Misplaced Pages

#420579

108-474: Mayan or Maya mythology is part in of Mesoamerican mythology and comprises all of the Maya tales in which personified forces of nature, deities , and the heroes interacting with these play the main roles. The legends of the era have to be reconstructed from iconography . Other parts of Mayan oral tradition (such as animal tales, folk tales, and many moralising stories) are not considered here. In Maya narrative,

216-625: A CIA case officer and as a part of a front organization, Western Enterprises in Taiwan , as part of efforts to counter the influence of the Mao Zedong regime in China. Coe's graduate advisor was Gordon Willey . In his Harvard dissertation at La Victoria, Guatemala, he established the first secure chronology of ceramics for southern Mesoamerica. With Richard Diehl at San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán , he used new magnetometry techniques to locate and salvage most of

324-409: A 'stone trap'; and burning them on a certain rock. All of these jaguars represent the power of hostile social groups. Codical vases show similar feats but appear to ascribe them to four men. A down-lying jaguar deity associated with war and terrestrial fire has a boulder thrown onto his belly, perhaps belonging to a trap; alternatively, he is tied and put to the torch, in one scene while being seated on

432-480: A Yucatec fire ritual (Relación de Mérida), a crocodile symbolizes the deluge and the earth; such a crocodile, called Itzam Cab Ain , was instrumental in causing a flood and was defeated by having its throat cut (Books of Chilam Balam of Maní and Tizimín). Pre-Spanish data are suggestive of these events. A water-spewing, deer-hooved celestial dragon on page 74 of the Dresden Codex is generally believed to be causing

540-563: A boar with the upper god clinging to it. The group with the wounded old man has been explained by concepts and tales relating to the hunt, but also by the abduction episode of Hummingbird myth, in a reconstructed Classic version. One such version runs like this: “The aged god Huk Siʼp [the Lord of the Deer] fell ill. One of the Twins changes to a deer in order to abduct his wife. The wife of Huk Siʼp flees with

648-465: A boulder-like altar. Probably because jaguars can also symbolize hostile rulers and their warriors, the latter episode is referred to in certain monumental inscriptions at Naranjo , as well as in the art of Tonina (bound captive with jaguar god attributes). The same inscriptions connect the Classic Jaguar Slayer theme to that of the enigmatic Jaguar Baby . As mentioned earlier, 'Hummingbird'

756-637: A cacao tree as the severed head of Hun-Hunahpu suspended in a calabash tree. However, there is also a tendency to treat the Tonsured Maize God as an agent in his own right. Scholars have compared him to the maize hero of the Gulf Coast peoples and identified several episodes from this deity's mythology in Maya art, such as his aquatic birth and rebirth, his musical challenge to the deities of water and rain (on San Bartolo 's west wall) and his victorious emergence from

864-672: A cave in Oaxaca. Earlier maize samples have been documented at the Los Ladrones cave site in Panama , c. 5500 BCE. Slightly thereafter, semi- agrarian communities began to cultivate other crops throughout Mesoamerica. Maize was the most common domesticate, but the common bean, tepary bean, scarlet runner bean, jicama , tomato and squash all became common cultivates by 3500 BCE. At the same time, these communities exploited cotton , yucca , and agave for fibers and textile materials. By 2000 BCE, corn

972-402: A complex combination of ecological systems, topographic zones, and environmental contexts. These different niches are classified into two broad categories: the lowlands (those areas between sea level and 1000 meters) and the altiplanos , or highlands (situated between 1,000 and 2,000 meters above sea level). In the low-lying regions, sub-tropical and tropical climates are most common, as

1080-572: A convergence of geographic and cultural attributes. These sub-regions are more conceptual than culturally meaningful, and the demarcation of their limits is not rigid. The Maya area, for example, can be divided into two general groups: the lowlands and highlands. The lowlands are further divided into the southern and northern Maya lowlands. The southern Maya lowlands are generally regarded as encompassing northern Guatemala , southern Campeche and Quintana Roo in Mexico, and Belize . The northern lowlands cover

1188-553: A deluge. A Postclassic mural from Mayapan shows a tied crocodile in the water, whereas a Classic inscription from Palenque (Temple XIX) mentions the decapitation of a crocodile. On several vases, the Monkey Brothers of the Popol Vuh , Hun-Batz ('One Howler Monkey') and Hun-Choven, are shown as Howler monkey gods writing books and sculpting human heads. Hieroglyphically and metaphorically, the acts of writing and sculpting can refer to

SECTION 10

#1732876370421

1296-516: A great variety of Mayan and Mesoamerican tales in addition to the Popol Vuh . Mythological representations run from the Late-Preclassic murals of San Bartolo up to the Late-Postclassic codices. The following is an overview of ancient myths that connect, in grand part, to the broad narrative themes of early-colonial and more recent oral traditions outlined above. In an early description of

1404-539: A larger area in the Americas, but it has also previously been used more narrowly to refer to Mesoamerica. An example is the title of the 16 volumes of The Handbook of Middle American Indians . "Mesoamerica" is broadly defined as the area that is home to the Mesoamerican civilization, which comprises a group of peoples with close cultural and historical ties. The exact geographic extent of Mesoamerica has varied through time, as

1512-535: A network of trade routes for the exchange of luxury goods, such as obsidian , jade , cacao , cinnabar , Spondylus shells, hematite , and ceramics. While Mesoamerican civilization knew of the wheel and basic metallurgy , neither of these became technologically relevant. Among the earliest complex civilizations was the Olmec culture, which inhabited the Gulf Coast of Mexico and extended inland and southwards across

1620-893: A number of popular works for the non-specialist audience, several of which were best-selling and much reprinted, such as The Maya (1966) and Breaking the Maya Code (1992). With Rex Koontz, he co-authored the book Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs , published in 1962. Coe was born in New York City, the son of designer Clover Simonton and banker William Rogers Coe . He attended Fay School in Southborough, Massachusetts , and St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire . He graduated from Harvard College in 1950, and he received his PhD in anthropology from

1728-656: A period commonly known as the Tikal Hiatus . The Late Classic period (beginning c. 600 CE until 909 CE) is characterized as a period of interregional competition and factionalization among the numerous regional polities in the Maya area. This largely resulted from the decrease in Tikal's socio-political and economic power at the beginning of the period. It was therefore during this time that other sites rose to regional prominence and were able to exert greater interregional influence, including Caracol, Copán , Palenque , and Calakmul (which

1836-823: A portion of the Sierra Madre chain is known as the Eje Volcánico Transversal , or the Trans-Mexican volcanic belt. There are 83 inactive and active volcanoes within the Sierra Madre range, including 11 in Mexico, 37 in Guatemala, 23 in El Salvador, 25 in Nicaragua, and 3 in northwestern Costa Rica. According to the Michigan Technological University, 16 of these are still active. The tallest active volcano

1944-687: A regionally important center during the Postclassic. The latter portion of the Postclassic is generally associated with the rise of the Mexica and the Aztec Empire . One of the more commonly known cultural groups in Mesoamerica, the Aztec politically dominated nearly all of central Mexico, the Gulf Coast, Mexico's southern Pacific Coast (Chiapas and into Guatemala), Oaxaca, and Guerrero . The Tarascans (also known as

2052-455: A sort of 'strip books' may once have existed. The surviving Mayan books are mainly of a ritual and also (in the case of the Paris Codex ) historical nature, and contain few mythical scenes. As a consequence, depictions on temple walls, stelae, and movable objects (especially the so-called 'ceramic codex') are used to aid reconstruction of pre-Spanish Mayan mythology. A main problem with depictions

2160-480: A technological departure from previous construction techniques. Major Puuc sites include Uxmal , Sayil , Labna , Kabah , and Oxkintok . While generally concentrated within the area in and around the Puuc hills , the style has been documented as far away as at Chichen Itza to the east and Edzna to the south. Chichén Itzá was originally thought to have been a Postclassic site in the northern Maya lowlands. Research over

2268-605: Is Popocatépetl at 5,452 m (17,887 ft). This volcano, which retains its Nahuatl name, is located 70 km (43 mi) southeast of Mexico City. Other volcanoes of note include Tacana on the Mexico–Guatemala border, Tajumulco and Santamaría in Guatemala, Izalco in El Salvador, Arenal in Costa Rica, and Concepción and Maderas on Ometepe , which is an island formed by both volcanoes rising out of Lake Cocibolca in Nicaragua. One important topographic feature

SECTION 20

#1732876370421

2376-475: Is a list of some of the specialized resources traded from the various Mesoamerican sub-regions and environmental contexts: Mesoamerican architecture is the collective name given to urban, ceremonial and public structures built by pre-Columbian civilizations in Mesoamerica. Although very different in styles, all kinds of Mesoamerican architecture show some kind of interrelation, due to very significant cultural exchanges that occurred during thousands of years. Among

2484-420: Is also one of only five regions of the world where writing is known to have independently developed (the others being ancient Egypt , India , Sumer , and China ). Beginning as early as 7000 BCE, the domestication of cacao , maize , beans , tomato , avocado , vanilla , squash and chili , as well as the turkey and dog , resulted in a transition from paleo-Indian hunter-gatherer tribal groupings to

2592-414: Is also the parallel narrative of a maize hero defeating the deities of Thunder and Lightning and establishing a pact with them. Although its present spread is confined to the Gulf Coast areas, various data suggest that this myth was once a part of Mayan oral tradition as well. Important mythological fragments about the heroic reduction of the jaguars and the acquisition of jaguar power have been preserved by

2700-619: Is another Classic-period polity that expanded and flourished during this period, but the Zapotec capital exerted less interregional influence than the other two sites. During the Early Classic, Teotihuacan participated in and perhaps dominated a far-reaching macro-regional interaction network. Architectural and artifact styles (talud-tablero, tripod slab-footed ceramic vessels) epitomized at Teotihuacan were mimicked and adopted at many distant settlements. Pachuca obsidian, whose trade and distribution

2808-453: Is argued to have been economically controlled by Teotihuacan, is found throughout Mesoamerica. Tikal came to dominate much of the southern Maya lowlands politically, economically, and militarily during the Early Classic. An exchange network centered at Tikal distributed a variety of goods and commodities throughout southeast Mesoamerica, such as obsidian imported from central Mexico (e.g., Pachuca) and highland Guatemala (e.g., El Chayal , which

2916-458: Is defining what constitutes a mythological scene, since any given scene might also represent a moment in a ritual sequence, a visual metaphor stemming from oral literature, a scene from mundane life, or a historical event. The easiest way to solve this problem is to focus on scenes that include known mythological actors. This only became possible in the early 1970s, when an enormous increase in the number of Maya vases available for study occurred. In

3024-449: Is marked by the rise and dominance of several polities. The traditional distinction between the Early and Late Classic is marked by their changing fortune and their ability to maintain regional primacy. Of paramount importance are Teotihuacán in central Mexico and Tikal in Guatemala; the Early Classic's temporal limits generally correlate to the main periods of these sites. Monte Albán in Oaxaca

3132-696: Is one notable difference between Mesoamerica and the cultures of the South American Andes. Other animals, including the duck , dogs , and turkey , were domesticated . Turkey was the first to be domesticated locally, around 3500 BCE. Dogs were the primary source of animal protein in ancient Mesoamerica, and dog bones are common in midden deposits throughout the region. Societies of this region did hunt certain wild species for food. These animals included deer, rabbit , birds, and various types of insects. They also hunted for luxury items, such as feline fur and bird plumage. Mesoamerican cultures that lived in

3240-451: Is roughly 200 km (120 mi). The northern side of the Isthmus is swampy and covered in dense jungle—but the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, as the lowest and most level point within the Sierra Madre mountain chain, was nonetheless a main transportation, communication, and economic route within Mesoamerica. Outside of the northern Maya lowlands, rivers are common throughout Mesoamerica. Some of

3348-502: Is still speculative here. K-numbers refer to vases on http://research.mayavase.com/kerrmaya.html UP = University Press Mesoamerica In the pre-Columbian era , many indigenous societies flourished in Mesoamerica for more than 3,000 years before the Spanish colonization of the Americas began on Hispaniola in 1493. In world history, Mesoamerica was the site of two historical transformations: (i) primary urban generation, and (ii)

Maya mythology - Misplaced Pages Continue

3456-617: Is the Isthmus of Tehuantepec , a low plateau that breaks up the Sierra Madre chain between the Sierra Madre del Sur to the north and the Sierra Madre de Chiapas to the south. At its highest point, the Isthmus is 224 m (735 ft) above mean sea level. This area also represents the shortest distance between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean in Mexico. The distance between the two coasts

3564-410: Is the hero of a widespread narrative about the wooing and abduction of the daughter of the principal mountain deity. Since the daughter represents the 'bride-wealth' of the earth, this tale was also recited as part of the procedures to ask for the hand of a girl. Accordingly, a famous Classic vase shows a suitor with a hummingbird mask presenting a vase to the upper god and what appears to be his daughter,

3672-640: Is the largest lake in Mesoamerica. Lake Chapala is Mexico's largest freshwater lake, but Lake Texcoco is perhaps most well known as the location upon which Tenochtitlan , capital of the Aztec Empire, was founded. Lake Petén Itzá , in northern Guatemala, is notable as where the last independent Maya city, Tayasal (or Noh Petén), held out against the Spanish until 1697. Other large lakes include Lake Atitlán , Lake Izabal , Lake Güija , Lemoa and Lake Xolotlan . Almost all ecosystems are present in Mesoamerica;

3780-572: Is true for most of the coastline along the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea . The highlands show much more climatic diversity, ranging from dry tropical to cold mountainous climates ; the dominant climate is temperate with warm temperatures and moderate rainfall. The rainfall varies from the dry Oaxaca and north Yucatán to the humid southern Pacific and Caribbean lowlands. Several distinct sub-regions within Mesoamerica are defined by

3888-670: The Angkor civilization of ancient Cambodia, Angkor and the Khmer Civilization (2003, 2nd ed. 2018), was described by David P. Chandler as "the most thoroughgoing, accessible, and persuasive synthesis of precolonial Cambodian history, society and culture" that he had ever read. Coe added qualified support to the "Cultura Madre" view of the Olmec as the "mother culture of Mesoamerican civilization". His use of information obtainable from looted Maya ceramics attracted criticism. Some of Coe's work in

3996-613: The Cora and Huichol , the Chontales, the Huaves, and the Pipil, Xincan and Lencan peoples of Central America. Central American Area: Los Naranjos By roughly 6000 BCE, hunter-gatherers living in the highlands and lowlands of Mesoamerica began to develop agricultural practices with early cultivation of squash and chili. The earliest example of maize dates to c. 4000 BCE and comes from Guilá Naquitz ,

4104-800: The Grijalva River , the Motagua River , the Ulúa River , and the Hondo River . The northern Maya lowlands, especially the northern portion of the Yucatán peninsula, are notable for their nearly complete lack of rivers (largely due to the absolute lack of topographic variation). Additionally, no lakes exist in the northern peninsula. The main source of water in this area is aquifers that are accessed through natural surface openings called cenotes . With an area of 8,264 km (3,191 sq mi), Lake Nicaragua

4212-496: The Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 1959. In 1955, shortly after commencing his graduate studies program at Harvard University, he married Sophie Dobzhansky , the daughter of the noted evolutionary biologist and Russian émigré Theodosius Dobzhansky . She was then an undergraduate anthropology student at Radcliffe College . Sophie translated the work of Russian mayanist Yuri Knorozov , The Writing of

4320-466: The Isthmus of Tehuantepec . Frequent contact and cultural interchange between the early Olmec and other cultures in Chiapas , Oaxaca , and Guatemala laid the basis for the Mesoamerican cultural area. All this was facilitated by considerable regional communications in ancient Mesoamerica , especially along the Pacific coast. In the subsequent Preclassic period , complex urban polities began to develop among

4428-653: The Itza at Tayasal and the Kowoj at Zacpeten , remained independent until 1697. Some Mesoamerican cultures never achieved dominant status or left impressive archaeological remains but are nevertheless noteworthy. These include the Otomi , Mixe–Zoque groups (which may or may not have been related to the Olmecs), the northern Uto-Aztecan groups, often referred to as the Chichimeca , that include

Maya mythology - Misplaced Pages Continue

4536-886: The Kaqchikel at Iximche in the Guatemalan highlands. The Pipil resided in El Salvador , the Nicarao were in western Nicaragua and northwestern Costa Rica , and the Ch'orti' were in eastern Guatemala and northwestern Honduras . In central Mexico, the early portion of the Postclassic correlates with the rise of the Toltec and an empire based at their capital, Tula (also known as Tollan ). Cholula , initially an important Early Classic center contemporaneous with Teotihuacan, maintained its political structure (it did not collapse) and continued to function as

4644-562: The Maya , with the rise of centers such as Aguada Fénix and Calakmul in Mexico; El Mirador , and Tikal in Guatemala, and the Zapotec at Monte Albán . During this period, the first true Mesoamerican writing systems were developed in the Epi-Olmec and the Zapotec cultures. The Mesoamerican writing tradition reached its height in the Classic Maya logosyllabic script . In Central Mexico,

4752-824: The Monte Alto Culture may have preceded the Olmec. Radiocarbon samples associated with various sculptures found at the Late Preclassic site of Izapa suggest a date of between 1800 and 1500 BCE. During the Middle and Late Preclassic period, the Maya civilization developed in the southern Maya highlands and lowlands, and at a few sites in the northern Maya lowlands. The earliest Maya sites coalesced after 1000 BCE, and include Nakbe , El Mirador , and Cerros . Middle to Late Preclassic Maya sites include Kaminaljuyú , Cival , Edzná , Cobá , Lamanai , Komchen , Dzibilchaltun , and San Bartolo , among others. The Preclassic in

4860-543: The Nahua peoples began moving south into Mesoamerica from the North, and became politically and culturally dominant in central Mexico, as they displaced speakers of Oto-Manguean languages . During the early post-Classic period, Central Mexico was dominated by the Toltec culture, and Oaxaca by the Mixtec . The lowland Maya area had important centers at Chichén Itzá and Mayapán . Towards

4968-582: The Popol Vuh was but a fragment of a great lost pan-Maya mythology, and that Classic Maya rulers were shamanic figures as well as administrators. Aside from his work on the Maya, his short paper published during the height of processual archaeology , entitled "The Churches on the Green", which imagined how that approach would fail to discern the origins and purpose of three churches on the New Haven Green if they were studied five thousand years later. His book on

5076-416: The Popol Vuh , has the hero brothers tend to a dying deer covered by a shroud with crossed bones, in a scene that may represent the transformation of the heroes' father into a deer. In both Maya and non-Maya hero tales, such a transformation is equivalent to the origin of death. The San Bartolo west wall murals may show still another episode, namely, Hunahpu bringing the first sacrifices in the four quarters of

5184-477: The Postclassic are differentiated by the cyclical crystallization and fragmentation of the various political entities throughout Mesoamerica. The Mesoamerican Paleo-Indian period precedes the advent of agriculture and is characterized by a nomadic hunting and gathering subsistence strategy. Big-game hunting, similar to that seen in contemporaneous North America, was a large component of the subsistence strategy of

5292-673: The Purépecha ) were located in Michoacán and Guerrero. With their capital at Tzintzuntzan , the Tarascan state was one of the few to actively and continuously resist Aztec domination during the Late Postclassic. Other important Postclassic cultures in Mesoamerica include the Totonac along the eastern coast (in the modern-day states of Veracruz , Puebla , and Hidalgo ). The Huastec resided north of

5400-404: The Chiapas highlands, and Kaminaljuyú in the central Guatemala highlands, were important southern highland Maya centers. The latter site, Kaminaljuyú, is one of the longest occupied sites in Mesoamerica and was continuously inhabited from c. 800 BCE to around 1200 CE. Other important highland Maya groups include the Kʼicheʼ of Utatlán , the Mam in Zaculeu , the Poqomam in Mixco Viejo , and

5508-488: The Classic Period, albeit in versions only partially coinciding with the sixteenth-century narrative. It is, for example, not at all common to find them as ball players. Two or three other episodes stand out instead. The first one, corresponding to the isolated Vucub Caquix tale in the Popol Vuh , is the defeat of a bird demon already illustrated in Late-Preclassic Izapa and the earliest ball court of Copan, and found all over Mesoamerica. The second episode, not represented in

SECTION 50

#1732876370421

5616-401: The Maya Indians (1967). Knorozov based his studies on De Landa's phonetic alphabet and is credited with originally breaking the Maya code. Coe's brother, William Robertson Coe II , was also a prominent Mayanist, associated with the University of Pennsylvania . The two brothers had a falling-out in the 1960s and rarely spoke of each other afterward. During the Korean War , Coe worked as

5724-401: The Mesoamerican Paleo-Indian. These sites had obsidian blades and Clovis -style fluted projectile points . The Archaic period (8000–2000 BCE) is characterized by the rise of incipient agriculture in Mesoamerica. The initial phases of the Archaic involved the cultivation of wild plants, transitioning into informal domestication and culminating with sedentism and agricultural production by

5832-463: The Moon, and the Elder Brethren are transformed into wild pigs and other forest animals. In a comparable way, the Elder Brethren of the Popol Vuh Twin myth are transformed into monkeys, with their younger brothers becoming Sun and Moon. To the west of the Maya area, the transformation of two brothers into sun and moon is the main subject of many tales. It is doubtful that mythological narratives were ever completely rendered hieroglyphically, even though

5940-414: The Olmec colossal heads now known, such that he is now considered one of the discoverers of the Olmec. Coe and his students have contributed greatly to the decipherment of Maya writing. He championed Yuri Knorosov and the phonetic approach to decipherment, against the public rebukes of J. E. S. Thompson . At Yale University he taught the Mayanists Peter Mathews , Karl Taube , and Stephen D. Houston ,

6048-432: The Olmec field came under scrutiny by two scholars of Pre-Columbian art . For example, his work on the Cascajal Block and on the Wrestler was called into question. The scholars disputed his claims and found his work inadequately supported by evidence. The Cascajal block was argued to have many features fully consistent with Olmec imagery. The same was said for the Wrestler . Their criticisms were based on what

6156-405: The Olmec include San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán , La Venta , and Tres Zapotes . Specific dates vary, but these sites were occupied from roughly 1200 to 400 BCE. Remains of other early cultures interacting with the Olmec have been found at Takalik Abaj , Izapa , and Teopantecuanitlan , and as far south as in Honduras . Research in the Pacific Lowlands of Chiapas and Guatemala suggest that Izapa and

6264-401: The Sun, his wife the Moon. A moralistic Tzotzil version has a man rewarded with a daughter of the Rain Deity, only to get divorced and lose her again. The origin of Sun and Moon is not always the outcome of a Marriage with the Earth. From Chiapas and the western Guatemalan Highlands comes the tale of Younger Brother and his jealous Elder Brethren: Youngest One becomes the Sun, his mother becomes

6372-421: The Totonac, mainly in the modern-day states of Tamaulipas and northern Veracruz. The Mixtec and Zapotec cultures, centered at Mitla and Zaachila respectively, inhabited Oaxaca. The Postclassic ends with the arrival of the Spanish and their subsequent conquest of the Aztecs between 1519 and 1521. Many other cultural groups did not acquiesce until later. For example, Maya groups in the Petén area, including

6480-409: The Twins. The aged god asks Itzamnaaj that he brings back his wife. Riding on a deer Itzamnaaj pursues the Twins. The Twins attack Itzamnaaj and wound him. Itzamnaaj saves himself from them by riding a peccary [wild boar]. The Twins reconcile with Itzamnaaj and bring him gifts.” Another reconstruction, however, casts an antlered maize deity ('Maize-Deer God') in the role of the presumed abductor. Much

6588-413: The Tzotzil and Chol Maya. This mythological type defines the relationship between humankind and the game and crops. An ancestral hero - Xbalanque in a Kekchi tradition - changes into a hummingbird to woo the daughter of an Earth God while she is weaving, or to abduct her; the hero's wife is finally transformed into the game, bees, snakes and insects, or the maize. If the hero gets the upper hand, he becomes

SECTION 60

#1732876370421

6696-440: The central Mexican highlands is represented by such sites as Tlapacoya , Tlatilco , and Cuicuilco . These sites were eventually superseded by Teotihuacán , an important Classic-era site that eventually dominated economic and interaction spheres throughout Mesoamerica. The settlement of Teotihuacan is dated to the later portion of the Late Preclassic, or roughly 50 CE. In the Valley of Oaxaca , San José Mogote represents one of

6804-401: The city of Teotihuacan ascended at the height of the Classic period; it formed a military and commercial empire whose political influence stretched south into the Maya area and northward. Upon the collapse of Teotihuacán around 600 CE, competition between several important political centers in central Mexico, such as Xochicalco and Cholula , ensued. At this time during the Epi-Classic period,

6912-412: The civilization extended North and South from its heartland in southern Mexico. The term was first used by the German ethnologist Paul Kirchhoff , who noted that similarities existed among the various pre-Columbian cultures within the region that included southern Mexico, Guatemala , Belize , El Salvador , western Honduras , and the Pacific lowlands of Nicaragua and northwestern Costa Rica . In

7020-424: The close of the period. Transformations of natural environments have been a common feature at least since the mid Holocene. Archaic sites include Sipacate in Escuintla , Guatemala, where maize pollen samples date to c. 3500 BCE. The first complex civilization to develop in Mesoamerica was that of the Olmec , who inhabited the Gulf Coast region of Veracruz throughout the Preclassic period. The main sites of

7128-478: The control of a Toltec empire. Chronological data refutes this early interpretation, and it is now known that Chichén Itzá predated the Toltec; Mexican architectural styles are now used as an indicator of strong economic and ideological ties between the two regions. The Postclassic (beginning 900–1000 CE, depending on area) is, like the Late Classic, characterized by the cyclical crystallization and fragmentation of various polities. The main Maya centers were located in

7236-470: The creation of human beings. A myth transmitted by Las Casas puts these acts in their proper, transcendent perspective by describing how previous efforts at creation failed, until two artisan brothers, Hun-Ahan and Hun-Cheven, received permission to create humankind and, indeed, the present universe, through their artifice. Tales about the Hero Brothers whom the Popol Vuh calls Hunahpu and Xbalanque (the iconographical 'Headband Gods') already circulated in

7344-429: The creation of humankind to artisan gods similar to the Popol Vuh monkey brothers. The creation of humanity is concluded by the Mesoamerican tale of the opening of the Maize (or Sustenance) Mountain by the Lightning deities. The best-known hero myth, included in the Popol Vuh , is about the defeat of a bird demon and of the deities of disease and death by the Hero Twins , Hunahpu and Xbalanque. Of considerable interest

7452-479: The end of the post-Classic period, the Aztecs of Central Mexico built a tributary empire covering most of central Mesoamerica. The distinct Mesoamerican cultural tradition ended with the Spanish conquest in the 16th century. Eurasian diseases such as smallpox and measles , which were endemic among the colonists but new to North America, caused the deaths of upwards of 90% of the indigenous people, resulting in great losses to their societies and cultures. Over

7560-524: The enormous El Chayal obsidian fields . Coe discovered the Primary Standard Sequence, a sequence of hieroglyphs appearing around the rim of many Classic Maya ceramic vessels. Coe organized an exhibit of some of those ceramics at the Grolier Club in New York, where he also publicized, for the first time, a newly-discovered Maya codex — the first found in the Americas — and only the fourth known to exist. Some of Coe's other insights were given in casual comments to his students or in short reports, including that

7668-428: The formation of New World cultures from the mixtures of the indigenous Mesoamerican peoples with the European, African, and Asian peoples who were introduced by the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Mesoamerica is one of the six areas in the world where ancient civilization arose independently (see cradle of civilization ), and the second in the Americas, alongside the Caral–Supe in present-day Peru . Mesoamerica

7776-564: The image of the sky. First Father had entered the sky and made a house of eight partitions there. He had also raised the Wakah-Chan, the World Tree, so that its crown stood in the north sky. And finally, he had given circular motion to the sky, setting the constellations into their dance through the night." More recently, two major works by Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos (2011, 2017) opened up new horizons of iconographic interpretation by considering

7884-533: The late twentieth century. He specialised in comparative studies of ancient tropical forest civilizations , such as those of Central America and Southeast Asia. He held the chair of Charles J. MacCurdy Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus, Yale University , and was curator emeritus of the Anthropology collection in the Peabody Museum of Natural History , where he had been curator from 1968 to 1994. Coe authored

7992-457: The latter of whom collaborated with David Stuart . He sometimes collaborated with his Yale colleague, anthropological linguist Floyd Lounsbury . Coe also advised the authors of The Blood of Kings , a work about Classic Maya rulership, Mary Ellen Miller , at Yale, and Linda Schele , at the University of Texas at Austin. Coe's Breaking the Maya Code (1992), which describes these breakthroughs,

8100-548: The latter's turtle abode. Others, however, prefer to view the 'musical challenge' as a rainmaking ritual and the emergence from the turtle abode as the Opening of the Maize Mountain. Another frequent scene, the maize god surrounded by nude women, may relate to the fact that the Tonsured Maize God also functions as a moon god; for in many Mesoamerican sun and moon tales, a playful young man becomes moon rather than sun after giving in to

8208-432: The low flatlands of the northern Yucatán Peninsula. The tallest mountain in Mesoamerica is Pico de Orizaba , a dormant volcano located on the border of Puebla and Veracruz . Its peak elevation is 5,636 m (18,490 ft). The Sierra Madre mountains, which consist of several smaller ranges, run from northern Mesoamerica south through Costa Rica . The chain is historically volcanic . In central and southern Mexico,

8316-421: The lowlands and coastal plains settled down in agrarian communities somewhat later than did highland cultures because there was a greater abundance of fruits and animals in these areas, which made a hunter-gatherer lifestyle more attractive. Fishing also was a major provider of food to lowland and coastal Mesoamericans creating a further disincentive to settle down in permanent communities. Ceremonial centers were

8424-496: The lures of young women. Other scholars, however, view the women as 'corn maidens', or even as the maize deity's 'harem', a concept not otherwise attested. According to a concept prevalent among Maya groups of Chiapas, in the dim past jaguars presented a continuous threat to humankind. In their myths and rituals, Tzotzil, Tzeltal and Ch'ol Mayas have therefore highlighted the deeds of jaguar-slaying heroes, deeds such as killing jaguars transfixed to their stone seats; catching jaguars in

8532-407: The maize; diseases and their curative herbs; agricultural instruments; the steam bath, etc. The following more encompassing themes can be discerned. The Popol Vuh describes the creation of the earth by a group of creator deities, as well as its sequel. The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel relates the collapse of the sky and the deluge, followed by the slaying of the earth crocodile, the raising of

8640-418: The moon. In the same context belongs the well-known figurine of a bird perched on a loom and observing a young woman weaving. A number of codical vases show antlered young men together with young women and amazons mounting a deer, all of them surrounding a wounded or dying old man who is the patron deity of the deer (Sip). Additional scenes have the upper god, Itzamna, riding a deer and the hero brothers hunting

8748-573: The more important ones served as loci of human occupation in the area. The longest river in Mesoamerica is the Usumacinta , which forms in Guatemala at the convergence of the Salinas or Chixoy and La Pasión River and runs north for 970 km (600 mi)—480 km (300 mi) of which are navigable—eventually draining into the Gulf of Mexico . Other rivers of note include the Río Grande de Santiago ,

8856-603: The more well known are the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System , the second largest in the world, and La Mosquitia (consisting of the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve , Tawahka Asangni, Patuca National Park , and Bosawás Biosphere Reserve ) a rainforest second in size in the Americas only to the Amazonas . The highlands present mixed and coniferous forest. The biodiversity is among the richest in

8964-426: The most well-known structures in Mesoamerica, the flat-top pyramids are a landmark feature of the most developed urban centers. Michael D. Coe Michael Douglas Coe (May 14, 1929 – September 25, 2019) was an American archaeologist , anthropologist , epigrapher , and author. He is known for his research on pre-Columbian Mesoamerica , particularly the Maya , and was among the foremost Mayanists of

9072-489: The next centuries, Mesoamerican indigenous cultures were gradually subjected to Spanish colonial rule. Aspects of the Mesoamerican cultural heritage still survive among the indigenous peoples who inhabit Mesoamerica. Many continue to speak their ancestral languages and maintain many practices hearkening back to their Mesoamerican roots. The term Mesoamerica literally means "middle America" in Greek. Middle America often refers to

9180-496: The northern lowlands. Generally applied to the Maya area, the Terminal Classic roughly spans the time between c. 800/850 and c. 1000 CE. Overall, it generally correlates with the rise to prominence of Puuc settlements in the northern Maya lowlands , so named after the hills where they are mainly found. Puuc settlements are specifically associated with a unique architectural style (the "Puuc architectural style") that represents

9288-558: The northern lowlands. Following Chichén Itzá, whose political structure collapsed during the Early Postclassic, Mayapán rose to prominence during the Middle Postclassic and dominated the north for c. 200 years. After Mayapán's fragmentation, the political structure in the northern lowlands revolved around large towns or city-states, such as Oxkutzcab and Ti’ho ( Mérida, Yucatán ), that competed with one another. Toniná , in

9396-466: The nuclei of Mesoamerican settlements. The temples provided spatial orientation, which was imparted to the surrounding town. The cities with their commercial and religious centers were always political entities, somewhat similar to the European city-state , and each person could identify with the city where they lived. Ceremonial centers were always built to be visible. Pyramids were meant to stand out from

9504-449: The oldest permanent agricultural villages in the area, and one of the first to use pottery. During the Early and Middle Preclassic, the site developed some of the earliest examples of defensive palisades , ceremonial structures, the use of adobe , and hieroglyphic writing . Also of importance, the site was one of the first to demonstrate inherited status , signifying a radical shift in socio-cultural and political structure. San José Mogote

9612-473: The organization of sedentary agricultural villages. In the subsequent Formative period, agriculture and cultural traits such as a complex mythological and religious tradition , a vigesimal numeric system, a complex calendric system , a tradition of ball playing , and a distinct architectural style , were diffused through the area. Villages began to become socially stratified and develop into chiefdoms , and large ceremonial centers were built, interconnected by

9720-502: The origin of many natural and cultural phenomena is set out, often with the moral aim of defining the ritual relationship between humankind and its environment. In such a way, one finds explanations about the origin of the heavenly bodies (Sun and Moon, but also Venus, the Pleiades , the Milky Way); the mountain landscape; clouds, rain, thunder and lightning; wild and tame animals; the colors of

9828-679: The past few decades has established that it was first settled during the Early/Late Classic transition but rose to prominence during the Terminal Classic and Early Postclassic. During its apogee, this widely known site economically and politically dominated the northern lowlands. Its participation in the circum-peninsular exchange route, possible through its port site of Isla Cerritos , allowed Chichén Itzá to remain highly connected to areas such as central Mexico and Central America. The apparent "Mexicanization" of architecture at Chichén Itzá led past researchers to believe that Chichén Itzá existed under

9936-652: The remainder of the northern portion of the Yucatán Peninsula . Other areas include Central Mexico, West Mexico, the Gulf Coast Lowlands, Oaxaca , the Southern Pacific Lowlands, and Southeast Mesoamerica (including northern Honduras ). There is extensive topographic variation in Mesoamerica, ranging from the high peaks circumscribing the Valley of Mexico and within the central Sierra Madre mountains to

10044-416: The rest of the city, to represent the gods and their powers. Another characteristic feature of the ceremonial centers is historic layers. All the ceremonial edifices were built in various phases, one on top of the other, to the point that what we now see is usually the last stage of construction. Ultimately, the ceremonial centers were the architectural translation of the identity of each city, as represented by

10152-484: The seventies, the leading Maya scholar Michael D. Coe identified several actors of the Popol Vuh hero myth on ceramics, chief amongst these Hunahpu, Xbalanque, and the Howler Monkey brothers (Hun Batz and Hun Choven). This initiated a tendency among scholars to interpret vase scenes nearly exclusively in terms of the Popol Vuh . Especially influential in this respect was one of Coe's students, Karl Taube , who equated

10260-579: The sky and the erection of the five World Trees. The Lacandons also knew the tale of the creation of the Underworld. The Popol Vuh gives a sequence of four efforts at creation: First were animals, then wet clay, wood, and then last, the creation of the first ancestors from maize dough. To this, the Lacandons add the creation of the main kin groupings and their 'totemic' animals. A Verapaz myth preserved by Las Casas in his 'Apologética Historia Sumaria' assigns

10368-407: The so-called "tonsured maize god" with Hun-Hunahpu , the father of the Popol Vuh hero brothers. Using bits from monumental inscriptions, Linda Schele even composed a cosmogonic myth for this "First Father", one that still awaits iconographic confirmation. It runs as follows: "Under the aegis of First Father, One-Maize-revealed, three stones were set up at a place called 'Lying-down-sky', forming

10476-543: The standard terminology of precolumbian anthropological studies. Conversely, the sister terms Aridoamerica and Oasisamerica , which refer to northern Mexico and the western United States, respectively, have not entered into widespread usage. Some of the significant cultural traits defining the Mesoamerican cultural tradition are: Located on the Middle American isthmus joining North and South America between ca. 10° and 22° northern latitude , Mesoamerica possesses

10584-621: The time following the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century is classified as the Colonial period. The differentiation of early periods (i.e., up through the end of the Late Preclassic ) generally reflects different configurations of socio-cultural organization that are characterized by increasing socio-political complexity , the adoption of new and different subsistence strategies , and changes in economic organization (including increased interregional interaction). The Classic period through

10692-407: The tradition of cultural history , the prevalent archaeological theory of the early to middle 20th century, Kirchhoff defined this zone as a cultural area based on a suite of interrelated cultural similarities brought about by millennia of inter- and intra-regional interaction (i.e., diffusion ). Mesoamerica is recognized as a near-prototypical cultural area. This term is now fully integrated into

10800-411: The veneration of their gods and masters. Stelae were common public monuments throughout Mesoamerica and served to commemorate notable successes, events, and dates associated with the rulers and nobility of the various sites. Given that Mesoamerica was broken into numerous and diverse ecological niches, none of the societies that inhabited the area were self-sufficient, although very long-distance trade

10908-733: The world, though the number of species in the red list of the IUCN grows every year. The history of human occupation in Mesoamerica is divided into stages or periods. These are known, with slight variation depending on region, as the Paleo-Indian , the Archaic , the Preclassic (or Formative), the Classic , and the Postclassic . The last three periods, representing the core of Mesoamerican cultural fluorescence, are further divided into two or three sub-phases. Most of

11016-685: The world. Finally, the Headband Gods often participate in the mythology of the Tonsured Maize God , the Maize Hero. The Tonsured Maize God is the subject of many episodes, only part of which has been explained. Often he is accompanied by the Hero Twins. Some scholars consider him the Classic form of the Hero Twins' father, the failed hero Hun-Hunahpu, and accordingly view the maize god's head attached to

11124-563: Was allied with Caracol and may have assisted in the defeat of Tikal), and Dos Pilas Aguateca and Cancuén in the Petexbatún region of Guatemala. Around 710, Tikal arose again and started to build strong alliances and defeat its worst enemies. In the Maya area, the Late Classic ended with the so-called " Maya collapse ", a transitional period coupling the general depopulation of the southern lowlands and development and florescence of centers in

11232-400: Was common only for very rare goods, or luxury materials. For this reason, from the last centuries of the Archaic period (8000 BCE– 1000 BCE) onward, regions compensated for the environmental inadequacies by specializing in the extraction of certain abundant natural resources and then trading them for necessary unavailable resources through established commercial trade networks. The following

11340-472: Was eventually overtaken by Monte Albán , the subsequent capital of the Zapotec empire , during the Late Preclassic. The Preclassic in western Mexico, in the states of Nayarit , Jalisco , Colima , and Michoacán also known as the Occidente, is poorly understood. This period is best represented by the thousands of figurines recovered by looters and ascribed to the " shaft tomb tradition ". The Classic period

11448-525: Was nominated for a National Book Award. Coe was the first to date El Baúl Stela 1 correctly (Coe 1957; cf. Parsons 1986:61); this sculpture from the Southern Maya Area (SMA) is one of three known with Cycle 7 Long-count dated monuments, predating all Lowland Long-count dated sculptures. With Kent V. Flannery , he was the first to observe that the greatest southern area site, Kaminaljuyu , probably profited greatly from its proximity to and exploitation of

11556-571: Was predominantly used by the Maya during the Early Classic), and jade from the Motagua valley in Guatemala. Tikal was often in conflict with other polities in the Petén Basin , as well as with others outside of it, including Uaxactun , Caracol , Dos Pilas , Naranjo , and Calakmul . Towards the end of the Early Classic, this conflict lead to Tikal's military defeat at the hands of Caracol in 562, and

11664-506: Was the staple crop in the region, and remained so through modern times. The Ramón or Breadnut tree ( Brosimum alicastrum ) was an occasional substitute for maize in producing flour. Fruit was also important in the daily diet of Mesoamerican cultures. Some of the main ones consumed include avocado , papaya , guava , mamey , zapote , and annona . Mesoamerica lacked animals suitable for domestication, most notably domesticated large ungulates . The lack of draft animals for transportation

#420579