THE MAYANS

“A millennium before Europeans were willing to divest themselves of the Biblical idea that the world was a few thousand years old, the Mayans were thinking of millions and the Hindus billions.”

Carl Sagan

I always used to get the Mayans, Aztecs, and Incans confused – until I started researching this series. That’s when I learned that the Mayan civilization emerged from the earlier Mesoamerican Civilization (one of the six cradles of civilization) around 2000 BCE – over 3000 years before the Aztecs (central Mexico) and Incans (Peru)!

The Mayans started settling on the Pacific coast then spread eastward. Eventually, their civilization stretched from Honduras and El Salvador through Guatemala, Belize, and southeastern Mexico.

Most historians break the Mayan timeline down into three periods:

The Pre-classic period lasted from approximately 2000 BCE to about 250 CE. It encompassed the transformation from an agricultural society to the beginnings of the great city-states.

The Classic period lasted from about 250 CE to the 2nd great collapse of the Mayan civilization (more on that in a later post) around 900 CE. When most people think of the Mayans, they often picture the great temples and pyramids of this time.

The last phase lasted from the end of the Classic period to the arrival of the Spanish around 1500.

Below is a picture of me at Tikal, one of the largest and best known of the great Mayan city-states. I’m standing in front of one of the impressively tall pyramids at the site – it was an amazing place!

Me at Tikal