The Mayan The Mayan

The rise and fall of the Mayan civilizations is divided into seven major time periods. The first period is when the earliest Mayan Chiefdoms were formed, in approximately 1500 B.C. This period, called the Early and Preclassic period, extended until 400 B.C. After this came the Late Preclassic period in which the earliest statutes were found carved by Mayans in the southern Maya area. During the Late Preclassic era, the earliest monuments with Long Count dates were erected and the beautiful city of Tikal was founded by a royal Mayan leader (Yax Moch Xoc) (Sharer, xi).

After the Preclassic period ended, around 250 A.D., the next period is the Early Classic period, which extended until 600 A.D. This is when the Middle Mayan Civilization began, Copan was founded and a woman ruled Palenque. The next 200 years comprised the Late Classic period. Tikal was now ruled by its 27th through 29th king, Copan had its 16th king (Yax Pac) and Yaxchilan was ruled by its third Shield Jaguar king (Sharer, xii).

The last three period in Mayan history were the Terminal Classic period (from 800 to 900 A.D.), the Early Postclassic period (900-1200 A.D.) and the Late Postclassic period (1200-1524 A.D.) During this last period the grea

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ll other Classic Maya centers (Fash, 182). Moreover, author Fash points out that because the Mayan religious and political systems focused on ancestor worship and royal exhaltation, local rivalries were not forestalled by any overall unification process (Fash 182-183). In other words, each area, whether it was in the highlands or lowlands, had its own king and was organized along kinship lines from the Classic period and beyond. What the Maya needed was either one ruler that could overcome local rivalries, or some other unifying political element which was not present. As will later be discussed, the Spanish has the advantage of having one rule and the tenets of Christianity which they used to suppress the more diverse Mayan culture and communities. According to authors Linda Schele and David Freidel, in their book, A Forest of Kings, the beginning of the end of literacy for the Maya occurred well before the Spanish conquest. While they note that Copan virtually disappeared by the end of the Classic period, they claim that other Mayan cities were also disbanding their political and social frameworks during this time. Other Mayan kingdoms died, kings were defeated as at Dos Pilas, and many of the Mayan turned to a less com
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Approximate Word count = 2785
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)

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