The history of Maya civilization is divided into three principal periods: the Preclassic, Classic and Postclassic periods;Estrada-Belli 2011, pp. 1, 3. these were preceded by the Archaic Period, which saw the first settled villages and early developments in agriculture.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 98. Estrada-Belli 2011, p. 38. Modern scholars regard these periods as arbitrary divisions of chronology of the Maya civilization, rather than indicative of cultural evolution or decadence.Estrada-Belli 2011, p. 1. Definitions of the start and end dates of period spans can vary by as much as a century, depending on the author.Demarest 2004, p. 17. The Preclassic lasted from approximately 3000 BC to approximately 250 AD; this was followed by the Classic, from 250 AD to roughly 950 AD, then by the Postclassic, from 950 AD to the middle of the 16th century.Estrada-Belli 2011, p. 3. Each period is further subdivided:
+Maya chronology Period Division DatesArchaic 8000–2000 BCSharer and Traxler 2006, p. 98.Preclassic Early Preclassic 2000–1000 BCMiddle Preclassic Early Middle Preclassic 1000–600 BC Late Middle Preclassic 600–350 BCLate PreclassicEarly Late Preclassic 350–1 BCLate Late Preclassic 1 BC – AD 159Terminal Preclassic AD 159–250Classic Early Classic AD 250–550 Late Classic AD 550–830 Terminal Classic AD 830–950Postclassic Early Postclassic AD 950–1200Late Postclassic AD 1200–1539Contact period AD 1511–1697Masson 2012, p. 18238. Pugh and Cecil 2012, p. 315.
Preclassic period (c. 2000 BC – 250 AD)
The Maya developed their first civilization in the Preclassic period.Estrada-Belli 2011, p. 28. Scholars continue to discuss when this era of Maya civilization began. Discoveries of Maya occupation at Cuello, Belize have been carbon dated to around 2600 BC.Hammond et al. 1976, pp. 579–581. Settlements were established around 1800 BC in the Soconusco region of the Pacific coast, and they were already cultivating the staple crops of the Maya diet, including maize, beans, squash, and chili pepper. This period, known as the Early Preclassic,Drew 1999, p.6. was characterized by sedentary communities and the introduction of pottery and fired clay figurines.Coe 1999, p. 47.
During the Middle Preclassic Period, small villages began to grow to form cities.Olmedo Vera 1997, p.26. By 500 BC these cities possessed large temple structures decorated with stucco masks representing gods.Martin and Grube 2000, p.8. Nakbe in the Petén Department of Guatemala is the earliest well-documented city in the Maya lowlands,Sharer and Traxler 2006, p.214. where large structures have been dated to around 750 BC. Nakbe already featured the monumental masonry architecture, sculpted monuments and causeways that characterised later cities in the Maya lowlands. The northern lowlands of Yucatán were widely settled by the Middle Preclassic.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 276. By approximately 400 BC, near the end of the Middle Preclassic period, early Maya rulers were raising stelae that celebrated their achievements and validated their right to rule.Sharer and Traxler 2006, pp. 182, 197.
Murals excavated in 2005 have pushed back the origin of Maya writing by several centuries, with a developed script already being used at San Bartolo in Petén by the 3rd century BC, and it is now evident that the Maya participated in the wider development of Mesoamerican writing in the Preclassic.Saturno, Stuart and Beltrán 2006, pp. 1281–1283. In the Late Preclassic Period, the enormous city of El Mirador grew to cover approximately .Olmedo Vera 1997, p.28. It possessed paved avenues, massive triadic pyramid complexes dated to around 150 BC, and stelae and altars that were erected in its plazas. El Mirador is considered to be one of the first capital cities of the Maya civilization. The swamps of the Mirador Basin appear to have been the primary attraction for the first inhabitants of the area as evidenced by the unusual cluster of large cities around them.Hansen et al. 2006, p.740. The city of Tikal, later to be one of the most important of the Classic Period Maya cities, was already a significant city by around 350 BC, although it did not match El Mirador.Martin and Grube 2000, pp. 25–26. The Late Preclassic cultural florescence collapsed in the 1st century AD and many of the great Maya cities of the epoch were abandoned; the cause of this collapse is as yet unknown.
In the highlands, Kaminaljuyu emerged as a principal centre in the Late Preclassic, linking the Pacific coastal trade routes with the Motagua River route, as well as demonstrating increased contact with other sites along the Pacific coast.Love 2007, pp. 293, 297. Popenoe de Hatch and Schieber de Lavarreda 2001, p. 991. Kaminaljuyu was situated at a crossroads and controlled the trade routes westwards to the Gulf coast, north into the highlands, and along the Pacific coastal plain to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and El Salvador. This gave it control over the distribution networks for important goods such as jade, obsidian and cinnabar.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 232. Within this extended trade route, Takalik Abaj and Kaminaljuyu appear to have been the two principal foci.Popenoe de Hatch and Schieber de Lavarreda 2001, p. 991. The early Maya style of sculpture spread throughout this network.Orrego Corzo and Schieber de Lavarreda 2001, p. 788. Takalik Abaj and Chocolá were two of the most important cities on the Pacific coastal plain during the Late Preclassic,Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 236. and Komchen grew to become an important site in northern Yucatán during the Preclassic.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 275.
Classic period (c. 250–950 AD)
The Classic period is largely defined as the period during which the lowland Maya raised dated monuments using the Long Count calendar.Coe 1999, p. 81. This period marked the peak of large-scale construction and urbanism, the recording of monumental inscriptions, and demonstrated significant intellectual and artistic development, particularly in the southern lowland regions. The Classic period Maya political landscape has been likened to that of Renaissance Italy or Classical Greece, with multiple city-states engaged in a complex network of alliances and enmities.Martin and Grube 2000, p. 21.
During the Classic Period, the Maya civilization achieved its greatest florescence. The Maya developed an agriculturally intensive, city-centred civilization consisting of numerous independent city-states – some subservient to others.Acemoglu and Robinson 2012, pp. 143–149. During the Early Classic, cities throughout the Maya region were influenced by the great metropolis of Teotihuacan in the distant Valley of Mexico.Martin and Grube 2000, p.9. In AD 378, Teotihuacan decisively intervened at Tikal and other nearby cities, deposed its ruler and installed a new Teotihuacan-backed dynasty.Demarest 2004, p. 218. Estrada-Belli 2011, pp. 123–126. This intervention was led by Siyaj Kʼakʼ ("Born of Fire"), who arrived at Tikal on 8.17.1.4.12 (c. 31 January 378). The king of Tikal, Chak Tok Ichʼaak I, died on the same day, suggesting a violent takeover.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 322. Martin and Grube 2000, p. 29. A year later, Siyaj Kʼakʼ oversaw the installation of a new king, Yax Nuun Ayiin I.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 324. The new king's father was Spearthrower Owl, who possessed a central Mexican name, and may have been the king of either Teotihuacan, or Kaminaljuyu.Martin and Grube 2000, p. 30. Sharer and Traxler 2006, pp. 322, 324. The installation of the new dynasty led to a period of political dominance when Tikal became the most powerful city in the central lowlands.
At its height during the Late Classic, the Tikal city polity had expanded to have a population of well over 100,000.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p.1. Tikal's great rival was Calakmul, another powerful city polity in the Petén Basin.Olmedo Vera 1997, p.36. Tikal and Calakmul both developed extensive systems of allies and vassals; lesser cities that entered one of these networks gained prestige from their association with the top-tier city, and maintained peaceful relations with other members of the same network.Foster 2002, p. 133. Tikal and Calakmul engaged in the manoeuvering of their alliance networks against each other; at various points during the Classic period, one or other of these powers would gain a strategic victory over its great rival, resulting in respective periods of florescence and decline.Demarest 2004, pp. 224–226.
In 629, Bʼalaj Chan Kʼawiil, a son of the Tikal king Kʼinich Muwaan Jol II, was sent to found a new city to the west, at Dos Pilas, in the Petexbatún region, apparently as an outpost to extend Tikal's power beyond the reach of Calakmul. The young prince was just four years old at the time.Sharer and Traxler 2006, pp. 383, 387. With the establishment of the new kingdom, Dos Pilas advertised its origin by adopting the emblem glyph of Tikal as its own.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 383. For the next two decades he fought loyally for his brother and overlord at Tikal. In AD 648, king Yuknoom Chʼeen II ("Yuknoom the Great") of Calakmul attacked and defeated Dos Pilas, capturing Balaj Chan Kʼawiil. At about the same time, the king of Tikal was killed. Yuknoom Cheʼen II then reinstated Balaj Chan Kʼawiil upon the throne of Dos Pilas as his vassal.Salisbury, Koumenalis & Barbara Moffett 2002. Martin & Grube 2000, p. 108. Sharer & Traxler 2006, p.387. In an extraordinary act of treachery for someone claiming to be of the Tikal royal family, he thereafter served as a loyal ally of Calakmul, Tikal's sworn enemy.Martin and Grube 2000, pp. 54–55.
In the southeast, Copán was the most important city. Its Classic-period dynasty was founded in 426 by Kʼinich Yax Kʼukʼ Moʼ. The new king had strong ties with central Petén and Teotihuacan, and it is likely that he was originally from Tikal.Martin and Grube 2000, pp 192–193. Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 342. Copán reached the height of its cultural and artistic development during the rule of Uaxaclajuun Ubʼaah Kʼawiil, who reigned from 695 to 738.Martin and Grube 2000, pp. 200, 203. His reign ended catastrophically in April 738, when he was captured by his vassal, king Kʼakʼ Tiliw Chan Yopaat of Quiriguá.Martin and Grube 2000, pp. 203, 205. The captured lord of Copán was taken back to Quiriguá and, in early May 738, he was decapitated in a public ritual.Miller 1999, pp. 134–135. Looper 2003, p. 76. It is likely that this coup was backed by Calakmul, in order to weaken a powerful ally of Tikal.Looper 1999, pp. 81, 271. Palenque and Yaxchilan were the most powerful cities in the Usumacinta region. In the highlands, Kaminaljuyu in the Valley of Guatemala was already a sprawling city by AD 300.Demarest 2004, p. 75. In the north of the Maya area, Coba was the most important capital.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 554.
Capital cities of Maya kingdoms could vary considerably in size, apparently related to how many vassal cities were tied to the capital.Martin and Grube 2000, p.19. Overlords of city-states that held sway over a greater number of subordinate lords could command greater quantities of tribute in the form of goods and labour.Martin and Grube 2000, p.21. The most notable forms of tribute pictured on Maya ceramics are cacao, textiles and feathers. The social basis of the Classic Maya civilization was an extended political and economic network that reached throughout the Maya area and beyond into the greater Mesoamerican region.Carmack 2003, p. 76. The dominant Classic period polities were located in the central lowlands; during this period the southern highlands and northern lowlands can be considered culturally, economically, and politically peripheral to this core area. Those loci that existed between the core and the periphery acted as centres of trade and commerce.Carmack 2003, pp. 76–77.