenous languages, called "artes", were written by priests and friars. Languages covered by these early grammars include Kaqchikel, Classical Quiché, Tzeltal, Tzotzil and Yucatec. Some of these came with indigenous-language translations of the Catholic catechism.[89]
Almost no literature in indigenous languages was written in the postcolonial period (i.e. after 1821) except by linguists and ethnologists gathering oral literature.[90] The Mayan peoples had remained largely illiterate in their native languages, learning to read and write in Spanish, if at all. However, since the establishment of the Cordemex (1980) and the Guatemalan Academy of Mayan Languages (1986), native language literacy has begun to spread and a number of indigenous writers have started a new tradition of writing in Mayan languages. Notable among this new generation is the K'iche' poet Humberto Ak'ab'al, whose works are often published in dual-language Spanish/K'iche' editions.[91]Western branch
[edit] Ch'olan
The Ch'olan languages were formerly widespread throughout the Maya area, but today the language with most speakers is Ch'ol, spoken by 130,000 in Chiapas.[26] Its closest relative, the Chontal Maya language,[27] is spoken by 55,000[28] in Tabasco state, Mexico. Another related language, now endangered, is Ch'orti', which is spoken by 30,000 in Guatemala.[29] It was previously also spoken in extreme western Honduras and El Salvador but the El Salvador variant is now extinct and that of Honduras is considered moribund. Ch'olti', a sister language of Ch'orti', is also extinct.
Ch'olan languages are believed to be the most conservative in vocabulary and phonology, and are closely related to the language of the Classic-era inscriptions found in Central Lowlands. They may have served as prestige languages, coexisting with other dialects in some areas. This assumption provides a plausible explanation for the geographical distance between the Ch'orti' zone and the areas where Ch'ol and Chontal are spoken.[30]
[edit] Tzeltalan
The closest relatives of the Ch'olan languages are the languages of the Tzeltalan branch, Tzotzil and Tzeltal, both spoken in Chiapas by large and stable or growing populations (265,000 for Tzotzil and 215,000 for Tzeltal).[31] Tzotzil and Tzeltal have large numbers of monolingual speakers.
[edit] Q'anjobalan
Q'anjob'al is spoken by 77,700 in the Huehuetenango Department of Guatemala,[32] with small populations elsewhere.[33] Jakaltek (also known as Popti'[34]) is spoken by almost 100,000 in several municipalities[35] of Huehuetenango. Another member of this branch is Akatek, with over 50,000 speakers in San Miguel Acatán and San Rafael La Independencia.
Chuj is spoken by 40,000 people in Huehuetenango district, and by 9,500 people, primarily refugees, over the border in Mexico, in the municipality of Trinitaria, Chiapas, and the villages of Tziscau and Cuauhtémoc Tojolab'al is spoken in eastern Chiapas by 36,000 people.[36]
[edit] Eastern branch
[edit] Quichean-Mamean
The Quichean-Mamean languages and dialects, with two sub-branches and three subfamilies, are spoken in the Guatemalan highlands.
Q'eqchi' (sometimes spelled Kekchi), which constitutes its own sub-branch within Quichean-Mamean, is spoken by about 400,000 people in the southern Petén and Alta Verapaz Departments of Guatemala, and also in Belize by 9,000 speakers. In El Salvador it is spoken by 12,000 as a result of recent migrations.[37]
The Uspantek language, which also springs directly from the Quichean-Mamean node, is native only to the Uspantán municipio in the department of El Quiché, and has 3,000 speakers, one of whom is the Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú.[38]
[edit] Mamean
The largest language in this branch is Mam, spoken by 150,000 people in the departments of San Marcos and Cuchumatanes. Awakatek is the language of 20,000 inhabitants of central Aguacatán, another municipality of Huehuetenango. Ixil is spoken by 18,000 in the "Ixil Triangle" region of the department of El Quiché.[39] Tektitek (or Teko) is spoken by over 1,000 people in the municipality of Tectitán, and 1,000 refugees in Mexico. According to the Ethnologue the number of speakers of Tektitek is growing.[40]
[edit] Core Quichean
K'iche',[41] the Mayan language with the largest number of speakers, is spoken by more than 2,000,000 people in the Guatemalan highlands, around the towns of Chichicastenango and Quetzaltenango and in the Cuchumatán mountains, as well as by urban emigrants in Guatemala City.[42] The famous Maya mythological document, Popol Vuh, is written in an antiquated K'iche' often called Classical Quiché. The K'iche' culture was at its pinnacle at the time of the Spanish conquest. Utatlán, near the present-day city of Santa Cruz del Quiché, was its economic and ceremonial center.[43]
Achi is spoken by 85,000 people in Cubulco and Rabinal, two municipios of Baja Verapaz. In some classifications, e.g. the one by Campbell, Achi is counted as a form of K'iche'. However, owing to a historical division between the two ethnic groups, the Achi Maya do not regard themselves as K'iche'.[44]
The Kaqchikel language is spoken by about 400,000 people in an area stretching from Guatemala City westward to the northern shore of Lake Atitlán.[45] Tz'utujil has about 90,000 speakers in the vicinity of Lake Atitlán.[46] Other members of the K'ichean branch are Sakapultek, spoken by somewhat fewer than 40,000 people mostly in El Quiché department, and Sipakapense, which is spoken by 8,000 people in Sipacapa, San Marcos. The Annals of the Cakchiquels, written in Kaqchikel, is an important literary work dating from the 16th century that traces the history of the ruling classes of the Kaqchikel people.
[edit] Poqom
The Poqom languages are closely related to Core Quichean, with which they constitute a Poqom-K'ichean sub-branch on the Quichean-Mamean node.[47]
Poqomchi' is spoken by 90,000 people[48] in Purulhá, Baja Verapaz, and in the following municipalities of Alta Verapaz: Santa Cruz Verapaz, San Cristóbal Verapaz, Tactic, Tamahú and Tucurú. Poqomam is spoken by around 30,000 people[49] in several small pockets, the largest of which is in the department of Alta Verapaz. Formerly Poqomam was also spoken in El Salvador.
[edit] Phonology
[edit] The Proto-Mayan sound system
Proto-Mayan (the common ancestor of the Mayan languages as reconstructed[50] using the comparative method) has a predominant CVC syllable structure, only allowing consonant clusters across syllable boundaries.[51] Most Proto-Mayan roots were monosyllabic except for a few disyllabic nominal roots. Due to subsequent vowel loss many Mayan languages now show complex consonant clusters at both ends of syllables. Following the reconstruction of Lyle Campbell and Terrence Kaufman, the Proto-Mayan language had the following sounds;[52] the sounds present in the modern languages are largely similar to this root set.
Proto-Mayan vowels Front Central Back
Short Long Short Long Short Long
High [i] [iː] [u] [uː]
Mid [e] [eː] [o] [oː]
Low [a] [aː]
Proto-Mayan consonants Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Plain Implosive Plain Ejective Plain Ejective Plain Ejective Plain Ejective Plain
Stops [p] [ɓ] [t] [t’] [tʲ] [tʲ’] [k] [k’] [q] [q’] [ʔ]
Affricates [ts] [ts’] [tʃ] [tʃ’]
Fricative [s] [ʃ] [χ] [h]
Nasals [m] [n] [ŋ]
Liquids [l] [r]
Glides [j] [w]
[edit] Phonological evolution of Proto-Mayan
Main article: Proto-Mayan
The classification of Mayan languages is based on changes shared between groups of languages. For example languages of the western group (such as Huastecan, Yucatecan and Ch'olan) all changed the Proto-Mayan phoneme */r/ into [j], some languages of the eastern branch retained [r] (K'ichean), and others changed it into [ʧ] or, word-finally, [t] (Mamean).[53] The shared innovations between Huastecan, Yucatecan and Ch'olan show that they separated from the other Mayan languages before the changes found in other branches had taken place.
Reflexes of Proto-Mayan *[r] in daughter languages Proto-Mayan Wastek Yucatec Mopan Tzeltal Chuj Q'anjob'al Mam Ixil K'iche' Kaqchikel Poqomam Q'eqchi'
*[raʔʃ]
"green" [jaʃ] [jaʔʃ] [jaʔaʃ] [jaʃ] [jaʔaʃ] [jaʃ] [ʧaʃ] [ʧaʔʃ] [raʃ] [rɐʃ] [raʃ] [raːʃ]
*[war]
"sleep" [waj] [waj] [wɐjn] [waj] [waj] [waj] [wit]
(Awakatek) [wat] [war] [war] [wɨr] [war]
The palatalized plosives ([tʲ’] and [tʲ] are not found in any of the modern families. Instead they are reflected differently in different branches, allowing a reconstruction of these phonemes as palatalized plosives. In the eastern branch (Chujean-Q'anjobalan and Ch'olan) they are reflected as [t] and [t’]. In Mamean they are reflected as [ʦ] and [ʦ’] and in Quichean as [ʧ] and [ʧ’]. Yucatec stands out from other western languages in that its palatalized plosives are sometimes changed into [ʧ] and sometimes [t].[54]
Reflexes of Proto-Mayan [tʲ’] and [tʲ][55] Proto-Mayan Yucatec Q'anjob'al Popti' Mam Ixil K'iche' Kaqchikel
*[tʲeːʔ]
"tree" [ʧeʔ] [teʔ] [teʔ] [ʦeːʔ] [ʦeʔ] [ʧeːʔ] [ʧeʔ]
*[tʲaʔŋ]
"ashes" [taʔn] [tan] [taŋ] [ʦaːx] [ʦaʔ] [ʧaːx] [ʧax]
The Proto-Mayan velar nasal *[ŋ] is reflected as [x] in the eastern branches (Quichean-Mamean), [n] in Q'anjobalan, Ch'olan and Yucatecan, [h] in Huastecan, and only conserved as [ŋ] in Chuj and Jakaltek.[56]
Reflexes of Proto-Mayan [ŋ][55] Proto-Mayan Yucatec Q'anjobal Jakaltek Ixil K'iche'
*[ŋeːh]
"tail" [neːh] [ne] [ŋe] [xeh] [xeːʔ]
[edit] Other innovations
The subgrouping of the Mayan family is based on shared linguistic innovations. Some phonological developments that have been used to establish the current classification are described here.
The divergent status of Huastecan is revealed by a number of innovations not shared by other groups. Huastecan is the only branch to have changed Proto-Mayan *[w] into [b]. Wastek (but not Chicomuceltec) is also the only Mayan language to have a phonemic labialized velar phoneme [kʷ]; however, this is known to be a postcolonial development: comparing colonial documents in Wastek to modern Wastek, it can be seen that instances of modern [kʷ] were originally sequences of *[k] followed by a rounded vowel and a glide. For example, the word for "vulture", which in modern Wastek is pronounced [kʷiːʃ], was written in colonial Wastek, and pronounced *[kuwiːʃ].
The grouping together of the Ch'olan and Yucatecan branches is partly based on the innovative change of short *[a] to [ɨ]. All Cholan languages have changed the Proto-Mayan long vowels *[eː] and *[oː] to [i] and [u] respectively. The independent status of Yucatecan is evident in that all Yucatecan languages shifted proto-Mayan *[t] to [ʧ] in word-final position.
Quichean-Mamean, and some Q'anjobalan languages, have retained Proto-Mayan uvular stops ([q] and [q’]); in all other branches these sounds merged with [k] and [k’], respectively. Thus the Quichean-Mamean grouping can be said to rest mostly on shared retentions rather than innovations.
Mamean is largely differentiated from K'ichean by a chain shift which changed *[r] into [t], *[t] into [ʧ], *[ʧ] into [ʈʂ] and *[ʃ] into [ʂ]. These retroflex affricates and fricatives later spread to Q'anjob'alan through language contact.[57]
Within the Quichean branch, Kaqchikel and Tz'utujil differ from Quichean proper in having changed a final Proto-Mayan *[w] and *[ɓ] into [j] and [ʔ] respectively in polysyllabic words.[58]
Some other changes are general throughout the Mayan family. For example, the Proto-Mayan glottal fricative *[h], which no language has retained as such, has numerous reflexes in the various daughter languages depending on its position within a word. In some cases it lengthened a preceding vowel in languages which retained vowel length. In other languages it became [w], [j], [ʔ], [x], or disappeared.[59]
Other sporadic innovations have occurred independently in several branches. For example distinctive vowel length has been lost in Q'anjobalan-Chujean (except for Mocho' and Akateko), Kaqchikel and Ch'olan. Other languages have transformed the length distinction into one of tense versus lax vowels, later losing the distinction in a majority of cases. However, Kaqchikel has preserved a centralized lax, schwa-like vowel as a reflex of Proto-Mayan [a].[60] Two languages, Yucatec and Uspantek, as well as one dialect of Tzotzil,[61] have introduced a tonal distinction in vowels, with high and low tones corresponding to former vowel length as well as reflecting *[h] and *[ʔ].
[edit] Grammar
The grammar of Mayan languages is simpler than that of other Mesoamerican languages,[62] yet its morphology is still considered agglutinating and polysynthetic.[63] Verbs are marked for aspect or tense, the person of the subject, the person of the object (in the case of transitive verbs), and for plurality of person. Possessed nouns are marked for person of possessor. There are no cases or genders in Mayan languages.
[edit] Word order
Proto-Mayan is thought to have had a basic Verb Object Subject word order with possibilities of switching to VSO in certain circumstances, such as complex sentences, sentences where object and subject were of equal animacy and when the subject was definite.[64] Today Yucatecan, Tzotzil and Tojolab'al have a basic fixed VOS word order. Mamean, Q'anjob'al, Jakaltek and one dialect of Chuj have a fixed VSO one. Only Ch'orti' has a basic SVO word order. Other Mayan languages allow both VSO and VOS word orders.
[edit] Numeral classifiers
When counting it is necessary to use numeral classifiers which specify the class of items being counted; the numeral cannot appear without an accompanying classifier. Class is usually assigned according to whether the object is animate or inanimate or according to an object's general shape.[65] Thus when counting "flat" objects, a different form of numeral classifier is used than when counting round things, oblong items or people. In some Mayan languages such as Chontal, classifiers take the form of affixes attached to the numeral; in others such as Tzeltal, they are free forms. In Jakaltek the classifiers can also be used as pronouns.
The meaning denoted by a noun may be altered significantly by changing the accompanying classifier. In Chontal, for example, when the classifier -tek is used with names of plants it is understood that the objects being enumerated are whole trees. If in this expression a different classifier, -ts'it (for counting long, slender objects) is substituted for -tek, this conveys the meaning that only sticks or branches of the tree are being counted:[66]
Semantic differences in numeral classifiers (from Chontal) untek wop (one-tree Jahuacte) "one jahuacte tree" unts'it wop (one-stick jahuacte) "one stick from a jahuacte tree"
un- tek wop un- ts'it wop
one- "plant" jahuacte tree one- "long.slender.object" jahuacte tree
[edit] Possession
The morphology of Mayan nouns is fairly simple: they inflect for number (plural or singular), and, when possessed, for person and number of their possessor.
Pronominal possession is expressed by a set of possessive prefixes attached to the noun, as in Kaqchikel ru-kej "his/her horse". Nouns may furthermore adopt a special form marking them as possessed.
For nominal possessors, the possessed noun is inflected as possessed by a third-person possessor, and followed by the possessor noun, e.g. Kaqchikel ru-kej ri achin "the man's horse" (literally "his horse the man"). This type of formation is a main diagnostic trait of the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area and recurs throughout Mesoamerica.[67]
Mayan languages often contrast alienable and inalienable possession by varying the way the noun is (or is not) marked as possessed. Jakaltek, for example, contrasts inalienably possessed wetʃel "my photo (in which I am depicted)" with alienably possessed wetʃele "my photo (taken by me)". The prefix we- marks the first person singular possessor in both, but the absence of the -e possessive suffix in the first form marks inalienable possession.[68]
[edit] Relational nouns
Mayan languages which have prepositions at all normally have only one. To express location and other relations between entities, use is made of a special class of "relational nouns" . This pattern is also recurrent throughout Mesoamerica and is another diagnostic trait of the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area. In Mayan most relational nouns are metaphorically derived from body parts so that "on top of," for example, is expressed by the word for head.[69]
Relational nouns are possessed by the constituent that is the reference point of the relation, and the relational noun names the relation. Thus in Mayan one would say "the mountain's head" (literally "its head the mountain") to mean "on (top of) the mountain". Thus in the Classical Quiché of the Popol Vuh we read u-wach ulew "on the earth" (literally "its face the earth").
[edit] Subjects and objects
Mayan languages are ergative in their alignment. This means that the subject of an intransitive verb is treated similarly to the object of a transitive verb, but differently from the subject of a transitive verb.
Mayan languages have two sets of affixes that are attached to a verb to indicate the person of its arguments. One set (often referred to in Mayan grammars as set A) indicates the person of subjects of intransitive verbs, and of objects of transitive verbs. They can also be used with adjective or noun predicates to indicate the subject.
Set A Usage Example Language of example Translation
Subject of an intransitive verb x-ix-ok Kaqchikel "You guys entered"
Object of a transitive verb x-ix-ru-chöp Kaqchikel "He/she took you guys"
Subject of an adjective predicate ix-samajel Kaqchikel "You guys are hard-working."
Subject of a noun predicate 'antz-ot
Tzotzil "You are a woman."
Another set (set B) is used to indicate the person of subjects of transitive verbs, and also the possessors of nouns (including relational nouns).[70]
Set B Usage Example Language of example Translation
Subject of a
transitive verb x-ix-ru-chöp Kaqchikel "He/she took you guys"
Possessive marker ru-kej ri achin Kaqchikel "the man’s horse" (literally: "his horse the man")
Relational marker u-wach ulew Classical Quiché "on the earth" (literally: "its face the earth", i.e. "face of the earth")
[edit] Verbs
In addition to subject and object (agent and patient), the Mayan verb has affixes signalling aspect, tense, and mood as in the following example:
Mayan verb structure Aspect/mood/tense Class A prefix Class B prefix Root Aspect/mood/voice Plural
k- in- a- ch'ay -o
Incompletive 1st person sg. Patient 2nd person sg. Agent hit Incompletive
(K'iche') kinach'ayo "You are hitting me"
Tense systems in Mayan languages are generally simple. Jakaltek, for example, contrasts only past and non-past, while Mam has only future and non-future. Aspect systems are normally more prominent. Mood does not normally form a separate system in Mayan, but is instead intertwined with the tense/aspect system.[71] Kaufman has reconstructed a tense/aspect/mood system for proto-Mayan that includes seven aspects: incompletive, progressive, completive/punctual, imperative, potential/future, optative, and perfective.[72]
Mayan languages tend to have a rich set of grammatical voices. Proto-Mayan had at least one passive construction as well as an antipassive rule for downplaying the importance of the agent in relation to the patient. Modern K'iche' has two antipassives: one which ascribes focus to the object and another that emphasizes the verbal action.[73] Other voice-related constructions occurring in Mayan languages are the following: mediopassive, incorporational (incorporating a direct object into the verb), instrumental (promoting the instrument to object position) and referential (a kind of applicative promoting an indirect argument such as a benefactive or recipient to the object position).[74]
[edit] Statives and positionals
In Mayan languages, words are usually viewed as belonging to one of four classes: verbs, statives, adjectives, and nouns.
Statives are a class of predicative words expressing a quality or state, whose syntactic properties fall in between those of verbs and adjectives in Indo-European languages. Like verbs, statives can sometimes be inflected for person but normally lack inflections for tense, aspect and other purely verbal categories. Statives can be adjectives, positionals or numerals.
Positionals, a word class characteristic of, if not unique to, the Mayan languages, are statives with meanings related to the position or shape of an object or person. Mayan languages have between 250 and 500 distinct positional roots:
Telan ay jun naq winaq yul b'e.
"There is a man lying down fallen on the road"
Woqan hin k'al ay max ek'k'u.
"I spent the entire day sitting down"
Yet ewi xoyan ay jun lob'aj stina.
"Yesterday there was a snake lying curled up in the entrance of the house"
In these three Q'anjob'al sentences,[75] the positionals are telan ("something large or cylindrical lying down as if having fallen"), woqan ("person sitting on a chairlike object"), and xoyan ("curled up like a rope or snake").
[edit] Word formation
Compounding of noun roots to form new nouns is commonplace; there are also many morphological processes to derive nouns from verbs. Verbs also admit highly productive derivational affixes of several kinds, most of which specify transitivity or voice.[76]
Some Mayan languages allow incorporation of noun stems into verbs, either as direct objects or in other functions. However, there are few affixes with adverbial or modal meanings.
As in other Mesoamerican languages, there is widespread metaphorical use of roots denoting body parts, particularly to form locatives and relational nouns (see below), e.g. Tzeltal/Tzotzil ti' na "door" (lit. "mouth of house"), or Kaqchikel chi ru-pam "inside" (lit. "mouth its-stomach").
[edit] Writing systems
A complex script, used to write Mayan languages in pre-Columbian times and known today from engravings at several Maya archaeological sites, has been deciphered almost completely. This was a mixed, partly logographic and partly syllabic writing system.[77]
In colonial times Mayan languages came to be written in a script derived from the Latin alphabet; orthographies were developed mostly by missionary grammarians.[78] Not all modern Mayan languages have standardized orthographies, but the Mayan languages of Guatemala use a standardized, Latin-based phonemic spelling system developed by the Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala (ALMG). Orthographies for the languages of Mexico are currently being developed by the Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas (INALI).
[edit] Glyphic writing
Main article: Maya script
The pre-Columbian Maya civilization developed and used an intricate and versatile writing system which is the only Mesoamerican script that can be said to be almost fully deciphered. Earlier-established civilizations to the west and north of the Maya homelands that also had scripts recorded in surviving inscriptions include the Zapotec, Olmec, and the Zoque-speaking peoples of the southern Veracruz and western Chiapas area - but their scripts are as yet largely undeciphered. It is generally agreed that the Maya writing system was adapted from one or more of these earlier systems, and a number of references identify the undeciphered Olmec script as its most likely precursor.[79]
In the course of the deciphering of the Maya hieroglyphic script it has become evident that it was a fully-functioning writing system in which it was possible to express any sentence of the spoken language unambiguously. The system is of a type best classified as logosyllabic,[80] in which symbols (glyphs or graphemes) can be used as either logograms or syllables.
The script has a complete syllabary (although not all possible syllables have yet been identified), and a Maya scribe would have been able to write anything out phonetically, syllable by syllable, using these symbols.[81] In practice however, almost all inscriptions of any length were written employing a combination of syllabic signs and word signs (called logograms).
Maya glyphs in stucco at the Museo de sitio in Palenque, MexicoAt least two major Mayan languages have been confidently identified in hieroglyphic texts, with at least one other language probably identified. An archaic language variety known as Classic Maya predominates in these texts, particularly in the Classic-era inscriptions of the southern and central lowland areas. This language is most closely related to the Ch'olan branch of the language family, modern descendants of which include Ch'ol, Ch'orti' and Chontal.
Inscriptions in an early Yucatecan language (the ancestor of the main surviving Yucatec language) have also been recognised or proposed, mainly in the Yucatán Peninsula region and from a later period. Three of the four extant Maya codices are based on Yucatec. It has also been surmised that some inscriptions found in the Chiapas highlands region may be in a Tzeltalan language whose modern descendants are Tzeltal and Tzotzil.[82] Other regional varieties and dialects are also presumed to have been used, but have not yet been identified with certainty.[83]
Use and knowledge of the Maya script continued until the 16th century Spanish conquest at least. Bishop Diego de Landa described the use of hieroglyphic writing in the religious practices of Yucatecan Maya, which he actively prohibited. De Landa and the Spanish colonizers of the Mayan area destroyed large numbers of codices written in hieroglyphs, effectively ending the Mesoamerican tradition of literacy in a native script.
[edit] Modern orthography
Since the colonial period, practically all Maya writing has used Latin characters. Formerly spelling was generally based on Spanish, and it is only recently that standardized orthographic conventions have started to arise. The first widely-accepted orthographic standards were set in Yucatec Maya by the authors and contributors of the Diccionario Maya Cordemex, a project directed by Alfredo Barrera Vasquez and first published in 1980.[84] Subsequently, the Guatemalan Academy of Mayan Languages (known by its Spanish acronym ALMG), founded in 1986, adapted these standards to the 21 Mayan languages of Guatemala.
ALMG orthography for the phonemes of Mayan languages Vowels Consonants
ALMG IPA ALMG IPA ALMG [A]IPA [B]ALMG IPA ALMG IPA ALMG IPA ALMG IPA ALMG IPA
a [a] aa [aː] ä [ɐ] b' [ɓ] b [b] ch [ʧ] ch' [ʧ’] h [h]
e [e] ee [eː] ë [ə] j [x] k [k] k' [k’] l [l] m [m]
i [i] ii [iː] ï [ɪ] n [n] nh [ŋ] p [p] q [q] q' [q’]
o [o] oo [oː] ö [ʌ] r [r] s [s] t [t] t' [t’] tz [ʦ]
u [u] uu [uː] ü [ʊ] tz' [ʦ’] w [w] x [ʃ] y [j] ' [ʔ]
A B These vowels and signs are only used in Kaqchikel
For the languages that make a distinction between palato-alveolar and retroflex affricates and fricatives (Mam, Ixil, Tektitek, Awakatek, Q'anjob'al, Popti', and Akatek) the following set of conventions is applied.
ALMG convention for palato-alveolar and retroflex consonants ALMG IPA ALMG IPA
ch [ʧ] ch' [ʧ’]
tx [ʈʂ] tx' [ʈʂ’]
xh [ʃ] x [ʂ]
One element of the revised orthographies that is not widely accepted, especially outside the Guatemalan context, is the conversion of proper nouns (such as names of archaeological sites, modern settlements, and cultures). Thus, the Cordemex continues to use the term "Yucatan" (rather than "Yukatan") in its preface, despite the fact that its orthography does not utilize a "c", and most scholarly archaeological texts continue to print the original spellings for archaeological sites and cultures that have been canonized in the literature over the centuries.
[edit] Literature
Main article: Mesoamerican literature
From the Classic period to the present day, a body of literature has been written in Mayan languages. The earliest texts to have been preserved are largely monumental inscriptions documenting rulership, succession, and ascension, conquest and calendrical and astronomical events. It is likely that other kinds of literature were written in perishable media such as codices made of bark, only four of which have survived the ravages of time and the campaign of destruction by Spanish missionaries.[85]
Shortly after the Spanish conquest, the Mayan languages began to be written with Latin letters. Colonial-era literature in Mayan languages include the famous Popol Vuh, a mythico-historical narrative written in 17th-century Classical Quiché but believed to be based on an earlier work written in the 1550s, now lost. The Título de Totonicapán and the 17th century theatrical work the Rabinal Achí are other notable early works in K'iche', the latter in the Achí dialect.[86] The Annals of the Cakchiquels from the late 16th century, which provides a historical narrative of the Kaqchikel, contains elements paralleling some of the accounts appearing in the Popol Vuh. The historical and prophetical accounts in the several variations known collectively as the books of Chilam Balam are primary sources of early Yucatec Maya traditions.[87] The only surviving book of early lyric poetry, the Songs of Dzitbalche by Ah Bam, comes from this same period.[88]
In addition to these singular works, many early grammars of indigenous languages, called "artes", were written by priests and friars. Languages covered by these early grammars include Kaqchikel, Classical Quiché, Tzeltal, Tzotzil and Yucatec. Some of these came with indigenous-language translations of the Catholic catechism.[89]
Almost no literature in indigenous languages was written in the postcolonial period (i.e. after 1821) except by linguists and ethnologists gathering oral literature.[90] The Mayan peoples had remained largely illiterate in their native languages, learning to read and write in Spanish, if at all. However, since the establishment of the Cordemex (1980) and the Guatemalan Academy of Mayan Languages (1986), native language literacy has begun to spread and a number of indigenous writers have started a new tradition of writing in Mayan languages. Notable among this new generation is the K'iche' poet Humberto Ak'ab'al, whose works are often published in dual-language Spanish/K'iche' editions.[91]Mayan languages are the descendants of a proto-language called Proto-Mayan or, in K'iche' Maya, Nab'ee Maya' Tzij ("the old Maya Language").[5] The Proto-Mayan language is believed to have been spoken in the Cuchumatanes highlands of central Guatemala in an area corresponding roughly to where Q'anjobalan is spoken today.[6] The first division occurred around 2200 BCE when Huastecan split away from Mayan Proper, its speakers having moved northwest along the Gulf Coast. Proto-Yucatecan and Proto-Ch'olan speakers subsequently split off from the main group and moved north into the Yucatán peninsula. Speakers of the western branch moved south into the areas now inhabited by Mamean and Quichean people. When speakers of proto-Tzeltalan later separated from the Ch'olan group and moved south into the Chiapas highlands, they came into contact with speakers of Mixe-Zoquean languages.
In the Archaic period (before 2000 BCE), a number of loanwords from Mixe-Zoquean languages seem to have entered the proto-Mayan language. This has led to hypotheses that the early Maya were dominated by speakers of Mixe-Zoquean languages, possibly the Olmec culture.[7] In the case of the Xinca and Lenca languages, on the other hand, Mayan languages are more often the source than the receiver of loanwords. This suggests a period of Mayan dominance over the Lencan and Xinca people, possibly during the Classic period (250-900 CE).[8]
Approximate migration routes and dates for various Mayan language families. The region shown as Proto-Mayan is now occupied by speakers of the Q'anjobalan branch (light blue in other figures).[9]The split between Proto-Yucatecan (in the north, that is, the Yucatán Peninsula) and Proto-Ch'olan (in the south, that is, the Chiapas highlands and Petén Basin) had already occurred by the Classic period, when the majority of extant Maya inscriptions were written. Both variants are attested in hieroglyphic inscriptions at the Maya sites of the time, and both are commonly referred to as "Classic Maya language."
During the Classic period all the major branches diversified into separate languages. However, the glyphic texts only record two varieties of Mayan, namely a Ch'olan variety found in texts written in the southern Maya area and the highlands, and a Yucatecan variety found in the texts from Yucatán peninsula.[10]
It has recently been suggested that the specific variety of Ch'olan found in the glyphic texts is best understood as "Classic Ch'olti'an", the ancestor language of modern Ch'orti' and Ch'olti'. This language is thought to have originated in western and south-central Petén Basin; it would have been used in the inscriptions and perhaps also spoken by the elites and priests.[11] The reason why only two linguistic varieties are found in the glyphic texts is probably that these served as prestige dialects throughout the Maya region; hieroglyphic texts would have been composed in the language of the elite.[12] Nevertheless, the common Mayan people must already have spoken a number of distinct languages by the Classic period.
During the Spanish colonization of Central America, all indigenous languages were eclipsed by Spanish which became the new prestige language. The Mayan languages were no exception, and their use in many important domains of society, including administration, religion and literature, came to an end. Yet the Maya area was more resistant to outside influence than others,[13] and perhaps for this reason many Maya communities retain a high percentage of monolingual speakers to this day. Nonetheless, the Maya area is now dominated by Spanish. While a number of Mayan languages are moribund or are considered endangered, others remain quite viable, with speakers across all age groups and native language use in all domains of society.[14]
As Maya archaeology advanced during the 20th century and nationalist and ethnic-pride-based ideologies spread, the Mayan-speaking peoples began to develop a shared ethnic identity as Maya, the heirs of the great Maya civilization.[15]
The word "Maya" was likely derived from the postclassical Yucatán city of Mayapan; its more restricted meaning in pre-colonial and colonial times points to an origin in a particular region of the Yucatán Peninsula. The broader meaning of "Maya" now current, while defined by linguistic relationships, is also used to refer to ethnic or cultural traits. Most Mayans identify themselves first and foremost with a particular ethnic group, e.g. as "Yucatec" or "K'iche'"; however, they also recognize a shared Mayan kinship.[16]
Language has been fundamental in defining the boundaries of that kinship.[17] Paradoxically perhaps, this pride in unity has led to an insistence on the separateness of different Mayan languages, some of which are so closely related that they could easily be referred to as dialects of a single language. However, given that the term "dialect" has been used by some with racialist overtones in the past, making a spurious distinction between Amerindian "dialects" and European "languages", the preferred usage in recent years has been to designate the linguistic varieties spoken by different ethnic group as separate languages.[18]
In Guatemala, matters such as developing standardized orthographies for the Mayan languages are governed by the Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala (ALMG; Guatemalan Academy of Mayan Languages) which was founded by Mayan organisations in 1986. Following the 1996 peace accords it has been gaining growing recognition as the regulatory authority on Mayan languages both among Mayan scholars and the Maya peoples themselves.
Maya mythology refers to the pre-Columbian Maya civilization's extensive polytheistic religious beliefs. These beliefs had most likely been long-established by the time the earliest-known distinctively Maya monuments had been built and inscriptions depicting their deities recorded, considerably pre-dating the 1st millennium BC[citation needed]. Over the succeeding millennia this intricate and multi-faceted system of beliefs was extended, varying to a degree between regions and time periods, but maintaining also an inherited tradition and customary observances. The Maya shared many traditions and rituals with the other civilizations and cultures in the Mesoamerican region, both preceding and contemporary societies, and in general the entire region formed an interrelated mosaic of belief systems and conceptions on the nature of the world and human existence. However, the various Maya peoples over time developed a unique and continuous set of traditions which are particularly associated with their societies, and their achievements.
Despite the ca. early 10th century "Terminal collapse", during which Maya monument construction and inscription recording effectively ceased over large areas and many centers were subsequently abandoned, the Maya peoples themselves endured and continued to maintain their assorted beliefs and traditions. The maintenance of these traditions can be seen in the relics and products of those centers which flourished during the Post-Classic phase, such as in the northern Yucatán Peninsula, occasionally combined with other influences more characteristic of the Gulf coast and central Mexican regions. Although the southern lowland and highland Maya regions of present-day Guatemala saw very little further monument building during this period, the maintenance of traditional beliefs among the local Maya is attested by the accounts and reports of the 16th and 17th century Spanish.
During and after the Spanish conquest, the stories and traditions of the Maya continued to be handed down to succeeding generations, albeit much influenced and restricted by the influx of European practices and beliefs, Roman Catholicism in particular. Many Maya have experienced considerable persecution for their beliefs and political oppression over the centuries since the first European arrivals; although there can be no doubt that Maya society and tradition has undergone substantial change, many Maya people today maintain an identity which is very much informed by their collective history, traditions and beliefs– a heritage which is distinctively Maya even where substantially combined with the widespread adoption of Christianity.
Apart from epigraphic inscriptions on monuments (which deal primarily with commemorations and dynastic successions), only three complete Maya texts and a fragment of a fourth have survived through the years. The majority of the Maya codices were burned by Europeans like Bishop Diego de Landa during their conquest of Mesoamerica and subsequent efforts to convert the Maya peoples to Christianity. Available knowledge of Maya mythology, as such, is rather limited. What is known is drawn largely from 16th - 17th century accounts of post-conquest Maya beliefs and traditions, which do not necessarily correspond with the traditions which were maintained in earlier times.each of the cardinal (or world-) directions were ascribed certain properties and associations. These attributes held a particular significance, and they provided one of the major frameworks which interlinked much of Maya religion and cosmology. The Maya world-view recognized the four primary compass directions, and each of these was consistently associated with a particular color— east with red, north with white, west with black and south with yellow. These associations and their respective glyphs are attested from at least the Early Classic period, and also figure markedly in the Postclassic Maya codices.[1]
A fifth 'direction', the "center", also formed a part of this scheme. Associated with a blue-green color, this was most frequently represented by a great ceiba tree, conceptualized as the "world tree" or "tree of life". In Maya cosmology this formed a kind of axis mundi which connected the Earth's center with the layers of both the underworld and the heavens. It is believed that living ceiba trees were maintained at the center of many pre-Columbian Maya settlements in symbolic representation of this connection, and possibly one was placed at each of the four cardinal directions as well.[2]
Maya deities each displayed different aspects based on these five directions as well as a number of other natural and symbolic cycles observed by the Maya.
Maya deities also had dualistic natures associating them with day or night, life or death. There were thirteen gods of the thirteen heavens of the Maya religion and nine gods of the nine underworlds. Between the upperworlds of the heavens and the underworlds of the night and death was the earthly plane which is often shown in Maya art as a two-headed caiman or a turtle lying in a great lake. Natural elements, stars and planets, numbers, crops, days of the calendar and periods of time all had their own gods. The gods' characters, malevolence or benevolence, and associations changed according to the days in the Maya calendar or the positions of the sun, moon, Venus, and the stars.
The Quiché Maya creation story is outlined in the Popol Vuh. This has the world created from nothing by the will of the Maya pantheon of gods. Man was made unsuccessfully out of mud and then wood before being made out of maize and being assigned tasks which praised the gods — silversmith, gem cutter, stone carver, potter, etc. Some argue this story adds credence to the belief that the Maya did not believe in art per se; all of their works were for the exaultation of the gods.
After the creation story, the Popol Vuh tells of the struggles of the legendary hero twins, Hunahpu and Ixbalanque, in defeating the lords of Xibalba, the underworld. The twins descend into the underworld, perish, and are eventually miraculously reborn. This myth provides a metaphor for the agricultural cycle and the annual rebirth of the crops. These two stories are focal points of Maya mythology and often found depicted in Maya art.
[edit] The Creation Story
In Maya mythology, Tepeu and Gucumatz (also known as Kukulkan, and as the Aztec's Quetzalcoatl) are referred to as the Creators, the Makers, and the Forefathers. They were two of the first beings to exist and were said to be as wise as sages. Huracan, or the Heart of Heaven, also existed and is given less personification. He acts more like a storm, of which he is the god.
Tepeu and Gucumatz hold a conference and decide that, in order to preserve their legacy, they must create a race of beings who can worship them. Huracan does the actual creating while Tepeu and Gucumatz guide the process. Earth is created, but the gods make several false starts in setting humanity upon the earth. Animals were created first; however, with all of their howling and squawking they did not worship their creators and were thus banished forever to the forest. Man is created first of mud, but they just dissolved and crumbled away. Other gods are summoned and man is next created of wood but has no soul, and they soon forgot their makers, so the gods turned all of their possessions against them and bring a black resinous rain down on their heads. Finally man is formed of masa or corn dough by even more gods and their work is complete. As such, the Maya believed that maize was not just the cornerstone of their diet, but they were also made out of it.
[edit] Notable Gods
See also List of Maya gods and supernatural beings
PV=Popol Vuh, L=Landa
Ah Puch - God of Death
Bacab - Aged thunder deity carrying the earth and/or sky (L).
Chaac - God of Rain and Thunder
Camazotz - Bat god, tries to kill the Hero Twins (PV).
Gucumatz - Snake god and creator (PV).
Hunahpu - One of the Maya Hero Twins (PV).
Huracan - Storm and fire god, one of the creator deities (PV).
Ixbalanque - One of the Maya Hero Twins (PV).
Ixchel - Aged jaguar goddess of midwifery (L).
Ixtab - Goddess of suicide (L).
Zipacna - Underworld demon (PV).
[edit] Bacabs
The Bacabs were four brothers, the sons of Itzamna and Ixchel. A creator god placed these skybearers at the four corners of the universe. Because each stands at one of the four cardinal directions, each is associated with a color and with a specific segment in the Maya calendar.
Hobnil (later replaced by Chaac) - bacab of the east, is assigned the color red and the Kan years.
Can Tzicnal - bacab of the north, is assigned the color white, and the Muluc years.
Zac Cimi - bacab of the west, is assigned the color black and the Ix years.
Hozanek - bacab of the south, is assigned the color yellow and the Cauac years.
References to the Bacabs are found in the writings of sixteenth-century historian Diego de Landa and the various Maya histories known as the Chilam Balams. At some point, the brothers became associated with the figure of Chac, a Maya rain god. In the Yucatán, the Maya of Chan Kom referred to the four skybearers as the four Chacs. They were also believed to be jaguar gods, and are associated with beekeeping. Like many other deities, the Bacabs were important in divination ceremonies, being approached with questions about crops, weather or the health of bees. Their counterparts among the Huaxtecs were also thunder gods.
[edit] The First Humans
[edit] The Men
B'alam Agab
Meaning "night jaguar," he was the second of the men created from maize after the Great Flood sent by Hurakan. He married Choimha.
B'alam Quitze
Meaning "jaguar with the sweet smile," was the first of the men created from maize after the Great Flood sent by Hurakan. The gods created Caha-Paluma specifically for him to marry. Alternative names: Balam Quitze, Balam Quitzé
Iqi B'alam
Meaning "moon jaguar," he was the third of the men created from maize after the Great Flood sent by Hurakan. The gods created Cakixia specifically to be his wife.
Mahucatah
Meaning "distinguished name," he was the fourth of the men created from maize after the Great Flood sent by Hurakan. The woman Tzununiha was created just for him.
[edit] Their Wives
Caha-Paluma
Meaning "falling water," she was a woman created specifically to be the wife of Balam-Quitzé.
Cakixia
Meaning "water of parrots," she was a woman created specifically to be the wife of Iqi-Balam.
Choimha
Meaning "beautiful water", she was a woman created by the gods specifically to marry B'alam Agab.
Tzununiha
Meaning "house of the water," she was a woman created specifically to be the wife of one of the first men, Mahucatah.
[edit] Locations
Metnal
The lowest and most horrible of the nine hells of the underworld. It was ruled by Ah Puch. Ritual healers would intone healing prayers banishing diseases to Metnal.
Xibalba
Also known as Xibalbá or Xibalbay, is a dangerous underworld ruled by the demons Vucub Caquix and Hun Came. The road to it is said to be steep, thorny and very forbidding. Much of the Popol Vuh describes the adventures of the Maya Hero Twins in their struggle with the evil lords of Xibalba. The most important of these calendars is one with a period of 260 days. This 260-day calendar was prevalent across all Mesoamerican societies, and is of great antiquity (almost certainly the oldest of the calendars). It is still used in some regions of Oaxaca, and amongst the Maya communities of the Guatemalan highlands. The Maya version is commonly known to scholars as the Tzolkin, or Tzolk'in in the revised orthography of the Academia de las Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala[2]. The Tzolk'in combined with another 365-day calendar (known as the Haab, or Haab' ), to form a synchronised cycle lasting for 52 Haabs, called the Calendar Round. Smaller cycles of 13 days (the trecena) and 20 days (the veintena) were important components of the Tzolk'in and Haab' cycles, respectively.
A different form of calendar was used to track longer periods of time, and for the inscription of calendar dates (i.e., identifying when one event occurred in relation to others). This form, known as the Long Count, is based upon the number of elapsed days since a mythical starting point, and was capable of being extended to refer to any date far into the future. This calendar involved the use of a positional notation system, in which each position signified an increasing multiple of the number of days. The Maya numeral system was essentially vigesimal (i.e., base-20), and each unit of a given position represented 20 times the unit of the position which preceded it. An important exception was made for the second place value, which instead represented 18 × 20, or 360 days, more closely approximating the solar year than would 20 × 20 = 400 days. It should be noted however that the cycles of the Long Count are independent of the solar year.
Many Maya Long Count inscriptions are supplemented by what is known as the Lunar Series, another calendar form which provides information on the lunar phase and position of the Moon in a half-yearly cycle of lunations.
A 584-day Venus cycle was also maintained, which tracked the appearance and conjunctions of Venus as the morning and evening stars. Many events in this cycle were seen as being inauspicious and baleful, and occasionally warfare was timed (using electional astrology) to coincide with stages in this cycle.
Other, less-prevalent or poorly-understood cycles, combinations and calendar progressions were also tracked. An 819-day count is attested in a few inscriptions; repeating sets of 9- and 13-day intervals associated with different groups of deities, animals and other significant concepts are also known.
[edit] Maya concepts of time
With the development of the place-notational Long Count calendar (believed to have been inherited from other Mesoamerican cultures), the Maya had an elegant system with which events could be recorded in a linear relationship to one another, and also with respect to the calendar ("linear time") itself. In theory, this system could readily be extended to delineate any length of time desired, by simply adding to the number of higher-order place markers used (and thereby generating an ever-increasing sequence of day-multiples, each day in the sequence uniquely identified by its Long Count number). In practice, most Maya Long Count inscriptions confine themselves to noting only the first 5 coefficients in this system (a b'ak'tun-count), since this was more than adequate to express any historical or current date (with an equivalent span of approximately 5125 solar years). Even so, example inscriptions exist which noted or implied lengthier sequences, indicating that the Maya well understood a linear (past-present-future) conception of time. However, and in common with other Mesoamerican societies, the repetition of the various calendric cycles, the natural cycles of observable phenomena, and the recurrence and renewal of death-rebirth imagery in their mythological traditions were important and pervasive influences upon Maya societies. This conceptual view, in which the "cyclical nature" of time is highlighted, was a pre-eminent one, and many rituals were concerned with the completion and re-occurrences of various cycles. As the particular calendaric configurations were once again repeated, so too were the "supernatural" influences with which they were associated. Thus it was held that particular calendar configurations had a specific "character" to them, which would influence events on days exhibiting that configuration. Divinations could then be made from the auguries associated with a certain configuration, since events taking place on some future date would be subject to the same influences as its corresponding previous cycle dates. Events and ceremonies would be timed to coincide with auspicious dates, and avoid inauspicious ones (Coe 1992, Miller and Taube 1993).
The completion of significant calendar cycles ("period endings"), such as a k'atun-cycle, were often marked by the erection and dedication of specific monuments such as twin-pyramid complexes such those in Tikal and Yaxha, but (mostly in stela inscriptions) commemorating the completion, accompanied by dedicatory ceremonies.
A cyclical interpretation is also noted in Maya creation accounts, in which the present world and the humans in it were preceded by other worlds (one to five others, depending on the tradition) which were fashioned in various forms by the gods, but subsequently destroyed. The present world also had a tenuous existence, requiring the supplication and offerings of periodic sacrifice to maintain the balance of continuing existence. Similar themes are found in the creation accounts of other Mesoamerican societies (Miller and Taube, 1993:68-71).
[edit] Tzolk'in
Main article: Tzolk'in
Mayanists have bestowed the name Tzolk'in (in modern Mayan orthography; also and formerly commonly written tzolkin) on the Maya version of the Mesoamerican 260-day calendar. The word was coined based on the Yukatek Maya language, with an intended meaning of "count of days" (Coe 1992). The actual names of this calendar as used by the pre-Columbian Maya peoples are not known. The Aztec calendar equivalent was called by them Tonalpohualli, in the Nahuatl language.
The Tzolk'in calendar combines twenty day names with the thirteen numbers of the trecena cycle to produce 260 unique days. It was used to determine the time of religious and ceremonial events and for divination. Each successive day was numbered from 1 up to 13 and then starting again at 1. Separately from this, each day was given a name in sequence from a list of 20 day names:
Tzolk'in calendar: named days and associated glyphs Seq.
No. 1 Day
Name 2 Glyph
example 3 16th C.
Yucatec 4 reconstructed
Classic Maya 5 Seq.
No. 1 Day
Name 2 Glyph
example 3 16th C.
Yucatec 4 reconstructed
Classic Maya 5
01 Imix' Imix Imix (?) / Ha' (?) 11 Chuwen Chuen (unknown)
02 Ik' Ik Ik' 12 Eb' Eb (unknown)
03 Ak'b'al Akbal Ak'b'al (?) 13 B'en Ben (unknown)
04 K'an Kan K'an (?) 14 Ix Ix Hix (?)
05 Chikchan Chicchan (unknown) 15 Men Men (unknown)
06 Kimi Cimi Cham (?) 16 K'ib' Cib (unknown)
07 Manik' Manik Manich' (?) 17 Kab'an Caban Chab' (?)
08 Lamat Lamat Ek' (?) 18 Etz'nab' Etznab (unknown)
09 Muluk Muluc (unknown) 19 Kawak Cauac (unknown)
10 Ok Oc (unknown) 20 Ajaw Ahau Ajaw
NOTES:
The sequence number of the named day in the Tzolk'in calendar
Day name, in the standardised and revised orthography of the Guatemalan Academia de Lenguas Mayas[2]
An example glyph (logogram) for the named day. Note that for most of these several different forms are recorded; the ones shown here are typical of carved monumental inscriptions (these are "cartouche" versions)
Day name, as recorded from 16th century Yukatek Maya accounts, principally Diego de Landa; this orthography has (until recently) been widely used
In most cases, the actual day name as spoken in the time of the Classic Period (c. 200–900) when most inscriptions were made is not known. The versions given here (in Classic Maya, the main language of the inscriptions) are reconstructed based on phonological evidence, if available; a '?' symbol indicates the reconstruction is tentative.[3]
The system started with 1 Imix', which was followed by 2 Ik', 3 Ak'b'al and so on up to 13 B'en. The trecena day numbers then started again at 1 while the named-day sequence continued onwards, and so the next entries in the combined sequence were 1 Ix, 2 Men, 3 K'ib', 4 Kab'an, 5 Etz'nab', 6 Kawak, then 7 Ajaw. With all twenty named days used, these now began to repeat the cycle while the numbered portion continued, so the next day after 7 Ajaw was 8 Imix'. The repetition of these interlocking 13- and 20-day cycles therefore took 260 days to complete (that is, for every possible combination of number/named day to occur once).
[edit] Divination
The Maya believed that each day of the Tzolk'in had a character that influenced events; in some regions these beliefs are still current. A Mayan shaman-priest, whose name meant "day keeper", read the Tzolk'in to predict the future. When a child is born, the day keeper interprets the Tzolk'in cycle to predict the baby’s destiny (similarly done today with the natal chart). For example, a child born on the day of Ak'b'al is thought to be feminine, wealthy, and verbally skillful. The birthday of Ak'b'al (along with several other days) is also thought to give the child the ability to receive messages with the supernatural world through somatic twitches of "blood lightning", so he or she might become a shaman-priest or a marriage spokesman.
[edit] Origin of the Tzolk'in
The exact origin of the Tzolk'in is not known, but there are several theories. One theory is that the calendar came from mathematical operations based on the numbers thirteen and twenty, which were important numbers to the Maya. The number twenty was the basis of the Maya counting system, taken from the number of human fingers and toes. (See Maya numerals). Thirteen symbolized the number of levels in the Upperworld where the gods lived, and the number of "major joints" on the human body (three per limb, plus the neck). The numbers multiplied together equal 260. Another theory is that the 260-day period came from the length of human pregnancy. This is close to the average number of days between the first missed menstrual period and birth, unlike Naegele's rule which is 40 weeks (280 days) between the last menstrual period and birth. It is postulated that midwives originally developed the calendar to predict babies' expected birth dates.
[edit] Haab'
Main article: Haab'
The Haab' was the Maya solar calendar made up of eighteen months of twenty days each plus a period of five days ("nameless days") at the end of the year known as Wayeb' (or Uayeb in 16th C. orthography). Bricker (1982) estimates that the Haab' was first used around 550 BCE with the starting point of the winter solstice.
The Haab' month names are known today by their corresponding names in colonial-era Yukatek Maya, as transcribed by 16th century sources (in particular, Diego de Landa and books such as the Chilam Balam of Chumayel). Phonemic analyses of Haab' glyph names in pre-Columbian Maya inscriptions have demonstrated that the names for these twenty-day periods varied considerably from region to region and from period to period, reflecting differences in the base language(s) and usage in the Classic and Postclassic eras predating their recording by Spanish sources.[4]
In sequence, these Haab' month names (in modern and revised orthography of their Yukatek forms)[5] are as follows:
Haab' Months Name Meaning†
Pop mat
Wo black conjunction
Sip red conjunction
Sotz' bat
Sek ?
Xul dog
Yaxk'in new sun
Mol water
Ch'en black storm
Yax green storm
Sac white storm
Keh red storm
Mak enclosed
K'ank'in yellow sun
Muwan owl
Pax planting time
K'ayab' turtle
Kumk'u granary
Wayeb' five unlucky days
† Jones 1984
Each day in the Haab' calendar was identified by a day number within the month followed by the name of the month. Day numbers began with a glyph translated as the "seating of" a named month, which is usually regarded as day 0 of that month, although a minority treat it as day 20 of the month preceding the named month. In the latter case, the seating of Pop is day 5 of Wayeb'. For the majority, the first day of the year was 0 Pop (the seating of Pop). This was followed by 1 Pop, 2 Pop ... 19 Pop, 0 Wo, 1 Wo and so on.
As a calendar for keeping track of the seasons, the Haab' was crude and inaccurate, since it treated the year as having 365 days, and ignored the extra quarter day (approximately) in the actual tropical year. This meant that the seasons moved with respect to the calendar year by a quarter day each year, so that the calendar months named after particular seasons no longer corresponded to these seasons after a few centuries. The Haab' is equivalent to the wandering 365-day year of the ancient Egyptians. Some argue that the Maya knew about and compensated for the quarter day error, even though their calendar did not include anything comparable to a leap year, a method first implemented by the Romans.
[edit] Wayeb'
The five nameless days at the end of the calendar called Wayeb' were thought to be a dangerous time. Foster (2002) writes "During Wayeb, portals between the mortal realm and the Underworld dissolved. No boundaries prevented the ill-intending deities from causing disasters." To ward off these evil spirits, the Maya had customs and rituals they practiced during Wayeb'. For example, people avoided leaving their houses or washing or combing their hair.
[edit] Calendar Round
Neither the Tzolk'in nor the Haab' system numbered the years. The combination of a Tzolk'in date and a Haab' date was enough to identify a date to most people's satisfaction, as such a combination did not occur again for another 52 years, above general life expectancy.
Because the two calendars were based on 260 days and 365 days respectively, the whole cycle would repeat itself every 52 Haab' years exactly. This period was known as a Calendar Round. The end of the Calendar Round was a period of unrest and bad luck among the Maya, as they waited in expectation to see if the gods would grant them another cycle of 52 years.
[edit] Long Count
Detail showing three columns of glyphs from 2nd century CE La Mojarra Stela 1. The left column gives a Long Count date of 8.5.16.9.9, or 156 CE. The two right columns are glyphs from the Epi-Olmec script.Main article: Mesoamerican Long Count calendar
Since Calendar Round dates can only distinguish within 18,980 days, equivalent to around 52 solar years, the cycle repeats roughly once each lifetime, and thus, a more refined method of dating was needed if history was to be recorded accurately. To measure dates, therefore, over periods longer than 52 years, Mesoamericans devised the Long Count calendar.
The Long Count calendar identifies a date by counting the number of days from August 11, 3114 BCE. According to the Maya, there will be a baktun ending in 2012, a significant event being the end of the 13th 400 year period, but not the end of the world. However, instead of using a base-10 scheme like Western numbering, the Long Count days were tallied in a modified base-20 scheme. Thus 0.0.0.1.5 is equal to 25, and 0.0.0.2.0 is equal to 40. The Long Count is not consistently base-20, however, since the second digit (from the right) only counts to 18 before resetting to zero. Thus 0.0.1.0.0 does not represent 400 days, but rather only 360 days.
The Mayan name for a day was k'in. Twenty of these k'ins are known as a winal or uinal. Eighteen winals make one tun. Twenty tuns are known as a k'atun. Twenty k'atuns make a b'ak'tun.
Table of Long Count units Days Long Count period Long Count period Approx solar years
1 = 1 K'in
20 = 20 K'in = 1 Winal 1/18th
360 = 18 Winal = 1 Tun 1
7,200 = 20 Tun = 1 K'atun 20
144,000 = 20 K'atun = 1 B'ak'tun 395
There are also four rarely-used higher-order cycles: piktun, kalabtun, k'inchiltun, and alautun.
Since the Long Count dates are unambiguous, the Long Count was particularly well suited to use on monuments. The monumental inscriptions would not only include the 5 digits of the Long Count, but would also include the two tzolk'in characters followed by the two haab' characters.
[edit] Venus Cycle
Main article: Transits of Venus
Another important calendar for the Maya was the Venus cycle. The Maya were skilled astronomers, and could calculate the Venus cycle with extreme accuracy. There are six pages in the Dresden Codex (one of the Maya codices) devoted to the accurate calculation of the location of Venus. The Maya were able to achieve such accuracy by careful observation over many years. The Venus cycle was especially important because the Maya believed it was associated with war and used it to divine good times (called electional astrology) for coronations and war. Maya rulers planned for wars to begin when Venus rose. The Maya also possibly tracked other planets’ movements, including those of Mars, Mercury, and Jupiter.[edit] Urban design
As Maya cities spread throughout the varied geography of Mesoamerica, the extent of site planning appears to have been minimal; their cities having been built somewhat haphazardly as dictated by the topography of each independent location, Maya architecture tends to integrate a great degree of natural features. For instance, some cities existing on the flat limestone plains of the northern Yucatan grew into great sprawling municipalities, while others built in the hills of Usumacinta utilized the natural loft of the topography to raise their towers and temples to impressive heights. However, some semblance of order, as required by any large city, still prevailed.
At the onset of large-scale construction, a predetermined axis was typically established in congruence with the cardinal directions. Depending upon the location and availability of natural resources such as fresh-water wells, or cenotes, the city grew by connecting great plazas with the numerous platforms that created the sub-structure for nearly all Maya buildings, by means of sacbeob causeways. As more structures were added and existing structures re-built or remodeled, the great Maya cities seemed to take on an almost random identity that contrasts sharply with other great Mesoamerican cities such as Teotihuacan and its rigid grid-like construction.
At the heart of the Maya city existed the large plazas surrounded by their most valued governmental and religious buildings such as the royal acropolis, great pyramid temples and occasionally ball-courts. Though city layouts evolved as nature dictated, careful attention was placed on the directional orientation of temples and observatories so that they were constructed in accordance with Maya interpretation of the orbits of the stars. Immediately outside of this ritual center were the structures of lesser nobles, smaller temples, and individual shrines: the less sacred and less important structures had a greater degree of privacy. Outside of the constantly evolving urban core were the less permanent and more modest homes of the common people.
Classic Era Maya urban design could easily be described as the division of space by great monuments and causeways. In this case, the open public plazas were the gathering places for the people and the focus of the urban design, while interior space was entirely secondary. Only in the Late Post-Classic era did the great Maya cities develop into more fortress-like defensive structures that lacked, for the most part, the large and numerous plazas of the Classic.
[edit] Building materials
A surprising aspect of the great Maya structures is their lack of many advanced technologies that would seem to be necessary for such constructions. Lacking metal tools, pulleys and maybe even the wheel, Maya architecture required one thing in abundance: manpower. Yet, beyond this enormous requirement, the remaining materials seem to have been readily available. All stone for Maya structures appears to have been taken from local quarries. They most often utilized limestone, which remained pliable enough to be worked with stone tools while being quarried, and only hardened once removed from its bed. In addition to the structural use of limestone, much of their mortar consisted of crushed, burnt, and mixed limestone that mimicked the properties of cement and was used just as widely for stucco finishing as it was for mortar. However, later improvements in quarrying techniques reduced the necessity for this limestone-stucco as their stones began to fit quite perfectly, yet it remained a crucial element in some post and lintel roofs. In the case of the common homes, wooden poles, adobe, and thatch were the primary materials; however, instances of what appear to be common houses of limestone have been discovered as well. It should be noted that one instance, in the city of Comalcalco, fired-clay bricks have been found as a substitute to stone because of a lack of substantial stone deposits. The cement was made by limestone that was in the stove for 10-50 minutes.
[edit] Building process
All evidence seems to suggest that most stone buildings existed on top of a platform sub-structure that varied in height from less than a meter, in the case of terraces and smaller structures, to 45 meters in the case of great temples and pyramids. A flight of often steep stone steps split the large stepped platforms on at least one side, contributing to the common bi-symmetrical appearance of Maya architecture. Depending on the prevalent stylistic tendencies of an area, these platforms most often were built of a cut and stucco stone exterior filled with densely packed gravel. As is the case with many other Maya relief, those on the platforms often were related to the intended purpose of the residing structure. Thus, as the sub-structural platforms were completed, the grand residences and temples of the Maya were constructed on the solid foundations of the platforms. As all structures were built, little attention seems to have been given to their utilitarian functionality and much to their external aesthetics; however, a certain repeated aspect, the corbeled arch, was often utilized to mimic the appearance and feel of the simple Maya hut. Though not an effective tool to increase interior space, as it required thick stone walls to support the high ceiling, some temples utilized repeated arches, or a corbeled vault, to construct what the Maya referred to as pibnal, or sweatbath, such as those in the Temple of the Cross at Palenque. As structures were completed, typically extensive relief work was added ... often simply to the covering of stucco used to smooth any imperfections; however, many lintel carvings have been discovered, as well as actual stone carvings used as a facade. Commonly, these would continue uninterrupted around an entire structure and contain a variety of artwork pertaining to the inhabitants or purpose of a building. Though not the case in all Maya locations, broad use of painted stucco has been discovered as well.
It has been suggested that, in conjunction to the Maya Long Count Calendar, every fifty-two years, or cycle, temples and pyramids were remodeled and rebuilt. It appears now that the rebuilding process was often instigated by a new ruler or for political matters, as opposed to matching the calendar cycle. However, the process of rebuilding on top of old structures is indeed a common one. Most notably, the North Acropolis at Tikal seems to be the sum total of 1,500 years of architectural modifications.
[edit] Notable constructions
[edit] Ceremonial platforms
These were commonly limestone platforms of typically less than four meters in height where public ceremonies and religious rites were performed. Constructed in the fashion of a typical foundation platform, these were often accented by carved figures, altars and perhaps tzompantli, a stake used to display the heads of victims or defeated Mesoamerican ballgame opponents.
[edit] Palaces
Large and often highly decorated, the palaces usually sat close to the center of a city and housed the population's elite. Any exceedingly large royal palace, or one consisting of many chambers on different levels might be referred to as an acropolis. However, often these were one-story and consisted of many small chambers and typically at least one interior courtyard; these structures appear to take into account the needed functionality required of a residence, as well as the decoration required for their inhabitants stature. Archaeologists seem to agree that many palaces are home to various tombs. At Copán, beneath over four-hundred years of later remodeling, a tomb for one of the ancient rulers has been discovered and the North Acropolis at Tikal appears to have been the site of numerous burials during the Terminal Pre-classic and Early Classic periods.
[edit] E-groups
"E-group" is a classification given by Mayanists to certain structure complexes present at quite a number of Maya sites located in the central and southern Maya lowlands (e.g., the Petén region). Complexes of this type consist of a stepped pyramid main structure, which appears without fail on the western side of a quadrilateral plaza or platform. A raised but rather elongated structure appears along the eastern side of the plaza, running north-south; a variation has three smaller temple mounds on top of or replacing this platform, the middle of these substructures placed directly opposite the main structure. Often, two other subsidiary structures appear on the north and south sides of the plaza, respectively. The main western structure is typically terraced (i.e. has several levels), with inset stairways on each of its four sides, with only the eastern stairway (i.e. the one leading from the plaza) providing access to the summit. The stairways have large balustrades which protrude from the pyramid, which were decorated with large stucco masks and panels of architectural art. In other examples (believed to be of a later date) this quadripartite stairway configuration is lacking.
It has been theorized that these E-groups are observatories due to the precise positioning of the sun through the small temples when viewed from the pyramid during the solstices and equinoxes. Other ideas seem to stem from the possible creation story told by the relief and artwork that adorns these structures.
E-group complexes are named after their prototypical example, Structure E-VII-sub at the site of Uaxactun. They were first identified as a meaningful complex by archaeologist Frans Blom in 1924, who excavated the site under the auspices of the Carnegie Institute.
[edit] Pyramids and temples
Maya pyramid at Tikal with prominent roof combOften the most important religious temples sat atop the towering Maya pyramids, presumably as the closest place to the heavens. While recent discoveries point toward the extensive use of pyramids as tombs, the temples themselves seem to rarely, if ever, contain burials. Residing atop the pyramids, some of over two-hundred feet, such as that at El Mirador, the temples were impressive and decorated structures themselves. Commonly topped with a roof comb, or superficial grandiose wall, these temples might have served as a type of propaganda. As occasionally the only structure to exceed the height of the jungle, the roof combs atop the temples were often carved with representations of rulers that could be seen from vast distances. Beneath the proud temples sat the pyramids that were, ultimately, a series of platforms split by steep stairs that would allow access to the temple.
[edit] Observatories
The Maya were keen astronomers and had mapped out the phases of celestial objects, especially the Moon and Venus. Many temples have doorways and other features aligning to celestial events. Round temples, often dedicated to Kukulcan, are perhaps those most often described as "observatories" by modern ruin tour-guides, but there is no evidence that they were so used exclusively, and temple pyramids of other shapes may well have been used for observation as well.
[edit] Ball courts
Great Ball-court at Chichen ItzaAs an integral aspect of the Mesoamerican lifestyle, the courts for their ritual ball-game were constructed throughout the Maya realm and often on a grand scale. Enclosed on two sides by stepped ramps that led to ceremonial platforms or small temples, the ball court itself was of a capital I shape and could be found in all but the smallest of Maya cities.
See also: Mesoamerican ballgame
[edit] Cave sites
There are also cave sites that are important to the Maya. Maya cave sites include Jolja Cave, the cave site at Naj Tunich, the Candelaria Caves, and the Cave of the Witch. There are also cave origin myths among the Maya. Some cave sites are still used by the modern Maya in the Chiapas highlands.Like the Aztec and Inca who came to power later, the Maya believed in a cyclical nature of time. The rituals and ceremonies were very closely associated with hundreds (possibly thousands) of celestial/terrestrial cycles which they observed and inscribed as separate calendars (all of infinite duration). The Maya shaman had the job of interpreting these cycles and giving a prophetic outlook on the future or past based on the number relations of all their calendars. If the interpretations of the shamans spelled bad times to come, sacrifices would be performed to change the moods of the gods. Sacrifices might be small animals like chickens, or "bloodletting" by high officials, and sometimes included human sacrifices. They would engage in rituals such as cutting ears, tongues and male genitals with the intention of satisfying the gods.
Much of the Maya religious tradition is still not understood by scholars, but it is known that the Maya, like most pre-modern societies, believed that the cosmos has three major planes, the sky, the underworld, and the earth. Heaven was thought to have thirteen different layers where various gods dwelt. The underworld, which was called Xibalbá, was believed to be divided into nine layers which were inhabited by the aged Maya gods of death and putrefaction.[1] The Maya believed that Xibalbá was the final resting place of souls after death, and that the deities of the underworld would torment anyone there. The Sun and Itzamna, both aged gods, dominated the Maya idea of the sky. The night sky was considered a window showing all supernatural doings. The Maya configured constellations of gods and places, saw the unfolding of narratives in their seasonal movements, and believed that the intersection of all possible worlds was in the night sky.
Maya gods were not discrete, separate entities like Greek gods. The gods had affinities and aspects that caused them to merge with one another in ways that seem unbounded. There is a massive array of supernatural characters in the Maya religious tradition only some of which recur with regularity. Good and evil traits are not permanent characteristics of Maya gods, nor is only "good" admirable. What is inappropriate during one season might come to pass in another since much of the Mayan religious tradition is based on cycles and not permanence.
The life-cycle of maize lies at the heart of Maya belief. This philosophy is demonstrated on the Maya belief in the Maize God as a central religious figure. The Maya bodily ideal is also based on the form of the young Maize God, which is demonstrated in their artwork. The Maize God was also a model of courtly life for the Classical Maya.
The Maya believed that the universe was flat and square, but infinite in area. They also worshipped the circle, which symbolised perfection or the balancing of forces. Among other religious symbols were the swastika and the perfect cross. Like other Mesoamerican peoples, the Maya assigned colors to each of the cardinal directions. For example, the east is red and the south is green or yellow. The Maya also recognized a fifth direction of center, which existed everywhere. Just as there is always an "east" there is always a "center." The center was conceptualized by the Maya as a giant ceiba tree, the trunk of which connected the different planes of existence.
It is sometimes believed that the multiple "gods" represented nothing more than a mathematical explanation of what they observed, each god being literally just a number or an explanation of the effects observed by a combination of numbers from multiple calendars. While it is possible that some Mayan people involved in the actual study of the heavens tended to think more in this way, it is unlikely that the common people suscribed to the notion.
Parallels between monastic and folk Buddhism in China might be drawn, although actual evidence is sparse, making this all mere speculation based mostly upon assumptions about general human nature.
The Maya were obsessed with time. They created a sacred 260-day calendar, called the tzolkin, which they used to determine important activities relating to gods and humans. The Maya believed that the date on which a person was born determined their fate throughout life.[2] This calendar was used in combination with their 365 day solar calendar, the haab, which recorded lunation periods of the Moon, and a cycle which tracked the synodic period of Venus.
Philosophically, the Maya believed that knowing the past meant knowing the cyclical influences that create the present, and by knowing the influences of the present one can see the cyclical influences of the future.
Remains of the Maya beliefs influenced the local version of Christianity followed by the 19th-century Maya of Chan Santa Cruz.
Modern Mayan Religion
The Mayan religion is alive and practicing. The Maya have strived to preserve their traditional spirituality despite the arrival of Catholicism. In 2007, Guatemalan Mayan Priests were called to "purify" places where United States President George W. Bush had visited during a tour of Latin American countries.[3] There are still some priests who understand the ancient calendar. People come to these Daykeepers to know about baby names, wedding dates and other special occasions
Maya society shared many features with other Mesoamerican civilizations, for there was a high degree of interaction and cultural diffusion throughout the region. Although aspects such as writing and the calendar did not originate with the Maya, the Maya script and their calendar were among the most developed in Mesoamerica. Maya cultural influences can be detected as far afield as central Mexico, more than 1000 km from their homelands. Equally, many external influences are to be found in Maya art and their architecture, particularly in the Postclassic period; these are thought to be mainly a result of trade and cultural exchange, rather than direct external conquest.
Political structures
A typical Classic period Maya polity was a small kingdom (ajawil, ajawlel, ajawlil) headed by a hereditary ruler – ajaw, later k’uhul ajaw. Both terms appear in early Colonial texts including Papeles de Paxbolón where they are used as synonyms for Aztec and Spanish terms for rulers and their domains. These are tlatoani and tlahtocayotl in Nahuatl, and the Spanish words rey, magestad, and reino and señor for ruler/leader/lord and señorío or dominioof realm. Such kingdoms were usually no more than a capital city with its neighborhood and several dependent towns (similar to a city-state). There were also larger polities that controlled larger territories and subjagated smaller polities; the extensive systems controlled by Tikal and Caracol serve as examples of these.
Each kingdom had its name that did not necessarily correspond to any locality within its territory. Its identity was that of a political unit associated with a particular ruling dynasty. For instance, the archaeological site of Naranjo was the capital of the kingdom of Saal. The land (chan ch’e’n) of the kingdom and its capital were called Wakab’nal or Maxam and were part of a larger geographical entity known as Huk Tsuk.[citation needed] Interestingly, despite constant warfare and eventual shifts in regional power, most kingdoms never disappeared from the political landscape until the collapse of the whole system in the 9th century. In this respect, Classic Maya kingdoms were similar to late Postclassic polities encountered by the Spanish in Yucatan and Central Mexico: some polities were subordinate to hegemonic centers or rulers through conquest and/or dynastic unions and yet even then they persisted as distinct entities.
Mayanists have been increasingly accepting the "court paradigm" of Classic Maya societies that puts the emphasis on the centrality of the royal household and especially the person of the king. This approach focuses on the totality of Maya monumental spaces as the embodiment of the diverse activities of the royal household. It considers the role of places and spaces (including dwellings of royalty and nobles, throne rooms, temples, halls and plazas for public ceremonies) in establishing and negotiating power and social hierarchy, but also in producing and projecting aesthetic and moral values that define the order of a wider social realm.
Spanish sources invariably describe even the largest Maya settlements of Yucatan and Guatemala as dispersed agglomerations of dwellings grouped around the temples and palaces of the ruling dynasty and lesser nobles. Though there was economic specialization among Classic period Maya centers (see Chunchucmil, for example), it was not conducted at a scale similar to that of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. Some argue that Maya cities were not urban centers[1] but were, instead, structured according to and conceptualized as enormous royal households, the locales of the administrative and ritual activities of the royal court. Within the theoretical framework of this model, they were the places where privileged nobles could approach the holy ruler, where aesthetical values of the high culture were formulated and disseminated, and where aesthetic items were consumed.[2] They were the self-proclaimed centers and the sources of social, moral, and cosmic, order. The fall of a royal court as in the well-documented cases of Piedras Negras or Copan would cause the inevitable ‘death’ of the associated settlement.
[edit] The arts
[edit] Artistic expression
Main article: Maya art
A stucco relief in the museum at Palenque
A carved jade "pectoral"Many consider Classic period (200 to 900 AD) Maya art to be the most sophisticated of the ancient New World. The carvings and stucco reliefs at Palenque and the statuary of Copán depict accurate representations of the human form. We have only hints of the advanced painting of the classic Maya; mostly what have survived are funerary pottery and other Maya ceramics. Also a building at Bonampak holds ancient murals that survived by serendipity. With the decipherment of the Maya script it was discovered that the Maya were one of the few civilizations where artists attached their name to their work.
[edit] Music
Main article: Pre-Columbian Maya music
[edit] Architecture
Main article: Maya architecture
As unique and spectacular as any Greek or Roman architecture, Maya architecture spans many thousands of years; yet, often the most dramatic and easily recognizable as Maya are the fantastic layered, stepped pyramids from the Terminal Pre-classic period and beyond.
[edit] Technology
Maya civilization is regarded as the most technologically advanced of all pre-Columbian civilizations in the Americas. It can be classified as a stone age civilization which had just begun experimenting with metals by the time of Spanish conquest. A lack of draft animals (like old world domesticated horses, oxen, donkeys, etc) in the ancient Americas may explain lack of use of wheels and therefore the need of paved roads. Obsidian (volcanic glass) was a major material for various cutting tools and weapons due to its cleaved sharpness.
[edit] Writing and literacy
[edit] Writing system
Main article: Maya script
The Maya writing system (often called hieroglyphs from a superficial resemblance to the Ancient Egyptian writing) was a combination of phonetic symbols and logograms. It is most often classified as a logographic or (more properly) a logosyllabic writing system, in which syllabic signs play a significant role. It is the only writing system of the Pre-Columbian New World which is known to completely represent the spoken language of its community. In total, the script has more than a thousand different glyphs, although a few are variations of the same sign or meaning, and many appear only rarely or are confined to particular localities. At any one time, no more than around 500 glyphs were in use, some 200 of which (including variations) had a phonetic or syllabic interpretation.
The earliest inscriptions in an identifiably-Maya script date back to 200 - 300 BC. However, this is preceded by several other writing systems which had developed in Mesoamerica, most notably that of the Zapotecs, and possibly the Olmecs. There is a pre-Mayan writing known as "Epi-Olmec script" (post Olmec) which some researchers believe may represent a transitional script between the Olmec writing and Maya writing, but since there are no clear examples of Olmec writing as yet, the matter is unsettled. On January 5, 2006, National Geographic published the findings of Maya writings that could be as old as 400 BC [1], suggesting that the Maya writing system is nearly as old as the oldest writing found so far (Zapotec). In the succeeding centuries the Maya developed their script into a form which was far more complete and complex than any other that has yet been found in the Americas.
Since its inception, the Maya script was in use up to the arrival of Europeans, peaking during the Maya Classical Period (c. 200 - 900 AD). Although many Maya centers went into decline (or were completely abandoned) during or after this period, the skill and knowledge of Maya writing persisted amongst segments of the population, and the early Spanish conquistadores knew of individuals who could still read and write the script. Unfortunately the Spanish displayed little interest in it, and as a result of the dire impacts the conquest had on Maya societies the knowledge was subsequently lost, most probably within only a few generations.
At a rough estimate, around 10,000 individual texts have so far been recovered, mostly inscribed on stone monuments, lintels, stelae and ceramic pottery. Maya civilization also produced numerous texts using a fine paper called amatl made from the processed inner bark of certain species of fig trees in a folded "book-format", known as a codex. Shortly after the conquest, all of these latter which could be found were ordered to be burnt and destroyed by zealous Spanish priests, notably Bishop Diego de Landa. Out of these Maya codices, only three reasonably-intact examples are known to have survived through to the present day. These are now known as the Madrid, Dresden, and Paris codices. A few pages survive from a fourth, the Grolier codex, whose authenticity is sometimes disputed, but mostly is held to be genuine. Further archaeology conducted at Mayan sites often reveals other fragments, rectangular lumps of plaster and paint chips which formerly were codices; these tantalizing remains are however too severely damaged for any inscriptions to have survived, most of the organic material having decayed.
The decipherment and recovery of the now-lost knowledge of Maya writing has been a long and laborious process. Some elements were first deciphered in the late 19th and early 20th century: mostly the parts having to do with numbers, the Maya calendar, and astronomy. Major breakthroughs came starting in the 1950s to 1970s, and accelerated rapidly thereafter. By the end of the 20th century, scholars were able to read the majority of Maya texts to a large extent, and work done in the field continues to further illuminate the content.
In reference to the few extant Maya writings, Michael D. Coe, a prominent linguist and epigrapher at Yale University stated:
"[O]ur knowledge of ancient Maya thought must represent only a tiny fraction of the whole picture, for of the thousands of books in which the full extent of their learning and ritual was recorded, only four have survived to modern times (as though all that posterity knew of ourselves were to be based upon three prayer books and 'Pilgrim's Progress')." (Michael D. Coe, The Maya, London: Thames and Hudson, 4th ed., 1987, p. 161.)
Most surviving pre-Columbian Maya writing is from stelae and other stone inscriptions from Maya sites, many of which were already abandoned before the Spanish arrived. The inscriptions on the stelae mainly record the dynasties and wars of the sites' rulers. Also of note are the incriptions that reveal information about the lives of ancient Maya women. Much of the remainder of Maya hieroglyphics has been found on funeral pottery, most of which describes the afterlife.
[edit] Writing tools
Although the archaeological record does not provide examples, Maya art shows that writing was done with brushes made with animal hair and quills. Codex-style writing was usually done in black ink with red highlights, giving rise to the Aztec name for the Maya territory as the "land of red and black".
[edit] Scribes
Scribes held a prominent position in Maya courts and had their own patron deity (see Howler Monkey Gods). They are likely to have come from aristocratic families. One must assume that some scribes were attached to the royal house, while others were serving at temples and were, perhaps, counted among the priests. It seems likely that they were organized hierarchically. Maya art often depicts rulers with trappings indicating they were scribes or at least able to write, such as having pen bundles in their headdresses. Additionally, many rulers have been found in conjunction with writing tools such as shell or clay inkpots.
[edit] Literacy
Although the number of logograms and syllabic symbols required to fully write the language numbered in the hundreds, literacy was not necessarily widespread beyond the elite classes. Graffiti uncovered in various contexts, including on fired bricks, shows nonsensical attempts to imitate the writing system.
[edit] Mathematics
Mayan numeralsIn common with the other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya used a base 20 (vigesimal) and base 5 numbering system (see Maya numerals). Also, they independently developed the concept of zero by 357 AD (Europeans did not embrace zero until the 12th century). Inscriptions show them on occasion working with sums up to the hundreds of millions and dates so large it would take several lines just to represent it. They produced extremely accurate astronomical observations; their charts of the movements of the moon and planets are equal or superior to those of any other civilization working from naked eye observation.
Also in common with the other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya utilized a highly accurate measure of the length of the solar year, far more accurate than that used in Europe as the basis of the Gregorian Calendar. They did not use this figure for the length of year in their calendar, however. Instead, the Maya calendar(s) were based on a year length of exactly 365 days, which means that the calendar falls out of step with the seasons by one day every four years. By comparison, the Julian calendar, used in Europe from Roman times until about the 16th Century, accumulated an error of one day every 128 years. The modern Gregorian calendar accumulates a day's error in approximately 3257 years.
[edit] Agriculture
Main article: Maya diet and subsistence
The ancient Maya had diverse and sophisticated methods of food production. It was formerly believed that slash and burn (swidden) agriculture provided most of their food but it is now thought that permanent raised fields, terracing, forest gardens, managed fallows, and wild harvesting were also crucial to supporting the large populations of the Classic period in some areas. Indeed, evidence of these different systems persist today: raised fields connected by canals can be seen on aerial photographs, contemporary rainforest species composition has significantly higher abundance of species of economic value to ancient Maya, and pollen records in lake sediments suggest that corn, manioc, sunflower seeds, cotton, and other crops have been cultivated in association with deforestation in Mesoamerica since at least 2500 BC.
Contemporary Maya peoples still practice many of these traditional forms of agriculture, although they are dynamic systems and change with changing population pressures, cultures, economic systems, climate change, and the availability of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.
[edit] Warfare
The Mayas employed warfare in each period of their development for the purposes of obtaining sacrificial victims, settling competitive rivalries, acquiring critical resources and gaining control of trade routes. Warfare was important to the Maya religion, because raids on surrounding areas provided the victims required for human sacrifice, as well as slaves for the construction of temples. Large-scale battles were also fought to determine and defend territories as well as secure economic power. The Mayas defended their cities with defensive structures such as palisades, gateways, and earthworks. Some cities had a wall within the outer wall, so advancing enemies would be trapped in a killing alley, where they could be slaughtered in great number. During the post-Classic period, the amount of internal warfare increased greatly as the region became more politically fragmented. Armies were enlarged, and in some cases mercenaries were hired. The resulting destruction of many urban centers contributed to the decline of the Maya.
[edit] Military Organization
The ruler of a Maya city was the supreme war captain. Some only dictated military activity, while others participated in the battle. There was a core of warriors that served year-round as guards and obtained sacrificial victims, but most large Maya cities and religious centers had militias. These men were paid to fight for the duration of the battle. Then they would return to their fields or crafts. The militia units were headed by nacoms, hereditary war chiefs, that employed ritual as well as strategic methods in warfare. Some nacoms were only chief strategists, and the troops were led into by batabs, or officers. In a large war, even commoners who did not have weapons would fight using hunting tools and by hurling rocks. “In the highlands, women occasionally fought in battles according to native chronicles” (Foster, 144).
[edit] Tactics
The jungle terrain of Mesoamerica made it difficult for large armies to reach their destination. The warriors who were familiar to the battle landscape could strategically retreat into familiar wilderness. Other war tactics included the siege of cities and the formation of alliances with lesser enemies to defeat more prominent ones. There is evidence that canoes were used to attack cities, located on lakes and rivers. In the late Classic period, destructive warfare methods, such as burning, became more prevalent.
[edit] Rituals
Warfare was a ritual process, believed to be sanctioned by the gods. Military leaders, in many instances, also had religious authority. Before going into battle, the armies would call upon the gods with dances and music of drums, whistles, conch shell horns and singing. The drumming and war cries would signify the start of the battle. The armies also carried religious idols into battle to inspire the warriors. They fought fiercely because they believed that death on the battle field secured them eternal bliss, whereas capture by the enemy was regarded as worse than any death. When an enemy was defeated, the victorious army exploited the religious icons and sometimes humiliated the defeated leader with prolonged captivity. The treatment of prisoners by the victorious was brutal and often ending in decapitation.
[edit] Weapons and Uniform
Weapons used by the Maya included spear-throwers known as atlatls, blowguns, obsidian spiked clubs, and spears, axes, and knives tipped with flint or obsidian blades. Bow and arrows were also used, but not as extensively. Though there were few helmets, they used decorated shields made from woven mats or wood and animal skins for protection. The Maya war leaders dressed to inspire their warriors and terrify their enemies. They usually wore padded cotton armor, a mantle with religious insignias, and elaborate wooden and cloth headdresses, that represented the animal spirit or “way” of the warrior.
The first known Spanish landing[4] on the Yucatán Peninsula was a product of misfortune, when in 1511 a small vessel bound for the island of Santo Domingo from Darién, Panama ran aground on some shoals in the Caribbean Sea, south of the island of Jamaica.[5] The ship's complement of fifteen men and two women set off in the ship's boat in an attempt to reach Cuba or one of the other colonies, but the prevailing currents forced them westwards until after approximately two weeks of drifting they reached the eastern shoreline of the Peninsula.[6] Captured by the local Maya, they were divided up among several of the chieftains[7] as slaves and a number were sacrificed and killed according to offeratory practices.[citation needed] Over the succeeding years their numbers dwindled further as others were lost to disease or exhaustion, until only two were left– Gerónimo de Aguilar who had escaped his former captor and found refuge with another Maya ruler, and Gonzalo Guerrero who had won some prestige among the Maya for his bravery and had now the standing of a ranking warrior and noble. These two would later have notable, but very different, roles to play in future conflicts between the Spanish and the Mesoamerican peoples– Aguilar would become Cortés's translator and advisor, with Guerrero instead electing to remain with the Maya and served as a tactician and warrior fighting with them against the Spanish.
These Spanish castaways had unknowingly brought with them an epidemic disease to the region, probably smallpox, which would kill a great many people over the next few years.
[edit] Early expeditions (1517–19)
The next contact was not until 1517 when Francisco Hernández de Córdoba sailed out from Cuba in search of slaves to replace the native Cubans who had been dying off in great numbers. The Spaniards were surprised to see stone cities along the coast of Yucatán. Córdoba landed at several towns; some greeted the Spanish with friendship and offered to trade goods with them (most interesting to the Spaniards they acquired a few pieces of gold ornaments this way), while other towns greeted him with hostility and shot arrows when the Spanish approached close to shore. The expedition returned to Cuba to report on the discovery of this new land. Diego Velázquez, the governor of Cuba, ordered an expedition sent out with four ships and 200 men led by his nephew, Juan de Grijalva. The Grijalva expedition had similar mixed experiences with the native Maya as it sailed along the coasts of Yucatán for months. He was disappointed at gathering very little gold, but came back to Cuba with a tale that a rich empire was further to the west.
This prompted the Hernán Cortés expedition in 1519. Cortés spent some time at the island of Cozumel, tried with mixed results to convert the locals to Christianity, and heard stories of other bearded white men living in the area. He sent messengers to these reported castilianos, who turned out to be the survivors of the 1511 shipwreck, Aguilar and Guerrero. Aguilar petitioned his Maya chieftain to be allowed leave to join with his former countrymen, and he was released and made his way to Cortés's ships. According to Bernal Díaz, Aguilar relayed that before coming he had unsuccessfully attempted to convince Guerrero to leave as well. Guerrero declined on the basis that he was by now well-assimilated with the Maya culture, had a Maya wife and three children, and he was looked upon as a figure of rank within the Maya settlement of Chetumal where he lived.[8]
Aguilar, now quite fluent in Yucatec Maya as well as some other indigenous languages, would prove to be a valuable asset for Cortés as a translator, a skill of particular significance to the later conquest of the Aztec Empire which would be the end result of Cortés's expedition.[9]
Although Guerrero's later fate is somewhat uncertain, it appears that for some years he continued to fight alongside the Maya forces against Spanish incursions and provide military counsel and encouraging resistance; he quite possibly was killed in a later battle.
[edit] First attempted conquest (1527–28)
The richer lands of Mexico engaged the main attention of the Conquistadors for some years, then in 1526 Francisco de Montejo (a veteran of the Grijalva and Cortés expeditions) successfully petitioned the King of Spain for the right to conquer Yucatán. He arrived in eastern Yucatán in 1527 and at first was greeted peaceably, and most local chiefs agreed with his demand that they swear loyalty to the King of Spain, for they had heard news of the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs. However as the Spanish advanced they found towns already deserted when they reached them, and the Spanish were first harried as they traveled and then openly attacked. Despite killing over 1,200 Maya in battle at Chauca the natives would not surrender, and Montejo returned to the coast under constant harassment. The Spanish set up a small fort on the coast at Xamanha in 1528, but had no further success in subduing the country. Montejo went to Mexico to gather a larger army.
[edit] Second attempted conquest (1531–35)
Montejo returned in 1531 with a force that conquered the Maya port city of Campeche. While he set up a fortress at Campeche, he sent his son Francisco Montejo The Younger inland with an army. The leaders of some Maya states pledged that they would be his allies. He continued on to Chichen Itza, which he declared his Royal capital of Spanish Yucatán, but after a few months the locals rose up against him, the Spaniards were constantly attacked, and the Spanish force fled to Honduras. It was rumored that Gonzalo Guerrero, the Spaniard shipwrecked in 1511 who chose to stay in Yucatán, was among those directing Maya resistance to the Spanish crown. Meanwhile the elder Montejo was frequently besieged in his fort in Campeche, and many of his soldiers were tired of a long fight with little to show for it, and stated that they wished to find easier conquests elsewhere. In 1535 Montejo withdrew his forces to Veracruz, leaving the Yucatán once again completely in the control of the Maya.
[edit] Final conquests (1540–46)
Montejo the elder who was now in his late 60s, turned his royal rights in Yucatán over to his son, Francisco Montejo the Younger. The younger Montejo invaded Yucatán with a large force in 1540. In 1542 he set up his capital in the Maya city of T'ho, which he renamed Mérida. The lord of the Tutal Xiu of Maní converted to Christianity. The Xiu dominated most of Western Yucatán and became valuable allies of the Spanish, greatly assisting in the conquest of the rest of the peninsula. A number of Maya states at first pledged loyalty to Spain, but revolted after feeling the heavy hand of Spanish rule. Fighting and revolts continued for years. When the Spanish and Xiu defeated an army of the combined forces of the states of Eastern Yucatán in 1546, the conquest was officially complete; however periodic revolts which would be violently put down by Spanish troops continued throughout the Spanish colonial era.
[edit] The Itza of Petén
The Postclassic Itza Maya of the Petén Basin region should be mentioned; while that area is now part of Guatemala, in colonial times it was part of the land under the jurisdiction of the Governor of Yucatán. The Itza capital was in Tayasal, an island city in lake Petén Itza. The Itza land was separated from Spanish Yucatán to the north and Spanish Guatemala to the south by thick jungles with little population. It had been visited by Cortés on his march to Honduras in 1525, when the lords of the Itza pledged loyalty to Spain, but was thereafter neglected by Spanish authorities. In 1618 two Franciscan friars were sent from Mérida to teach Christianity to the Itza. They arrived in Tayasal to find the people uninfluenced by European ways and still worshipping the traditional Mesoamerican gods. While the Itza king received them politely, they made no progress in converting the people to Christianity. In 1622 the Governor of Yucatán sent a force of 20 Spaniards and 140 Christian Indian allies to march on Tayasal, but the Itza quickly killed them. A second force on their way to the Petén in 1624 was ambushed by the Itza and met a similar fate. The Governor of Yucatán decided his energies were best spent elsewhere, and the Itza continued in independence.
In 1695 three Franciscans headed to Tayasal accompanied by four Christian Maya singers. They were well received, and a number of the Itza consented to be baptized. The Itza King, however, refused to convert to Christianity or pledge loyalty to Spain; he said a time would come when this would be the proper thing to do but that time had not arrived. A force of 60 Spanish soldiers and Maya allies were sent to the Petén the following year, but were beaten back by fierce Itza attacks. The command in Merida decided that a major force was needed, and in 1697 sent out a force of 235 Spanish soldiers and as many Maya allies, with horses, artillery, and a large supply train with mules and men to cut a path through the jungle. They set up a fort on the shore of Lake Petén Itza across from Tayasal, and reconstructed a small warship on the lake which had been brought with them in pieces. On March 13, 1697 this force succeeded in conquering the Itza of Tayasal. The Spanish burned the Itza library of books "containing lies of the devil", and reported later that the city had so many idols that with almost the entire army set at work, it took from nine in the morning until half past five in the evening to break them all. Thus ended the last independent native state of Mesoamerica.