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The Ancient Maya The Postclassic Period (AD 1000 - 1521)

 

Active Education | Chronology
The Preclassic Period | The Classic Period | The Postclassic Period


The end of the Terminal Classic Period has been viewed as the death knell for the Maya civilization, and the Postclassic has traditionally been described as a militaristic, decadent, and degenerate phase in Maya history. But more enlightened views would see that the militarism was part and parcel with other features that suggest a tendency towards secularism and the resultant downplaying of the ceremonial rituals that dominated the Classic Period. Moreover, much of our interpretations of the Postclassic were projected from ethnohistoric accounts of the Spanish intrusions in the region. Very little attention has been directed towards understanding the Postclassic through archaeology, although recent research on the period, particularly at Santa Rita in northern Belize, suggests continuity from the Classic Period.

The focus of cultural developments moved from the Central Maya Lowlands north, to the Yucatan, where the Spanish first contacted the Maya culture. Although the lowlands were greatly depopulated since the Classic Period, there still were Maya living there at the time of contact. In Belize, the site of Lamanai, is among the few examined sites of this period that exhibits continuous occupation, albeit distinct, from the Classic through the Postclassic periods. Not only did the people of Lamanai continue to build and trade with their neighbors, but they also continued to live around the center until around 1675. The Spanish founded a mission at Lamanai in 1570 and another at Tipu/Negroman in the Upper Belize River Valley. These were abandoned by the Spanish during a revolt of the Maya in the 1630s. It was not until 1696 that the Spanish conquered the last of the independent Maya city-states, the Itza of Tayasal, the descendants of the ancient Maya realm. The Central Maya Lowlands, which today include most of Belize and the Peten of Guatemala, are still home to Maya who can trace their ancestry back into prehistory as attested by the patronyms of local villagers: Teck, Bacab, Mai, Cocom, and Panti to name a few.