Preclassic Maya – The Mayan Civilization
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Also known as the Agricultural Period, there is a debate about the start and end years of this time interval. The most widely accepted timeframe for the Maya area begins around 1000 BCE and ends around 320 CE. During this period, the Maya language develops, and the Maya people gain experience and construct some large cities.
One theory, based on ceramic studies, suggests that during the Preclassic period, the Pacific Ocean coast from eastern Oaxaca to El Salvador was inhabited by the ancestors of the current Mixe and Popoluca peoples. It is from one of these groups that the Maya, around 1200 BCE, migrated to the Gulf of Mexico and developed the Olmec archaeological civilization. In fact, the oldest pottery in this region belongs to a distinctive style called Ocós, originating from the Pacific coast of Guatemala and dating back about 600 years before the Olmec.
Descendants of the Olmecs
According to another theory that complements the previous one, the descendants of the Olmecs migrated to the Guatemalan Petén area, where they later intermixed with the local people, giving rise to the «proto-Maya» group. There are some fragments that suggest they originated from a migration that took place in the original Maya core, which archaeologists have found in the Maya region of Guatemala known as El Petén. During the Middle Preclassic period, monumental cities such as Nakbé, El Mirador, and Cival began to develop in the Mirador Basin, along with their famous Preclassic murals, the finest and oldest in the Maya area. These large cities already exhibited all the characteristics that made the Maya of the Classic period famous, raising doubts as to whether the Olmecs and Maya were indeed independently developed cultures.
Subsequently, during the Postclassic period, some groups migrated from Petén northward (to the Yucatán Peninsula), while others remained there. This explains the origins of the different Maya tribes (such as the Itzá, Xiú, Cocom, Tzeltal, Lacandon, among others), as each group retained common traits with only variations in dialects. During the Spanish conquest, each of these groups adapted to cultural mestizaje (mixing) and developed unique and autonomous traditions.
Over time, the great Maya civilization flourished and reached its peak in the northern region of Petén, in the Mirador Basin, in the heart of the tropical jungle; that was its original core. Some speculate that the Maya people took many aspects of their lifestyle from the Olmec culture, although recent discoveries in cities such as El Mirador and Cival in the Petén region contradict this theory. During this period, urbanism developed in a stable and prolonged environment; they adapted to the natural surroundings and knew how to coexist with nature. This is why they are distinguished by the great respect they had for their environment as human beings.
Social Organization
It is estimated that the Petén jungle was uninhabited at the beginning of the third millennium BCE, when the first farmers built their huts along the La Pasión River and the Mirador Basin, as indicated by maize pollen samples dating back to 2750 BCE in lakes within the Mirador Basin. They began to establish relationships with the population in the Highlands and the Pacific coast of Guatemala in sites like Takalik Abaj (1000 BCE), Kaminaljuyú (800 BCE), El Salvador (900 BCE), and the Gulf Coast of Mexico.
Around 1000 BCE, the expanding population spread throughout this central area, initiating the process of urbanization, the use of more complex agricultural systems, and a more advanced political organization capable of controlling the growing population and establishing internal hierarchies, with nobles and priests occupying positions of authority.
Work
A division of labor began with the diversification of occupations: agriculture, hunting, fishing, gathering, pottery, lithic industry, textile industry, trade, and religious worship. Agricultural work prioritized the cultivation of maize, beans, cacao, and squash, while hunting, fishing, and gathering remained complementary activities. That is why this period is also known as the agricultural period.
Religion
During this period, a simple religion developed with a belief in an afterlife and the worship of the dead.
Archaeological evidence shows that the Maya began constructing ceremonial architecture about 3000 years ago. There is disagreement about the boundaries and differences between the ancient Maya and a neighboring pre-classic Mesoamerican civilization, the Olmec culture. The Olmecs and the ancient Maya appear to have influenced each other. The oldest monuments consist of simple burial mounds, and precursor to pyramids were erected later on. Gradually, the influence of Olmec culture diminished compared to the Middle Preclassic period. By the 3rd century BCE, it had ceased definitively.
However, many peoples throughout the Mesoamerican region had absorbed some of its main features (such as the worship of the dead, monumental architecture and sculpture, and the worship of water and fire deities). By the Late Preclassic, regional cultural traditions had emerged throughout Mesoamerica, built on the Olmec legacy. The Maya borrowed writing, the numbering system, the Long Count calendar, and many other things from that civilization. The Maya culture itself did not emerge until the 1st century CE, roughly contemporary with the development of Teotihuacan.
During the Late Preclassic period, numerous human settlements have been detected, including Santa Marta (Chiapas), where early ceramic work and maize cultivation dating back to 1320 BCE have been found, Chiapa de Corzo, Tonalá, Padre Piedra, and Izapa with Olmec influence; Edzná, Xicalango, Tixchel, and Santa Rosa Xtampak (Campeche); Yaxuná, Acanceh, and Dzibilchaltún (Yucatán); El Trapiche, Casa Blanca, Laguna Cuzcachapa, Las Victorias, and Bolinas (Chalchuapa); and Kaminaljuyú in southern Guatemala.
The inhabitants of the latter settlement controlled the region’s trade relations with the rest of Mesoamerica until they were invaded around 400 CE by warriors from central Mexico, from the powerful city of Teotihuacan, whose military and cultural influence has been felt throughout the Maya area since then.
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