Cerros
Cerros is an Eastern Lowland Maya archaeological site in northern Belize
Belize that functioned from the Late Preclassic to the Postclassic period. The site reached its apogee during the Mesoamerican Late Preclassic and at its peak, it held a population of approximately 1,089 people.[1] The site is strategically located on a peninsula at the mouth of the New River where it empties into Chetumal Bay
Chetumal Bay on the Caribbean coast. As such, the site had access to and served as an intermediary link between the coastal trade route that circumnavigated the Yucatán Peninsula
Peninsula and inland communities
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Chaac
Chaac (also spelled Chac or, in Classic Mayan, Chaahk [t͡ʃaːhk]) is the name of the Maya rain deity. With his lightning axe, Chaac
Chaac strikes the clouds and produces thunder and rain. Chaac
Chaac corresponds to Tlaloc among the Aztecs.Contents1 Rain deities and rain makers 2 Rain rituals 3 Mythology 4 Iconography4.1 Rain 4.2 Warfare 4.3 Narrative5 See also 6 Notes 7 References and bibliographyRain deities and rain makers[edit] Like other Maya gods, Chaac
Chaac is both one and manifold. Four Chaacs are based in the cardinal directions and wear the directional colors
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In archaeology, the classic Maya collapse is the decline of Classic Maya civilization
Maya civilization and the abandonment of Maya cities in the southern Maya lowlands of Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica between the 8th and 9th centuries, at the end of the Classic Maya Period. Preclassic Maya
Preclassic Maya experienced a similar collapse in the 2nd century.[citation needed] The Classic Period of Mesoamerican chronology
Mesoamerican chronology is generally defined as the period from 250 to 900, the last century of which is referred to as the Terminal Classic.[1] The Classic Maya collapse
Classic Maya collapse is one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in archaeology. Urban centers of the southern lowlands, among them Palenque, Copán, Tikal, and Calakmul, went into decline during the 8th and 9th centuries and were abandoned shortly thereafter
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Maya stelae
Maya stelae (singular stela) are monuments that were fashioned by the Maya civilization
Maya civilization of ancient Mesoamerica
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Ancient Maya art
Ancient Maya art refers to the material arts of the Maya civilization, an eastern and south-eastern Mesoamerican culture that took shape in the course of the later Preclassic Period (500 BCE to 200 CE). Its greatest artistic flowering occurred during the seven centuries of the Classic Period (c. 200 to 900 CE). Ancient Maya art
Ancient Maya art then went through an extended Post-Classic phase before the upheavals of the sixteenth century destroyed courtly culture and put an end to the Mayan artistic tradition. Many regional styles existed, not always coinciding with the changing boundaries of Maya polities. Olmecs, Teotihuacan
Teotihuacan and Toltecs have all influenced Maya art
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Maya textiles
Maya textiles are the clothing and other textile arts of the Maya peoples, indigenous peoples of the Yucatán Peninsula
Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador
El Salvador and Belize. Women have traditionally created textiles in Maya society, and textiles were a significant form of ancient Maya art and religious beliefs
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The music of the ancient Mayan courts is described through native and Spanish 16th-century texts and is depicted in the art of the Classic Period (200-900 AD). The Maya played instruments such as trumpets, flutes, whistles, and drums, and used music to accompany funerals, celebrations, and other rituals. Although no written music has survived, archaeologists have excavated musical instruments and painted and carved depictions of the ancient Maya that show how music was a complex element of societal and religious structure. Most of the music itself disappeared after the dissolution of the Maya courts following the Spanish Conquest
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In pre-Columbian Maya civilization, ceremonial dance had great importance. However, since dance is a transient art, it is inherently difficult for archeologists to find and evaluate evidence of its role. There is little material information left behind, beyond a few paintings on murals and vases. This lack of direct evidence leads to several different archaeological interpretations. Dance
Dance was a central component of social, religious, and political endeavors for the ancient Maya. The entire community danced, including kings, nobles, and common people. Dance
Dance served many functions such as creating sacred space, closing the gap between here and the otherworld, and releasing the dead from the grasp of the Xibalbans (see Xibalba).Contents1 Research 2 Technique 3 Overview 4 Writing of Dance 5 Meanings within dances 6 References 7 BibliographyResearch[edit] In 1966, Michael D. Coe and Elizabeth P
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Health
Health and medicine among the ancient Maya was a complex blend of mind, body, religion, ritual and science. Important to all, medicine was practiced only by a select few, who generally inherited their positions and received extensive education. These shamans acted as a medium between the physical world and spirit world. They practiced sorcery for the purpose of healing, foresight, and control over natural events. Since medicine was so closely related to religion, it was essential that Maya medicine
Maya medicine men had vast medical knowledge and skill
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Ancient Maya cuisine
Maya cuisine was varied and extensive. Many different types of resources were consumed, including maritime, flora, and faunal material, and food was obtained or produced through a host of strategies, such as hunting, foraging, and large-scale agricultural production. Plant
Plant domestication focused on several core foods, the most important of which was maize. Much of the Maya food supply was grown in agricultural fields and forest gardens, known as pet kot.[1] The system takes its name from the low wall of stones (pet meaning "circular" and kot "wall of loose stones") that characteristically surrounds the gardens. The Maya adopted a number of adaptive techniques that, if necessary, allowed for the clear-cutting of land and re-infused the soil with nutrients. Among these was slash-and-burn, or swidden, agriculture, a technique that cleared and temporarily fertilized the area
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Although the Maya were once thought to have been peaceful (see below), current theories emphasize the role of inter-polity warfare as a factor in the development and perpetuation of Maya society. The goals and motives of warfare in Maya culture are not thoroughly understood, but scholars have developed models for Maya warfare
Maya warfare based on several lines of evidence, including fortified defenses around structure complexes, artistic and epigraphic depictions of war, and the presence weapons such as obsidian blades and projectile points in the archaeological record. Warfare
Warfare can also be identified from archaeological remains that suggest a rapid and drastic break in a fundamental pattern due to violence. Maya polities engaged in violent warfare for political control of people and resources
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The history of Maya civilization
Maya civilization is divided into three principal periods: the Preclassic, Classic and Postclassic periods;[1] these were preceded by the Archaic Period, which saw the first settled villages and early developments in agriculture.[2] Modern scholars regard these periods as arbitrary divisions of chronology of the Maya civilization, rather than indicative of cultural evolution or decadence.[3] Definitions of the start and end dates of period spans can vary by as much as a century, depending on the author.[4] The Preclassic lasted from approximately 2000 BC to app
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The Spanish conquest of the Maya
Spanish conquest of the Maya was a protracted conflict during the Spanish colonisation of the Americas, in which the Spanish conquistadores and their allies gradually incorporated the territory of the Late Postclassic Maya states and polities into the colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain. The Maya occupied a territory that is now incorporated into the modern countries of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras
Honduras and El Salvador; the conquest began in the early 16th century and is generally considered to have ended in 1697. The conquest of the Maya was hindered by their politically fragmented state. Spanish and native tactics and technology differed greatly. The Spanish engaged in a strategy of concentrating native populations in newly founded colonial towns; they viewed the taking of prisoners as a hindrance to outright victory, whereas the Maya prioritised the capture of live prisoners and of booty
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Maya astronomy
Maya astronomy is the study of the Moon, planets, Milky Way, Sun, and other astronomical occurrences by the Precolumbian Maya Civilization of Mesoamerica. The Classic Maya in particular developed some of the most accurate pre-telescope astronomy in the world, aided by their fully developed writing system and their positional numeral system, both of which are fully indigenous to Mesoamerica
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Yucatán
Yucatán (Spanish pronunciation: [ɟ͡ʝukaˈtan] ( listen)), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Yucatán
Yucatán (Spanish: Estado Libre y Soberano de Yucatán), is one of the 31 states which, with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 106 municipalities, and its capital city is Mérida. It is located on the north part of the Yucatán
Yucatán Peninsula. It is bordered by the states of Campeche
Campeche to the southwest and Quintana Roo to the southeast, with the Gulf of Mexico
Mexico off its north coast. Before the arrival of Spaniards
Spaniards to the Yucatán
Yucatán Peninsula, the name of this region was Mayab.[12] In the Mayan language, "ma' ya'ab" is translated as "a few"
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Zoque people Chiapaneca people Independent Maya, including: Lakandon Ch'ol
Lakandon Ch'ol people Tojolabal people Tzotzil peopleCommanders and leadersPedro de Portocarrero Pedro de AlvaradoDiego de Mazariegos Jacinto de Barrios Lealv t eSpanish colonial campaignsCanary Islands (1402–96) Guinea (1478) Morocco (1497) Orán (1509) Bugia (1510) Tripoli (1510) Djerba (1510) Algeria (1516) Algeria (1517–18) Djerba (1520)
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