Populate Indian of Central America founder of a brilliant civilization précolombienne who extended on the current territories from the Mexican States from Chiapas and Yucatán, and on those of the Belize, Guatemala and Honduras. Today, the Mayas are some 2 million which belongs to the Maya linguistic group. In the tropical forests of Petén and on the arid grounds of Yucatán, the Mayas, lasting more than two millenia, developed a prestigious civilization. In IXe century of our era, their cities were given up little by little, to be redécouvertes by the explorers only as from the XIXe century. But the Maya people knew until our days to preserve their identity, in spite of the invasions and the conquests.

Origins

Stable people From Asia by the Bering Strait, like all the American people, the Mayas settled on a date which remains still unknown on the territory currently occupied by their descendants. One can however affirm that these people, or rather these people - because it is necessary to distinguish, according to their language, Chols, Chortis, Yucatèques and of many others (Maya itself gathering 24 Indian languages) - knew an exceptional stability: in spite of the vicissitudes of the history, the Mayas did not move since thousand-year-old IIe before J-C.

The Maya surface North America: cultural economies and surfaces towards 1500 Their territory covers the south-east of Mexico, the Belize and Guatemala, the west of El Salvador and Honduras, enters 14 degrees and 22 degrees of northern latitude: all the country is thus tropical, but this uniformity is only apparent. The Maya surface is traditionally divided into three geomorphological units: southernmost, fertile and moderate highlands volcanic; central lowlands, drained well by large rivers, like Motagua or Usumacinta; the arid calcareous plate of Yucatán, in north, the underground drainage. This distinction must be moderate because of the diversity of the relief, the grounds and the climate. The central lowlands are intersected with large valleys but butt in south-east against the Maya mounts. The vast calcareous plate of Yucatán is stopped by the range of hills of Puuc. To this variety of landscapes the multiplicity of the local cultural events corresponds: if there exists indeed a Maya civilization, one could not underestimate the richness of his interior diversity.

A long maturation
Establishment

Traces of occupation former to thousand-year-old IIe were identified in the highlands (Los Tapiales), in the Belize and Yucatán (caves of Loltún). But the oldest houses - with, in the vicinity, from the public edifices - which the archaeologists discovered, with Cuello, do not date that of 1000 before J-C They also recognized a reason in plait, generally associated with the idea of being able and who is thus an indication of social hierarchisation. Objects out of jade or obsidian, imported minerals of remote layers, prove the existence of exchanges to long distance. At that time, of many sites are occupied, like Tikal, and the Mayas colonize all the lowlands gradually. It is however difficult to define the nature of their relationships to close civilizations, Olmèques for example: it seems that the centers of the highlands of the South, Izapa, Abaj Takalik or Kaminaljuyú, inherited certain features olmèques, to work out in their turn their traditions (writing, calendar), but the methods of their adoption in the lowlands remain unexplained.

Autonomous cities Towards 300 before J-C occurs a phenomenon of acceleration: to the multiplication of the sites is added an intense architectural activity, sign of a strong increase in population. In Komchén or El Mirador, the inhabitants build vast platforms or pyramids; in Cerros the first playing fields of ball appear. The vault with corbelling is used in Tikal for tombs decorated with paintings. Large masks in stucco decorate the frontages, in Cerros or Uaxactún. Each site develops in an autonomous way, nevertheless one uses same red ceramics everywhere, marks undeniable cultural unit.

The protoclassic time Of the tensions appear, perhaps due to this rapid growth, between 50 and 250 of our era, period traditionally called “protoclassic”. It is not known if it is because of internal difficulties or if they are consequences of an invasion, but certain sites, like El Mirador, Komchén or Cerros, disappear definitively, while others, Tikal or Dzibilchaltún, are essential. Cities decline temporarily (Seibal) or are strengthened (Becan). Instability reigns and profits at certain cities, for example Tikal, which from now on will count during the following period, known as “the traditional old one”.

Towards a dynastic capacity In 292, Tikal sets up the first known dated stele, thus asserting a political power dominating for its dynasty, which will impose its mark at a great Maya part of the world. The role of Tikal seems to be reinforced by the bonds which link it with the large metropolis of central Mexico, Teotihuacán. This last city, populated of 200.000 inhabitants approximately, then exerts his influence on all the Mesoamerica, and one finds of them testimonys as well in the high ones as in the lowlands, in Kaminaljuyú, Becan, Yaxhá or Altun ha. But Tikal enjoys privileged reports/ratios: some of its leaders would be combined with Mexican groups, and the support of the metropolis, which appears in architecture, ceramics and the sculpture, is not foreign with the political game of Tikal: alliances (with Uaxactún) or conquests (the dynasty of Río Azul is driven out and replaced).

The cultural apogee About the middle of the Life century, one notes however in Maya territory a deceleration of the activities, which results in the interruption of the erection of dated monuments. This stop marks the end of traditional old. Soon takes place revival of an architectural and artistic activity, accompanied by a strong population growth: the great sites still develop, others leave their lethargy, like Seibal, and of new cities are founded. Around centers where abound carved pyramids and monuments organize city-States which compete of prestige. The Maya culture reaches its apogee: it will last to Xe century.

The Maya writing
First writings

The glyphes the writing of the Mayas is a combined system of signs ideographic and syllabic. Each glyphe is composed of a principal sign and affixes which supplement the direction of them. These glyphes can be nouns, verbs, and forms sentences. So much refer to acts or appoint dynastic chiefs, a big part corresponds to the time splicing.

The calendar In mathematics, the Mayas use three signs: the point is equivalent to one, the bar with five, and a shell symbolizes the zero. They count of 20 into 20, and, with the zero, use a classification of position. It is on these bases that a system of division of time was elaborate, by cycles and since one origin day. When we give a date, for example on Monday January 1, 1993, we combine several cycles, one 7 days, the second from 28 to 31 days, third the 12 month old; and we supplement by a number of years past as from one year origin. The Maya calendar is similar: a first ritual calendar combines 13 digits and 20 names of days, is 260 possibilities; a second calendar, solar, account 18 20 days months, plus 5 days harmful, are 365 days. Before the same day does not return in the two systems simultaneously, it must run out 18? 980 days (roughly 52 years). The last element rests on the number of days spent since an initial date, that is to say the day 4 Ahau (ritual calendar) 8 Cumku (solar calendar) of year 3113 before J-C As for our units, tens and hundreds, the Mayas use subdivisions: the kin, or day, is the basic unit; the uinal is equivalent to 20 days, the tun with 360, the katun with 7.200 and the baktun with 144.000. The Mayas set up dated monuments regularly and registered dates on steles and vases, signs of their obsession of time.

Economy of the Maya world
Agriculture

Like the other people of the continent, the Mayas are unaware of the metallurgy and the breeding, and thus do not have draft animals. Their economy, near to that of the Neolithic era, thus rests essentially on agriculture and the cut stone. Agriculture on denshering is the system more running: the peasant clears a field (the milpa) in dry season, then burns the vegetation, ash playing the part of fertilizer; the field is sown at the beginning of the rain season, and harvest is done with the autumn. The same field, quickly exhausted, can be cultivated only two or three years of at a stretch, then must be left in fallow during more than ten years. Each city thus needed for its subsistence for vast territories, if not it could nourish only one reduced population. However the dimension of the majority of the cities as the extent of the work concluded in little time make think that this mode of production could not be enough with the needs. The Mayas had developed more intensive systems, like agriculture in terraces (in Caracol or Río Bec) or in vegetable gardens, around the houses: a Maya site is not a city as in the Old world, but a dispersed habitat, without streets, around a strongly concentrated central core. Hunting, fishing, the gathering constituted auxiliary resources.
A fragile balance the essence of the economic activity proceeded in family setting. But the manufacture of ceramics of luxury, the production of clothing for the elite, the construction of the buildings or the sculpture suggest the existence of categories of specialists. But, especially, the diversity of the territory is accompanied by a variety of the resources. The coastal areas produce salt (and saltings), which is lacking in other cities: the production must thus be intensive. Colha, the presence of flint layers allows the mass production of agricultural tools: vast workshops were indeed identified there.

In the absence of wheels or draft animals, only the bearing or navigation made possible the exchanges, in small quantities or on short distances. The trade with long distance could relate to only the luxury items, in small quantities also. The economic situation was thus stable, but fragile, sensitive to very imponderable.

The Maya company
The social organization

The simplicity of this economy answered a social structure complexes, founded on a patrilineal family organization, a sexual division of work and a distribution by branches of industry. The farmers, i.e. the major part of the population, were divided into peasants, servants and slaves. The elite, on its side, was divided into warriors, priests, administrators and leaders. Moreover, the elite and the people did not form antagonistic categories, bus of the family ties or of alliance linked leader and servants, chiefs and peasants.
The urban organization translates this unit rather well, since the dispersed habitats of the periphery, built out of perishable materials, to the heart of the sites abounding in prestigious buildings, where the elite resides: the majority of the large buildings, pyramids or palate, are associated with chalk-lining directing, and the principal pyramid frequently shelters the tomb of a chief or an ancestor.

Maya cosmogony

More than one worship with gods (the Mayas have a multiplicity of divinities, who receive for pertaining to worship symbols of the natural elements: sources, clouds, wind, etc), the religious life and its demonstrations seem related to the worship of the ancestors. The steles or inscriptions of Copán, for example, represent the king, surrounded by his ancestors and his chalk-lining. The tombs and the pyramids are the architectural signs of the capacity of a dynasty, and the murals, such those of Bonampak, glorifient its actions. Maya cosmogony is the reflection of a pessimistic vision of the world (with the head of the Maya Pantheon is Chac, a god zoomorphe which is liked the human sacrifices) - whose testifies Popol-Vuh - and of a design of the history based on a succession of eras punctuated by floods or fires, and that one discovers in the chronicles of Chilam-Balam. The king, by the rites and his acts, ensures the perenniality of the world.

Divisions and decline

In an unstable and judged universe such, in the absence of an elaborate technology and confronted with a growth of permanent population, the Mayas could not face the destiny which they feared so much. The internal war and crises involved the decline then the fall of their cities. Thanks to their capacities of adaptation or with foreign contributions (Toltèques), certain areas have, a time, escaped with the common fate, like the cities of Puuc, Uxmal, Sayil or Kabah. With postclassic, Chichén Itzá even could be, for a short period, with the head of a true State. But the cities of Yucatán in their turn were struck by the conflicts. Chichén Itzá was abandoned about 1200, then Mayapán; then Yucatán was divided into rival provinces around minor centers, Tulum or Tayasal.

When the Spaniards tried to penetrate in Yucatán, division reigned, but the conquest was not facilitated by it: Yucatán was subjected only in 1540, Tayasal fell in 1697. One century and half later, the insurrections of the war of the castes will show the surface character of the conquest.