Ancient Maya Sites - a Memorable Visit

Maya civilization may have collapsed over a thousand years ago but Maya culture lives on. I was fortunate to visit three archaeological sites recently; two in Mexico: Tulum and Chacchoben, and one in Belize: Nim Li Punit. They provide a fresh perspective of this ancient and complex civilization that was famous for developing towering cities, an advanced written language, and a solar calendar close to the one we use today.

Tulum

Perched dramatically on sheer limestone cliffs above the turquoise waters of the Caribbean, Tulum is the only Maya city built on the coast not far from the resort town of Cancún. This 13th-century site was a seaport, trading mainly in turquoise and jade; its location providing major strategic advantages. It was one of the few Maya cities protected by a wall. Most prominent among the remaining structures is the castle, overlooking the coast, and a temple. North of the castle is a pathway that leads down to a sandy beach and the Caribbean Sea.

Chacchoben 

Deep in the Mexican jungle, Chacchoben is one of the best known sites in the Costa Maya region. The first human settlements in the area were around 1,000 B.C. By 360 A.D., Chacchoben had become the largest community in the region with a huge ceremonial center and ritual plaza. Only a portion of the site is open to the public; many temples are still covered with dense vegetation and awaiting their turn when the tourism department has enough funding to uncover and restore the structures, we were told!  

Nim Li Punit 

Nim Li Punit in Belize is a smaller site (5th to 8th century AD) that contains plazas, step-pyramids, carved stelae and square platforms for outdoor theaters as well as an excellent museum. The site also has a well preserved ball court with stone rings set high on the sides of the walls. Whoever got the ball through the rings won the game! There are stories, probably apocryphal, that the Maya used human (prisoner) skulls as balls! 

Classical Maya Age

Maya culture flourished from about the 9th to the 12th centuries. In its heyday, the Classical Maya age spread from modern day Belize to Guatemala and southeastern Mexico as well as western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. The Maya were already in decline (their “decadent” phase) when the Spanish invaded in the early 16th century. 

Using advanced architectural techniques, the Classic Maya developed elaborate layouts for their cities consisting of massive temple-pyramids, limestone palaces with vaulted rooms, stone plazas and stelae, ceremonial ball courts, and observatories. They built altars and towers everywhere connected by straight roads. If conditions were not propitious they moved elsewhere and set up another city! That’s why there are so many Maya cities all over the Yucatán peninsula. 

They developed a system of hieroglyphic writing and created books centuries before anything comparable appeared in Europe. There are many examples of Maya text found on stelae and ceramics. They also used mathematics and a complex series of interlocking ritual calendars. 

Cacao, Vanilla, and Maize

Historians argue that perhaps the greatest gift the Maya gave us was chocolate! To the Maya, chocolate came from the gods and formed a bridge between heaven and earth!  They first cultivated cacao 3,000 years ago. Spanish Conquistador Hernán Cortés, who caused the downfall of the Aztec Empire, learned of chocolate from the Aztecs, who in turn acquired it through trade with the Maya.

Vanilla, too - used by the Maya in the 1500s to flavor their chocolate drinks - was adopted by the Aztecs, who introduced it to Cortés. The forests of Southern Mexico are still the only place where the Vanilla orchid grows wild, pollinated by native bees that produce Maya honey. 

The Maya first cultivated corn or maize around 2,500 B.C. even though it was a food staple in Mexico 6,000 years ago.  In order to cultivate it, they abandoned  their nomadic life to settle in villages and form communities. 

Archaeological evidence indicates that black beans, sweet potatoes, squash, avocado, and papaya also originated with the Maya and then spread widely throughout Central America and the Caribbean before the Spanish introduced them to the world. 

Decline and Fall

The decline of Classic Maya centers on their political structure. Maya city-states were often at war with each other.  Rulers competed for land, subjects, and access to trade goods like jade, obsidian, and ceramics. Adding to political instability, were poor harvests, communicable diseases, ethnic conflicts, and the encroachment of tropical rainforests.

Drought and constant war caused the people to abandon their diverse and dispersed food production in favor of slash-and-burn cultivation close to their stone wall settlements, resulting in deterioration of their habitat and systemic collapse. 

Doomsday Predictions

According to our guide, deforestation and overpopulation caused the  Maya to collapse. “They messed around with Mother Nature,” he said. “Aliens didn’t take them!” He reminded us that a huge crowd of people gathered at Chichén Itzá (one of the largest and most visited archaeological sites, also in Cozumel) on December 21, 2012, waiting for the world to end!  He was spoofing a myth that the Maya had predicted some kind of apocalypse that day.

I recall frantic Internet stories that the Maya calendar had predicted the Earth's destruction with fears of mass suicides, natural disasters, and asteroids hitting the Earth! In the end, there were no catastrophes (natural or man-made) linked to the doomsday predictions. Instead, visitors went to Chichén Itzá to celebrate the start of a new and better era for humanity (that didn’t pan out either!)

Beliefs

At Chichén Itzá, the Maya combined math, astronomy, and architecture to build the monumental structure. Thousands gather for the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes every year to watch the image of a serpent appear when the sun strikes the mountain. The northwest corner of the pyramid casts a series of shadows that looks like a serpent crawling down. The Maya believe this represents Kukulcan, the serpent god.

The Maya were not afraid of death (which the Spanish found astounding) because they believed that they were going straight to heaven and would come back. They were obsessed with blood, ritual blood-letting, and sacrifice. 

Although they remained Christian for 300 years, Maya tribes went back to the old gods if they felt Christianity wasn't working for them!  It is interesting that religious concepts and rituals survived conversion to Christianity and often resulted in a fascinating mingling of pre-Columbian and Christian beliefs - similar to the famous Marcos Zapata painting of the Last Supper in Peru's Cuzco Cathedral showing Jesus and the Apostles preparing to dine - not on the traditional bread and wine, but on "cui" or guinea pig, an Incah delicacy!

"Father of the Mestizos” 

Gonzalo Garrero, considered a hero to indigenous Maya and a traitor to Spanish colonizers, has assumed mythic status in Mexico with books and films extolling him. 

In 1511, he survived a shipwreck and was taken prisoner by the local Maya at Quintana Roo. In time he turned against the Spanish, collaborated with the Maya and married a princess. Garrero declined invitations from Cortés to return, became a brave warrior for the Maya, and died in 1547 after fighting Spain for nearly 50 years. He raised three children with his Maya wife, Zazil Há, and is known as the “Father of the Mestizos” (mixed race Maya and European). 

Self-Determination and Survival

Present day Maya are raising awareness of their history, exerting their right to self-determination, and taking steps to preserve their heritage. There are 7 million Maya descendants today with 1.4 million considered pure Maya. 

Sadly, they have been under attack from commercialized mass tourism, relentless destruction of the rainforest (in Mexico), and encroachments on their land everywhere - resulting in vast dislocations.

In Guatemala, where they have suffered significant onslaughts, various Maya groups have come together to save their language and culture. Rigoberta Menchu, a Quiche Maya woman who lost most of her family to the country's fearsome "death squads," was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992. 

The Maya's increasing awareness that they are "one" people (spread over several countries) with the same shared history, rich past, and complex culture may be instrumental in helping them survive. 

Ludi Joseph

Washington, D.C. 

Dec. 3, 2018

Castle, Tulum

Temple, Tulum

Caribbean Sea below Tulum

Carved Stelae, Nim Li Punit

Carved Stelae, Nim Li Punit

Pyramid, Chacchoben

Entrance to Chacchoben Site