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Maya Warfare
Although the Maya were once thought to have been peaceful, current theories emphasize the role of inter-polity warfare as a factor in the development and perpetuation of Maya society. The goals and motives of warfare in Maya culture are not thoroughly understood, but scholars have developed models for Maya warfare based on several lines of evidence, including fortified defenses around structure complexes, artistic and epigraphic depictions of war, and the presence of weapons such as obsidian blades and projectile points in the archaeological record. Warfare can also be identified from archaeological remains that suggest a rapid and drastic break in a fundamental pattern due to violence. Maya polities engaged in violent warfare for political control of people and resources. Some scholars have suggested that the capture of sacrificial victims was a driving force behind warfare. Among the most critical resources were water and agricultural land. Economic control of resources such as o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Toniná 6
Tonina (or Toniná in Spanish orthography) is a pre-Columbian archaeological site and ruined city of the Maya civilization located in what is now the Mexican state of Chiapas, some 13 km (8.1 mi) east of the town of Ocosingo. The site is medium to large, with groups of temple-pyramids set on terraces rising some above a plaza, a large court for playing the Mesoamerican ballgame, and over 100 carved monuments, most dating from the 6th century through the 9th centuries AD, during the Classic period. Toniná is distinguished by its well preserved stucco sculptures and particularly by its in-the-round carved monuments, produced to an extent not seen in Mesoamerica since the end of the much earlier Olmec civilization. Toniná possesses one of the largest pyramids in Mexico; at in height, it is taller than the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan. Toniná was an aggressive state in the Late Classic, using warfare to develop a powerful kingdom. For much of its history, Toni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aguateca
Aguateca is a Maya site located in northern Guatemala's Petexbatun Basin, in the department of Petén. The first settlements at Aguateca date to the Late Preclassic period (300 BC - AD 350). The center was occupied from about 200 B.C. until about 800 A.D., when the city was attacked and ransacked. Because the city was rapidly abandoned by its population, Pompeii-style assemblages were left scattered on the floors of elite residences. Horizontal excavation of these residences has revealed ancient elite activity and household level craft production areas. Aguateca sits on top of a tall limestone bluff, creating a highly defensible position. This steep escarpment overlooks Petexbatun Lagoon in the Southwestern Guatemalan lowlands and is accessible by boat. There is an extensive system of defensive walls that surrounds the city, reaching over in length.Martin & Grube (2000). p. 65 Its center consisted on the Palace Group, which was probably a royal residential compound, and th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pulltrouser Swamp
Pulltrouser Swamp is a wetland area located in northern Belize, between the New River (Belize) and Hondo River (Belize). This area contains numerous archaeological sites belonging to the Maya civilization, the most studied features of which are the raised field structures. Three of these sites, called Raised-Field Site I, Raised-Field Site 2, and Raised-Field site 3, were excavated by archaeologists B.L. Turner and Peter D. Harrison.Turner, B.L. and Peter D. Harrison, 1983. ''Pulltrouser Swamp: ancient Maya habitat, agriculture, and settlement in northern Belize''. Austin: University of Texas Press. Settlements Located north of Orange Walk in Belize is a Y-shaped settlement that makes up a series of complex elongated depressions. In Pulltrouser there were three different immediate settlements that surrounded the swamp equalling 8.5 km. In these settlements the key to organization was the utilization of hillsides and slopes for the raised fields. The people of Pulltrouser ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area that begins in the southern part of North America and extends to the Pacific coast of Central America, thus comprising the lands of central and southern Mexico, all of Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, and parts of Honduras, Nicaragua and northwestern part of Costa Rica. As a cultural area, Mesoamerica is defined by a mosaic of cultural traits developed and shared by its indigenous cultures. In the pre-Columbian era, many Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous societies flourished in Mesoamerica for more than 3,000 years before the Spanish colonization of the Americas began on Hispaniola in 1493. In world history, Mesoamerica was the site of two historical transformations: (i) primary urban generation, and (ii) the formation of New World cultures from the mixtures of the indigenous Mesoamerican peoples with the European, African, and Asian peoples who were introduced by the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Mesoameri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Belize City
Belize City is the largest city in Belize. It was once the capital city, capital of the former British Honduras. According to the 2022 census, Belize City has a population of 63,999 people. It is at the mouth of the Haulover Creek, which is a distributary of the Belize River. The Belize River empties into the Caribbean Sea from Belize City on the Philip Goldson Highway on the coast of the Caribbean Sea, Caribbean. The city is the country's principal port and its financial and industrial hub. Cruise ships drop anchor outside the port and are tendered by local citizens. The city was almost entirely destroyed in October 1961 when Hurricane Hattie swept ashore. It was the capital of British Honduras (as Belize was then named) until the government was moved to the new capital of Belmopan in 1970. History Belize City English settlement of Belize, was founded as "Belize Town" in 1638 by Baymen, English lumber harvesters. It had been a small Maya peoples, Maya settlement called ''Ho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colha, Belize
Colha, Belize is a Maya archaeological site located in northern portion of the country, about 52 km. north of Belize City, near the town of Orange Walk. The site is one of the earliest in the Maya region and remains important to the archaeological record of the Maya culture well into the Postclassic Period. According to Palma Buttles, “Archaeological evidence from Colha allows for the interpretation occupation from the Early Preceramic (3400-1900B.C.) to Middle Postclassic (A.D. 1150-1300) with population peaks occurring in the Late Preclassic (400B.C.- A.D. 100) and again in the Late Classic ( A.D. 600-850)”.Buttles, Palma J. 2002. Material and Meaning: A Contextual Examination of Select Portable Material Culture from Colha, Belize. Dissertation for University of Texas at Austin. These peaks in population are directly related to the presence of stone tool workshops at the site. Colha's proximity to an important source of high quality chert that is found in the Cenozoic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nacimiento (Mayan City)
Nacimiento may refer to: Settlements *Nacimiento, Chile, a municipality in the province of Bío Bío, region of Bío Bío, Chile *Nacimiento, Spain, a municipality in the province of Almería, Andalusia, Spain *Nacimiento, California, United States *Lake Nacimiento, California, United States *, in the Mexican state of Coahuila, a Kickapoo settlement Other geographic features *Nacimiento Mountains, a mountain range in the northwestern part of the US state of New Mexico *Cerro del Nacimiento, a mountain peak in the Andes in Argentina *Nacimiento Formation, a Paleocene-age rock unit in the San Juan Basin of New Mexico *Nacimiento River, in California * Lake Nacimiento, in California Other uses *''Nacimiento 28 diciembre'', a traditional nativity scene In the Christian tradition, a nativity scene (also known as a manger scene, crib, crèche ( or ), or in Italian ''presepio'' or ''presepe'', or Bethlehem) is the special exhibition, particularly during the Christmastide, Christmas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Punta De Chimino
Punta de Chimino is a Maya archaeological site in the Petexbatún region of the department of Petén in Guatemala. Occupation at the site dates to the Preclassic and Classic periods of Mesoamerican chronology.Demarest 2006, p.124. Punta de Chimino experienced a population surge in the Late Preclassic, followed by a reduction in occupation levels in the Early Classic and another increase in the Terminal Classic when the city became one of the few population centres to survive the political disintegration of the Petexbatún region after the collapse of the kingdom based at Dos Pilas. The neighbouring city of Seibal on the Pasión River appears to have intervened at Punta de Chimino at this time and to have politically dominated the smaller site. Location The site is located on a peninsula on the western side of Lake Petexbatún.Sharer & Traxler 2006, p.386. In the Late Classic a series of defensive ditches were excavated across the base of this peninsula in order to fortify the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tamarindito
Tamarindito is an archaeological site of the Maya civilization located along an escarpment in the Petén Department, Petén Departments of Guatemala, department of Guatemala. The city was the capital of the Petexbatún region of the southwestern Petén during the Mesoamerican chronology, Early Classic period but was displaced by the newly founded conquest state of Dos Pilas. In the 8th century Tamarindito turned on its new overlord and defeated it. After the destruction of the Dos Pilas kingdom the region descended into chaos and suffered rapid population decline. The city was all but abandoned by the 9th century AD. Tamarindito was the third largest city in the Petexbatún region. The site was one of the earliest cities established in the area of the Pasion River, together with Altar de Sacrificios and Tres Islas. Tamarindito was also the first site in the Petexbatún region to gain the right to use its own Maya script#Emblem glyphs, Emblem Glyph. Archaeologists have excavated a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cancuén
Cancuén is an archaeological site of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization, located in the Pasión subregion of the central Maya lowlands in the present-day Guatemalan Department of Petén. The city is notable for having one of the largest palaces in the Maya world. Ancient Cancuén Cancuén was a major city during the Classic Period, reaching its peak during the 7th century. The city was a major trade center, specializing in jade, pyrite and obsidian. Its strategic position on the river Pasion helped it dominate trade in the region. Tajal Chan Ahk, one of the city's most powerful rulers, built the city's palace in 770 AD. The palace covered nearly 23,000 square meters and contained 200 rooms, making it the largest in the Maya area. The city had two ball courts, a large marketplace and a dock on La Pasión River. The city does not contain many large temples or burial sites; it is thought that the inhabitants of Cancuén worshipped and buried their dead in the mountains near ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dos Pilas
Dos Pilas is a Pre-Columbian site of the Maya civilization located in what is now the department of Petén, Guatemala. It dates to the Late Classic Period, and was founded by an offshoot of the dynasty of the great city of Tikal in AD 629 in order to control trade routes in the Petexbatún region, particularly the Pasión River.Salisbury, Koumenalis & Barbara Moffett 2002. In AD 648 Dos Pilas broke away from Tikal and became a vassal state of Calakmul, although the first two kings of Dos Pilas continued to use the same emblem glyph that Tikal did.Webster 2002, p. 263. It was a predator state from the beginning, conquering Itzan, Arroyo de Piedra and Tamarindito. Dos Pilas and a nearby city, Aguateca, eventually became the twin capitals of a single ruling dynasty. The kingdom as a whole has been named as the Petexbatun Kingdom, after Petexbatún Lake, a body of water draining into the Pasión River. Dos Pilas gives an important glimpse into the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Itzan
Itzan is a Maya archaeological site located in the municipality of La Libertad in the Petén Department of Guatemala.Ponciano 1991, p.232. Various small structures at the site were destroyed in the 1980s during oil exploration activities by Sonpetrol and Basic Resources Ltd, prompting rescue excavations by archaeologists. In spite of its small size, the site appears to have been the most politically important centre in its area, as evidenced by its unusually large quantity of monuments and the size of its major architecture.Ponciano 1991, pp.234-235. The site was first occupied in the Middle Preclassic, with occupation continuing to the Late Classic. Location The ruins are northwest of the Dos Pilas archaeological site on the bank of a minor tributary of the Pasión River.Sharer & Traxler 2006 , p.387. The city was on a natural hilltop surrounded by ravines and seasonal swamps.Ponciano 1991, p.234. The tributary of the Pasion River has its origin in Laguna Itzan, a small lake ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
