Handbook to Life in the Ancient Maya World (Facts on File Library of World History)

417 Pages·2002·8.66 MB·English

by  Lynn V. Foster

HANDBOOK
TO LIFE
IN THE ANCIENT
MAYA WORLD
LYNN V. FOSTER
Handbook to Life in the Ancient Maya World
Copyright © 2002 Lynn V. Foster
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Foster,Lynn V.
Handbook to life in the Ancient Maya world / Lynn V. Foster.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8160-4148-2
1. Mayas—History.2. Mayas—Social life and customs. I. Title.
F1435 .F676 2001
2001023924
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Text design by Cathy Rincon
Cover design by Semadar Megged
Graphics research by Peter Selverstone
Illustrations on chapter openers courtesy of John Montgomery
Printed in the United States of America
VB Hermitage 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
C
ONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vi Late Postclassic Period (c. 1200–1524) 72
The Spanish Conquest to the Present 80
FOREWORD BY PETER MATHEWS vii Reading 85
INTRODUCTION xi
3 GEOGRAPHY OF THE
PRE-COLUMBIAN MAYA 89
LIST OF MAPS xiii
Greater Mesoamerica 91
Maya Geography and Mythology 91
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiii
Maya Regional Diversity 92
LIST OF TABLES xiv Changing Environment 97
Geography and Civilization 99
1 MAYA CIVILIZATION AND Settlements and Agricultural Beginnings 100
ARCHAEOLOGY 1 Place-Names of Maya Cities 103
Developments in Maya Archaeology 5 Reading 116
Source Materials 8
Reading 13 4 SOCIETY AND GOVERNMENT 117
Chiefdoms vs. States 119
2 EVOLUTION OF MAYA Cities vs. Ceremonial Centers 119
CIVILIZATION 15 Sociopolitical Evolution of the Maya
Summaryof Major Periods 17 State 121
Lithic Period (c. 12,000–7000 B.C.E.) 18 City-States, Regional States, and
Archaic Period (c. 7,000–1200 B.C.E.) 19 Superpowers 127
Early Preclassic Period Classic Period Maya Rulership 134
(c. 1200–1000 B.C.E.) 23 Postclassic Multepal Government 137
Middle Preclassic Period Conclusion 139
(c. 1000–300 B.C.E.) 29 Reading 140
Late Preclassic Period
(c. 300 B.C.E.–250 C.E.) 34 5 WARFARE 141
Early Classic Period (c. 250–600) 43 Ruler as Warrior 143
Late Classic Period (c. 600–900) 49 The Military 144
Terminal Classic Period (c. 800–1000) 60 Kinds of Warfare 147
Early Postclassic Period (c. 900–1200) 68 War Tactics 150
The Supernatural in War 155 The Long Count 255
Reading 156 Other Cycles 259
Astronomy 260
6 RELIGION, COSMOLOGY, AND ART Summary 262
BY KAYLEE SPENCER-AHRENS Reading 263
AND LINNEA H. WREN 157
The Structure of Cosmic Space 159 10 WRITTEN EVIDENCE
The Identities of the Gods 163 BY RUTH J. KROCHOCK 265
The Unfolding of Creation 171 History of Maya Hieroglyphic
The Sacred City: An Example from Decipherment 267
Palenque 174 Mayan Languages and Writing 273
The Role of Kings and Shamans 178 Decipherment of Hieroglyphs 277
The Sustenance of Life: Popol Vuh 183 Deciphered Hieroglyphs 281
The Purpose of Ritual Performance 187 Inscriptions on Public Monuments 285
Conclusion 197 Maya Vase Writing 293
Reading 197 Name-Tagging and Ownership of
Objects 295
The Maya Codices 296
7 FUNERARY BELIEFS AND
Postconquest Literature 299
CUSTOMS 201
Reading 304
Souls and the Afterlife 203
Burials 207
11 ECONOMY, INDUSTRY, AND
Ancestor Worship and Legitimacy 211
TRADE 305
Reading 212
Agriculture 307
Other Food Production 311
8 ARCHITECTURE AND BUILDING 213
Craft Production 314
Masonry Architecture and Labor 215
Trade 319
Architectural Development 216
Reading 326
Architectural Traits 218
Temporal Stylistic Shifts 222
12 DAILY LIFE 327
Regional Variations 223
Diversity of Population 329
Site Plans 226
The Family 330
Cosmology,Politics, and Architecture 229
Crimes and Punishment 332
Types of Construction 230
The Maya Household 333
Materials and Techniques 238
Food and Drink 335
Reading 243
Medicine and Health 336
Personal Appearance 337
9 ARITHMETIC, ASTRONOMY, AND Entertainment 340
THE CALENDAR Reading 342
BY KAYLEE SPENCER-AHRENS AND
LINNEA H. WREN 245 CHRONOLOGICAL CHART 343
Cyclical History 247
Maya Arithmetic 248 BIBLIOGRAPHY 347
Origins of the Calendar 250
Cycles of Time 251 INDEX 367
T
o the collaborative spirit, intellectual generosity,
and friendships that have been fostered by the
Maya Meetings at Texas,
founded by Linda Schele.
A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
Writing this book has demonstrated to me ship demands to carefully review the manu-
the incomparable kindness of Maya script. Ian Graham, Justin Kerr, John Mont-
scholars and friends. Peter Selverstone under- gomery, David Schele, and Cherra Wyllie
took the daunting task of organizing the generously granted permission to reproduce
numerous illustrations in the Handbook and many photographs and drawings to improve
preparing them for publication, forsaking the pages of this book, and Nikolai Grube,
many weekends and evenings in the process. Peter Keeler, Barbara MacLeod, Dorie
Kaylee Spencer-Ahrens and Linnea H. Wren Reentz-Budet, Peter Foster and Naomi Smith
braved snowstorms and Ruth Krochock left her readily offered contributions. I am forever
hospital bed in order to meet manuscript dead- grateful to them all.
lines. Peter Mathews set aside his own scholar-
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
vi
F
OREWORD
When one thinks about the Maya civiliza- view held that the Maya did not have cities, and
tion of southern Mexico and northern according to some scholars, if the Maya had a
Central America, the adjective mysterious complex society it could only have been intro-
inevitably comes to mind. The mysterious Maya duced from outside: the Maya area was too
has been an epithet for this great people for the impoverished, with its tropical forest and poor
past two centuries at least. Early Spanish expedi- soils and lack of resources, to sustain “civiliza-
tions found the remains of great ruined cities tion.” Moreover, Maya hieroglyphic inscrip-
and speculated that they were evidence of the tions were all astrological mumbo-jumbo: to
lost tribes of Israel. Nineteenth-century travel write of history and kings and individual
writers exploredthe cities and echoed the same exploits would have been sacrilegious.
sentiments or brought the lost continent of This view of the ancient Maya began to
Atlantis into the equation; only a few travelers change in the late 1950s and 1960s. On the
such as John Lloyd Stephens maintained that archaeological front, excavations were being
the cities and temples were built by the ances- made, not just in temples and ceremonial
tors of the verypeople whose villages and towns precincts, but also in surrounding mounds,
they passed through on their journeys: the whereevidence of houses and household activ-
Maya. Even in the middle of the 20th century— ities was discovered. The “vacant ceremonial
when virtually all scholars agreed that the ruined centers” werenot vacant after all: some ancient
cities in the jungle were built by ancient Maya— Maya cities were inhabited by tens of thou-
there was considerable debate about the origin sands of Maya. On the hieroglyphic front,
and natureof Maya civilization. major discoveries between 1958 and 1964 led
By the early 1950s most scholars believed to the discovery of the names of historical indi-
that what we now recognize as Maya cities viduals and of the cities they ruled. These cities
were “vacant ceremonial centers,” inhabited were governed by dynasties of kings, and the
only by a few calendar-priests and their retain- magnificent stone stelae, altars, and lintels
ers and used as places of ritual for the sur- recorded their exploits—their births and
rounding hamlets of peasant-farmers. This deaths, their conquests and ceremonies.
CHAPTER TITLE
vii
Thus over the past 40 years or so, and espe- burial offerings of jade, shell, and pottery.
cially over the past 20 years, the popular view Other excavations in more humble structures
of the ancient Maya has been radically trans- have shown how the other 85 percent or so of
formed. The earlier view of a strange society Maya lived and died: skeletal remains have
unlike any other in Earth’s history has yielded been analyzed for evidence of disease, nutri-
to one that has much more in common with tion, and dietary patterns.
other world civilizations. Finally, the Maya Archaeology has also revealed much about
have become less mysterious—and more the ancient Maya environment—from the
human—with human strengths and foibles. damage that was done to the forest through
There has not been any single great break- centuries of overclearing during the first mil-
through in the study of the Maya that has been lennium C.E.to studies of plaster making, stone
responsible for this progress, although break- quarrying, and water-storage management.
throughs there have certainly been. Rather, the Analyses of pottery and stone tools have led to
advances have been similar to those in most agreater understanding of Maya trade.
other fields of endeavour; they are the result of Still other studies by scholars in different
patient and painstaking work by dozens of fields—from art historians who study the won-
scholars working in a variety of disciplines to derful art left by the Maya to linguists who
find yet one more piece of the puzzle. And have been able to reconstruct the ancient forms
while the puzzle still has many missing pieces, of their languages—have elucidated other
both the “big picture” and many of its details aspects of the ancient Maya.
are now clear and in focus. Some of the greatest advances in our under-
The recent advances in our knowledge of standing of the ancient Maya have come from
the ancient Maya have been the result of the decipherment of Maya hieroglyphic writ-
research in many fields—archaeology, epigra- ing. The process of decipherment has now
phy, ethnohistory—and the result of learning reached the point where the content of most
from the contemporary Maya. inscriptions is now well understood, and most
From archaeology we have come to learn texts can be translated fairly completely.
about the dating of ancient Maya civilization Debate over the glyphs has now reached the
and the various stages in its development. We level of debate over grammatical forms and the
now know that large public buildings were finer details of glyphic spelling.
being built in the Maya area several centuries The Maya have long been famed for their
before Christ, and by the time of Christ huge mathematical and astronomical knowledge,
cities existed in the central part of the Yucatán for their use of zeroand place-value notation,
Peninsula. From trenches and tunnels exca- and their knowledge of eclipses and the cycles
vated into major architectural complexes at of Venus. Maya hieroglyphs also reveal the
sites like Tikal in northern Guatemala and names of Maya kings and the nature of cere-
Copán in Honduras, we know that Maya cere- monies over which they presided. Weknow of
monial precincts were built and rebuilt above the gods who presided over their spiritual
long-sacred localities. In some cases, the result- world and of the companion spirits of the
ing seventh- or eighth-century C.E. temples Maya kings and lords that enabled them to
cover dozens of earlier building phases stretch- travel into and communicate with the Other-
ing back more than 1,000 years earlier. world. We know about Maya social structure
Inside temple-pyramids, archaeologists have and political organization and the almost
excavated royal tombs that reveal sumptuous endemic warfare between the Maya king-
HANDBOOK TO LIFE IN THE ANCIENT MAYA WORLD
viii
doms: kings could gain great power and pres- contrast to some other ancient civilizations,
tige (and wealth through tribute) through vic- such as that of Sumer and ancient Egypt.
tory in battle, but they could also lose, quite The first three chapters of this book intro-
literally, their heads. duce the ancient Maya and their great civiliza-
A great source of our knowledge of the tion. The first gives an overview of the history
ancient Maya is the wealth of “ethnohistorical” of research into the ancient Maya and of the
data that survives about the Maya. From the recent advances that have made Classic Maya
Quiché Maya of highland Guatemala we have civilization so much more understandable.
their great epic the Popol Vuh, which includes The second and third chapters concern the
one of humankind’s great creation stories. history and geography of Maya civilization,
From northern Yucatán we have the Books of the respectively. Chapter 2 summarizes the devel-
Chilam Balam, with their mixture of prophecy opment and growth of Maya civilization using
and arcane astrological knowledge, and a book the time periods into which Mayanists have
of medical incantations, the Ritual of the conventionally divided Maya history. This
Bacabs—to name just a few. overview concentrates on the three subphases
It is a great irony that the early Spaniards, of the Classic Period (250–1000 C.E.)—the
who did so much to destroy the traditional peak of ancient Maya cultural achievement.
ways of the 16th-century Maya, have also been Chapter 3 is ostensibly about the geography
responsible for preserving myriad details on all of the Maya area but is in fact far more: it also
aspects of ancient Maya life. The first Spanish covers climate and climate change, cultivars
friars in the Maya area realized early on that and natural resources, and the location of Maya
the only way they could hope to proselytize the settlement. It concludes with a brief descrip-
Maya was to do it in the various Mayan lan- tion of more than 50 sites in the Maya area,
guages. Accordingly, they compiled various including the most important of the Classic
dictionaries and wrote grammars and other Maya cities.
works in many of the Mayan languages. These In the remaining chapters of the book the
works have come to be important tools for authors present details of various aspects of
scholars working with the hieroglyphic inscrip- ancient Maya life, from ancient Maya society
tions. They arealso invaluable for the wealth of and rulership (Chapter 4) to warfare (Chapter
information that they contain on the lifeways 5), from religion and the afterlife (Chapters 6
of the 16th-century Maya, from small dictio- and 7) to Maya architecture and construction
naryentries that shed some light on an ancient (Chapter 8). Chapter 9 deals with Maya calen-
Maya ritual to full ethnographies such as Diego drics and astronomy, and Chapter 12 with
de Landa’s lengthy treatise An Account of the Maya hieroglyphic writing; Chapter 11 con-
Things of Yucatán. cerns Maya economy and trade.
One of the great advantages in our under- The final chapter deals with the daily life of
standing of the ancient Maya is the fact that the the ancient Maya. As with the information in
Maya are still very much alive. The contempo- the preceding chapters, much of the informa-
rary Maya number in the millions, and there tion on Maya daily life is gleaned from Spanish
are still two dozen Mayan languages spoken and Maya descriptions dating from the 16th
today. In some cases the Maya are still practic- century. Increasingly, however, information
ing traditions that are thousands of years old. comes also from archaeology and epigraphy—
Our ability to learn from the contemporary from such diverse analyses as osteological
Maya about their ancient forebears is in stark analysis, for our understanding of ancient
FOREWORD
ix