Page 22 - Central America

The Ancient Maya

High rainfall between 440 and 660 CE allowed
the Maya to flourish. While mild droughts in
the following years led to extensive warfare
and the decline of Mayan civilization; it was a
prolonged period of drought between 1020
and 1100 CE that was ultimately fatal.

W hen the Spanish conquistadors claimed ment, but the reasons why the great structures abandoned, the skill and knowledge of Maya
areas of Central America and Mexico in were suddenly abandoned, and the exact pur- writing persisted among segments of the popu-
the sixteenth century, they discovered the ruins poses of the massive and elaborate buildings, lation, and the early Spanish conquistadors knew
of a great civilization, that of the Mayans, who continue to remain trapped in the past. The Ma- of individuals who could still read and write the
had vanished and left evidence of their lost gran- yan culture at its pinnacle stretched from Central script. Unfortunately, the Spanish displayed little
deur in massive structures that had been over- Mexico to Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. interest in it, and as a result of the dire impacts
whelmed by the surrounding rain forest. The na- There are fourteen commonly recognized major the conquest had on Maya societies, the knowl-
tive people could not explain the significance of Mayan archeological ruin sites in the Yucatan. Tu- edge was subsequently lost, probably within
the sprawling, vacant cities to the conquistadors. lum and Coba are the most visited sites in Quin- only a few generations. When modern archae-
Unlike the great Incan cities, the Mayan centers tana Roo. ologists learned how to read Mayan hiero-
had long been abandoned. The ruins of the Ma- glyphics a history emerged that showed the
yans did not begin to reveal their secrets for 300 The Spanish Church and government officials Mayan centers were not occupied by peace-
years. Since the nineteenth century, enough in- destroyed Maya texts and with them the ful astronomers and the large structures did
formation has been gathered about the Mayan knowledge of Maya writing. Although many Maya not serve specifically as ceremonial sites.
structures to sketch a history of their develop- centers went into decline or were completely