Mayan History

The Maya are probably the best-known of the classical civilizations of Mesoamerica. Originating in the Yucatan around 2600 B.C., they rose to prominence around A.D. 250 in present-day southern Mexico, Guatemala, western Honduras, El Salvador, and northern Belize.

Building on the inherited inventions and ideas of earlier civilizations such as the Olmec, the Mayans developed astronomy, calendar systems and hieroglyphic writing. The Mayans were famous for building elaborate and highly decorated ceremonial architecture, including temple-pyramids, palaces and observatories. They were also skilled farmers, clearing large sections of tropical rain forest and, where groundwater was scarce, building sizeable underground reservoirs for the storage of rainwater. The Mayans were equally skilled as weavers and potters, and cleared routes through jungles and swamps to cultivate extensive trade networks with distant people.

Many people believe that the ancestors of the Mayans crossed the Bering Strait at least 20,000 years ago. They were nomadic hunter-gatherers. Evidence of settled habitation in Mexico is found in the Archaic period 5000-1500 BC - corn cultivation, basic pottery and stone tools.

The first true civilization was established with the rise of the Olmecs in the Pre-Classic period 1500 BC -300 AD. The Olmecs settled on the Gulf Coast, and little is known about them.

The Mayans are regarded as the inventors of many aspects of Meso-American cultures including the first calendar and hieroglyphic writing in the Western hemisphere. Archeologists have not settled the relationship between the Olmecs and the Mayans, and it is a mystery whether the Mayans were their descendants, trading partners, or had another relationship. It is agreed that the Mayans developed a complex calendar and the most elaborate form of hieroglyphics in America, both based on the Olmec's versions.

Mayans seem to have entered Yucatan from the west. As usual with ancient nations, it is difficult in the beginning to separate myth from history. Their earliest mentioned leader and deified hero, Itzamn, being considered to be simply a sun-god common to the Mayan civilization is represented as having led the first migration from the Far East, beyond the ocean, along a pathway miraculously opened through the waters.

The second migration, which seems to have been historic, was led from the west by Kukulcan, a miraculous priest and teacher, who became the founder of the Mayan kingdom and civilization. Fairly good authority, based upon study of the Mayans chronicles and calendar, places this beginning near the close of the second century of the Christian Era.

Under Kukulcan the people were divided into four tribes, ruled by as many kingly families: the Cocom, Tutul-xiu, Itza and Chele. To the first family belonged Kukulcan himself, who established his residence at Mayanspan, which thus became the capital of the whole nation. The Tutul-xiu held vassal rule at Uxmal, the Itza at Chichen-Itza, and the Chele at Izamal. To the Chele was appointed the hereditary high priesthood, and their city became the sacred city of the Mayans. Each provincial king was obliged to spend a part of each year with the monarch at Mayapan. This condition continued down to about the eleventh century, when, as the result of a successful revolt of the provincial kings, Mayapan was destroyed, and the supreme rule passed to the Tutul-xiu at Uxmal.

Later on Mayapan was rebuilt and was again the capital of the nation until about the middle of the fifteenth century, when, in consequence of a general revolt against the reigning dynasty, it was finally destroyed, and the monarchy was split up into a number of independent petty states, of which eighteen existed on the peninsula at the arrival of the Spaniards.

In consequence of this civil war a part of the Itza emigrated south to Lake Peten, in Guatemala, where they established a kingdom with their capital and sacred city of Flores Island in the lake.

Modern Mayans

In spite of the invasion of foreign tourism, Mayan culture has remained amazingly intact. Many of the Yucatan Mayans whose ancestors were hunters, chicle farmers and fisherman now work in hotels and other tourist related businesses. More than 350,000 Mayans living in the Yucatan speak the language of the Yukatec Mayans, and most speak Spanish as a second language, primarily learned in school.

The clothing worn is as it was in the past. It is relatively easy to determine the village in which the clothing was made by the type of embroidery, color, design and shape. Mayan women can be seen wearing huipils, simple cotton dresses decorated with embroidery. The designs in their embroidery and weaving can be traced back to pre-Columbian times.

Although Mayans in other parts of Central America choose to limit contact with outside influences, Mayans working in the tourist industry are generally open to conversation with polite strangers and if asked will teach you a Mayan phrase or two.

In the Indian communities, as it was with their Mayan ancestors, the basic staple diet is corn.

Mayan dialects of Qhuche, Cakchiquel, Kekchi, and Mam are still spoken today, although the majority of Indians also speak Spanish.

Popol Vuh - A Creation Story

In the nineteenth century a copy of the Popol Vuh - The Book of Council surfaced in highland Guatemala. The book was written in Quiche Maya but in the Roman alphabet. As mysteriously as it appeared, it disappeared but was available long enough to be copied. The manuscript is dated to the sixteenth century, but the story is rooted in the past, far beyond. The intriguing question arises: Are there other manuscripts, jealously guarded from prying outsiders, somewhere among the five million Maya?

The Hero Twins of the Popol Vuh are Hunahpu and Xpalanque, the sons and nephew of two other ill-fated twins.

The story begins long before their illustrious appearance. It tells of the three other creations before this one. Each previous world was destroyed because of grave faults in their characters. The older twins, Hun-Hunahpu and Vucub Hunahpu, were ballplayers called down to Xibalba by the Lords of Death because they were making too much noise with their ball playing. The lords challenge the twins to a game which they have no intention of losing. They defeat the twins by cheating and then sacrifice them. One head was buried under the ball court and the other was hung from the calabash tree as a warning not to offend the Lords of Xibalba. The daughter of one of the lords is fascinated by this head on the tree and goes for a closer look. The head tells her to stretch out her hand and he spits into her palm, magically impregnating her. Learning of her condition, the lords order her sacrifice but she convinces the executioner to release her and she escapes to the Middle world where she seeks out her mother-in-law. After initial skepticism, the mother-in-law takes her in and she gives birth to the Hero Twins.

The twins do not know of their identity; instead they believe that they are farmers and after many adventures, they find out that they are ballplayers. They retrieve their father's gear which the grandmother had hidden and take up ball playing. Surely enough, the Lords are disturbed and they are called to answer for their indiscretion. However, unlike their ancestors, they outwit the lords. The first trial was to keep a torch and two cigars lit all night in the Dark House. They trick the lords by putting fire flies on the tips of the cigars and passing off a macaw tail as the flame of the torch. The following day the twins play ball against the lords and allow themselves to lose. That night, they have a second challenge and the following days and nights proceed similarly. Each task placed by the lords is won by trickery.

The final night, they are placed in the Bat House, filled with shrieking bats. They crawl into their blowguns to escape them and as morning comes, the bats quiet down. As Hunahpu peeks out the muzzle of his blowgun, a bat swoops down and beheads him. His head is the ball in the next ball game. Xpalanque recovers his brother's head by switching a squash carved to look like a head when it rolls into high grass. When the squash smashes on the ball court the Lords of Death are enraged to find out that they have been fooled once again. The lords decide to burn the Twins to death this time. Learning of this plan, the twins instruct two wise men to advise the lord on how to dispose their remains. The lords lure them to the stone pit and the twins are challenged to jump over the pit. Instead, the twins willingly jump in. The lords follow the seers' advice and grind the twins' bones and throw the powder into the river. After five days, they are resurrecting with faces of catfish. On the sixth day, they take on their human head and begin to travel Xibalba as magical performers. The Lords of Death learn of their amazing skills and order a performance in their court.

The twins comply and enthrall the lords with decapitations and dismemberments of animals and themselves from which they recover whole. The anxious lords insist on becoming a part of the act and the twins willingly sacrifice them but do not bring them back to life. In this way the lords are defeated and hope is given to humankind. Any soul which is called to Xibalba has the hope of defeating death and becoming an ancestor.

Across Caves Branch

From the Mountain Pine Ridge, the Caves Branch River descends into the valleys of the Sibun Hills and Joins the Sibun River. On its course, it passes through green forests that hide white cliffs under a blue sky.

The basalt and granite that form the Mountain Pine Ridge is the result of volcanic activity during the Paleozoic Era, long before bacteria made their evolutionary debut. Nothing else of Belize and for that matter Central America existed, for a vast ocean separated North from South America. It wasn't until the Cretaceous Period some 200 million years ago that Belize began to take shape. Dinosaurs roamed the great continents at this time but the rest of Belize was slowly forming below the sea. For the next 60 million years a reef surrounded these little islands in a tropical sea and enough creatures lived and died to leave behind their skeletons that have formed the limestones of the Maya Mountains. The layer is 1,000 to 2,000 meters thick in some places. Eventually the sea level fell and the mountains of Central America pushed their way upward to put a slender waist between two continents. In the 120 million years since the Cretaceous ended wind, rain, and faulting have cut the Maya Mountains into the face of Belize. The foothills of these mountains resemble rolling hills covered in a green blanket but a close look reveals something else.

Rugged describes the hills from the headwaters of the Caves Branch between Cooma Cairn and Baldy Sibun to its link with the Sibun River. The catchment basin is only 88 square km but a substantial river pours out of this bowl. All along its course, the limestone of the hills and valleys pirates the surface water to form underground streams that feed the Caves Branch. The Caves Branch itself flows for only 10 km before it is also swallowed by the limestone hills though which it has forced a channel to meet the Sibun. Where the river flows on the surface, it has cut banks as much as 10 meters deep into the limestone and it protects itself from further piracy from the limestone below by accumulating cobble, gravel and shale that has cemented into a non-porous bed. The valley which the Caves Branch has carved is only 2 km wide and the steep sided hills which are more like cliffs averaging 30 meters in height. Erosion has isolated the hills from each other and cut them into many shapes and sizes so to climb one hill, one must descend into the valley to ascend the next. Geologists call this limestone terrain "cockpit karst". The most effective way to hike the terrain is to travel through the narrow and winding valleys between these hills. The hilltops are nearly bare rock and are deeply fissured. The plants which grab a foothold on the tops are succulents since rainfall runs off the hilltops or percolates into the fissures. The slopes of these hills are really short cliffs; one set on top, the other all the way to the top. Trees on the way up manage a precarious toe-hold and are easily buffeted down during high winds. During heavy rains, hundreds of small streams, some lasting a mere four hours, flow down the hillsides and into the valley below. Water which percolates into these hills form more enduring underground streams and over the millennia, they have dissolved thousands of caves, into the landscape.

Since the 17th century when Europeans arrived to log the forests, the caves have been used as shelter from the rain and cold by the loggers and the chicleros and hunters who followed. These days rural Belizeans may picnic in the mouths of these caves and more unscrupulous visitors hunt pre-Colombian artifacts the Mayas left behind. The Mayas were the first to venture into the caves. The most renown in the area is the Petroglyph Cave with its hieroglyphic texts on the walls. Possibly all of these caves contain pottery, pottery shards and even burials. The Mayas had a special reverence for caves since their entrances were considered the entrances to Xibalba, their Underworld. According to their creation stories, several deities inhabit these Caves.

Descent into Xibalba

Caves are the culture the Mayas involved from its very beginning. In fact, many of their stories may have roots in Olmec civilization which proceeded theirs and greatly influenced the direction the Maya took in their beliefs in how the world worked. Caves became an inseparable part of their concept of the universe and religion. Before we become too esoteric, we'll expand on the more practical functions of caves to the Maya during their cultural flowering over a thousand years ago and their uses today.

Caves are abundant in the low-lying Yucatan Peninsula and in the mountains covering the rest of the Maya heartland. In many of these caves, scientists have found pottery and pottery shards to numerous to collect, evidence that the Mayas frequently used caves. The many differing varieties and qualities of pots suggest that the caves were multi-functional. Besides pottery, other cave artifacts include jade, obsidian, stingray spines, marine shells, and tools such as wooden spears and chert blades.

A most important use for caves in the Yucatan Peninsula is their source of water. The Yucatan Peninsula is a limestone platform where surface streams completely disappear early in the six month long dry season. The metropolis of the Maya Yucatan could only exist because of the underground springs. "Cenotes" or wells formed where the roof of a cave had collapsed provided the easiest way to get water. Cenote, incidentally, is the Spanish corruption of the Yucatec word "dzonot" Where ever cenotes did not exist, the Maya travelled into the caves to reach their water supply. John Stephens in "Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan" describes the Mayas descending cliff faces on rotting ladders and crawling through tunnels on their hands and knees, guided by calabashed on their back supported by a tumpline. Many generations of water-bearers had worn deep, smooth grooves into the bedrock. Stephens' companion, Fredrick Catherwood, immortalized the Mayas' descent on lithograph into the great underground well at Bolonchen. Today we can walk through the tunnels of this famous cave and stand at the brink of the first black void. After five more precarious descents, water is reached at the four hundred and fifty foot level. A second practical, and thankfully less terrifying use of caves, was long-term grain storage. Caves are relatively dry areas when compared to the tropical elements outside. Large clay jars have been found containing the remnants of grain.

As the Mayas built their cities, caves remained a part of their consciousness. Pyramids became symbols of the sacred mountains and temples at the top symbolized the mouth of caves. "Pure" water was water which had never touched the ground and could only be found dripping off stalactites in the caves. Large jars were placed beneath the stalactites to collect the water. Today, many of these jars are still found, intact, on cave floors where they were placed to collect water. Many times the drip has stopped long ago and the pot is cemented to the cave floor by the calcium carbonates found in cave water. In the Belize region, the Mayas began to abandon their ceremonial centers around 850 AD. Religious and ritual moved away from the pyramids and into caves as many contain ceremonial artifacts from this period and later.

Today, caves are still a focus for the Mayas. The Quiche of highland Guatemala carry out sacrifice in the cave at Utatlan, and undoubtedly, in more to ask permission of the Mundos to plant their maize or to kill the animals for food for all earthly things belong to them. The people also visit the caves when some one is ill since illness is caused by the removal of a part of the soul by the ancestral gods. They come to ask back for the piece of soul and in exchange will sacrifice a chicken. Another reason to return to the caves is to bury the afterbirth of children because that is where the power of many generations of ancestors lay. These are ancestors who are ready to help their successors in their work.