Possible role of climate in the collapse of Classic Maya civilization

To provide some insights into the nature and role of warfare in the rise, development, and decline of Classic Maya civilization, this article discusses spear, dart, and arrow points used by the Classic Maya elites at the rapidly abandoned fortified city of Aguateca, Guatemala, and their temporal and spatial distribution patterns in and around Copan, Honduras. Both the royal family and elite scribes/artists at Aguateca used spear and dart points for intergroup human conflict as well as for artistic and craft production under enemy threat. An important implication is that the ruler and elite scribes/artists were also warriors. The unusually high concentrations of identifiable weaponry at the Early Classic hilltop center of Cerro de las Mesas as well as the Acropolis and other Late Classic locations in the Copan Valley, along with other lines of evidence, indicate that warfare was critical in the development and downfall of Classic Maya civilization at Copan.

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Lady Six Sky and the Definition of Ritual Space at Naranjo

Vanderbilt Undergraduate Research Journal ◽

10.15695/vurj.v1i0.2709 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 1 ◽

Author(s):

James Alan Doyle

Keyword(s):

Spatial Analysis ◽

Classic Maya ◽

Late Classic ◽

Considerable Evidence ◽

Ritual Space ◽

New Information ◽

Maya Civilization ◽

Role Of Women ◽

Definition Of

Through a broad discussion on the full monumental program at Naranjo during the reigns of Lady Six Sky and her son K'ak Tiliw Chan Chaak, this article provides new information about the role of women in Late Classic Maya civilization (AD 600-900). A detailed exploration of the distinct trends in the monumental program from 682-741 AD supports the primary argument for Lady Sky Six’s underlying importance in ritual representation. The author finds considerable evidence that suggests the transfer of power from mother to son during the latter years of Lady Sky Six. A concluding discussion of Naranjo focuses on spatial analysis of the monuments spread across the site core in relation to dual-gendered ritual space, as well as contrasting martial and mythological imagery.

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Swamps, canals, and the locations of ancient Maya cities

Antiquity ◽

10.1017/s0003598x00043386 ◽

1980 ◽

Vol 54 (212) ◽

pp. 206-214 ◽

Cited By ~ 41

Author(s):

R. E. W. Adams

Keyword(s):

Radar Data ◽

Classic Maya ◽

Classic Period ◽

Intensive Agriculture ◽

Ancient Maya ◽

Maya Lowlands ◽

Rank Ordering ◽

Topographic Information ◽

Maya Civilization ◽

Mapping Discovery

The recent radar mapping discovery of widely distributed patterns of intensive agriculture in the southern Maya lowlands provides new perspectives on classic Maya civilization. Swamps seem to have been drained, modified, and intensively cultivated in a large number of zones. The largest sites of Maya civilization are located on the edges of swamps. By combining radar data with topographic information, it is possible to suggest the reasons for the choice of urban locations. With the addition of patterns elicited from rank-ordering of Maya cities, it is also possible to suggest more accurate means of defining Classic period Maya polities.

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How Maya Archaeologists Discovered the 99% Through the Study of Settlement Patterns

Annual Review of Anthropology ◽

10.1146/annurev-anthro-102218-011044 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 48 (1) ◽

pp. 1-16 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jeremy A. Sabloff

Keyword(s):

Settlement Patterns ◽

Settlement Pattern ◽

Ancient Maya ◽

Single Group ◽

Ruling Elite ◽

Maya Archaeology ◽

Maya Civilization ◽

The Many

This article presents an autobiographical perspective on the changing nature of Maya archaeology, focusing on the role of settlement pattern studies in illuminating the lives of commoners as well as on the traditional emphasis on the ruling elite. Advances in understanding the nature of nonelite peoples in ancient Maya society are discussed, as are the many current gaps in scholarly understandings of pre-Columbian Maya civilization, especially with regard to the diversity of ancient “commoners” and the difficulty in analyzing them as a single group.

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The Vanderbilt Petexbatun Regional Archaeological Project 1989–1994: Overview, History, and Major Results of a Multidisciplinary Study of the Classic Maya collapse

Ancient Mesoamerica ◽

10.1017/s0956536100001693 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 8 (2) ◽

pp. 209-227 ◽

Cited By ~ 42

Author(s):

Arthur A. Demarest

Keyword(s):

Social Organization ◽

Classic Maya ◽

Classic Period ◽

Multidisciplinary Study ◽

Design Structure ◽

Maya Civilization ◽

History Of ◽

Archaeological Project ◽

Maya Collapse ◽

New Evidence

AbstractThe background, research design, structure, personnel, and history of investigations of the Vanderbilt Petexbatun Archaeological Project are summarized and critiqued. The major findings of each of the dozen subprojects of this multidisciplinary investigation of Maya civilization in the southwestern Peten region of Guatemala are reviewed. Subproject results include important new evidence on Classic Maya history, warfare, ecology, nutrition, cave ritual, social organization, and trade. These are summarized with particular emphasis on the implications of the Petexbatun findings for theories of the decline of southern lowland Maya civilization at the end of the Classic period.

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Social Integration and the Classic Maya

American Antiquity ◽

10.2307/2694487 ◽

1966 ◽

Vol 31 (5Part1) ◽

pp. 625-631 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

William A. Haviland

Keyword(s):

Social Integration ◽

Population Size ◽

Classic Maya ◽

Classic Period ◽

Effective Force ◽

Maya Civilization ◽

Ethnographic Data

AbstractIn recent years, there has been much interest in the use of ethnographic data derived from modern Maya groups for the interpretation of Classic Maya civilization. It has been suggested by some that civil and religious positions in Classic Maya society were filled by a system of rotation such as exists today among some Maya groups. Such a system would have served as a powerful force for the integration of both priest and peasant in Classic Maya society. This proposition is examined here in the light of recent data which show a relation between such existing "cargo" systems and population size. On the basis of settlement data from Tikal, Guatemala, it is concluded that such a system of rotation would not have been an effective force for social integration at large sites of the Classic period, and that other possible factors must be considered in this respect.

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Classic Maya civilization in detail

Science ◽

10.1126/science.361.6409.1350-j ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 361 (6409) ◽

pp. 1350.10-1352

Author(s):

Andrew M. Sugden

Keyword(s):

Classic Maya ◽

Maya Civilization

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Monumental Landscapes as Instruments of Radical Economic Change

Approaches to Monumental Landscapes of the Ancient Maya ◽

10.5744/florida/9780813066226.003.0012 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 242-267

Author(s):

Arthur A. Demarest ◽

Bart I. Victor ◽

Chloé Andrieu ◽

Paola Torres

Keyword(s):

High Risk ◽

Eighth Century ◽

Classic Maya ◽

Ancient Maya ◽

Economic Decline ◽

Present Evidence ◽

Network Failure ◽

Economic Transformations ◽

Failure Evaluation

In Chapter 13, Demarest and collaborators present evidence from the southwestern frontier Classic Maya port city of Cancuen that can help explain the nature of the southern lowlands’ economic decline by contrasting it with Cancuen’s late eighth century economic transformations and meteoric florescence; while other western Petén dynasties disintegrated, Cancuen flourished. One element of this apogee was the creation of new forms of monumental and ritual settings to recruit and maintain non-Maya economic exchange partners. This “innovation network” came to control critical routes and resources leading to changes in management, production, and economic power. However, as with many high-risk “innovation partnership networks,” success was truncated by abrupt network failure. Evaluation of this phenomenon by economists provides insights into ancient Maya economy and the role of monumentality in both its legitimation and transformation.

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