Mayan History

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 Cholan was the Mayan language spoken in Copan

 

Pop, Zip and Zotz were month names in the Mayan calendar

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 Ik'al was a Pre-Columbian cave-dwelling earth deity

In the Classic period  they considered Chak [Chauk]  as their  water god

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 3000 BCE

  Maize and other crops were introduced in the lowlands of what is now northern Belize

 

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2000BC

till : 1000BC    

Early preclassic period of the Maya

 

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c1500BCE

   The Mayans began to process rubber using latex from rubber trees mixed with juice from the morning glory vine. The rubber was used to make a bouncy ball for their ball games

 

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c1500BCE  

 A court to play ulama was built about this time in Chiapas, Mexico

 

Olmecs used latex balls for the game

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1200BCE  

The Chau Hiix Maya site in Belize was occupied from about this time.

Occupation continued to after the Spanish conquest

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  1200  -   400BCE    

The Olmecs dominated the coastal civilization of what later became Mexico

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1000BC   -   300BC    

Middle preclassic period of the Maya. The El Mirador and Nakbe sites in Guatemala were among the greatest centers of the middle to late classic Maya world. Pyramids up to 230 feet survive

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900BCE    

 till: about 1000AD

The site named Blackman Eddy in Belize was occupied in this period

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850        

The Chicanna temple in the Mayan city of Calakmul was built about this time

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c800BCE  -  200CE    

The Mayan city of Takalik Abaj, in later day Guatemala, served as one of the most important economic and cultural centers of pre-Columbian times

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c600BC    

From about this time the Maya gradually sculpted the land to channel water to a growing population

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c600BC    

Analysis of pottery from this time indicated that Mayans made cocoa drinks as early as this time

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c500BC

  The El Pilar site in Belize was founded about this time

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500-300BC    

Cival, about 25 miles east of the much better known city of Tikal, was discovered in 1984. It was abandoned about 100 CE. Artifacts at the site dated to this time

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c300BC    

The painted Loltun cave in the Yucatan date to the Late Preclassic

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300BC-250  

Late preclassic period of the Maya

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250BC-150BC    

  The Mayan site at El Mirador flourished during this period. In the 1980s archeologist Richard Hansen found Mayan carvings at El Mirador, Guatemala, that were sculpted well before Christ

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c150BCE    

Cival was a large and sophisticated Mayan city of some 10,000 people

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100-0BCE  

The painted cave of Naj Tunich in the Peten of Guatemala began attracting pilgrims

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100BCE-100CE    

The Mayan site of Palenque was settled by farmers over this period

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~0CE        

The Mayan city of La Milpa was founded

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c200-400    

Sealed royal tombs were found in 2 pyramids at the Yaxuna site in Mexico

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250-600    

Early Classic period of the Maya

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250-900    

The classic period of Maya culture

 

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300        

The city of Cancuen was already established by this time. Ruins of the city were discovered in 1999 in Guatemala

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300      

Mayans began building on Cozumel Island off Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula about this time. The town of San Gervasio was built and inhabited through 1650. Cozumel covers 189 square miles, about the size of Lake Tahoe

 

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300-400    

By the 4th century El Mirador, the most powerful city in the Preclassic Maya world, had become a ghost town

 

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378        

Tikal saw the establishment of a new line of kings following its military victory over many cities of the Maya Lowlands. The 1st king was Nuun Yax Ain (Green Crocodile) and he claimed descent from a Teotihuacan lord that scholars later dubbed Spear-thrower Owl

 

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400-500    

A tomb in 1996 was found in the ruins of the Maya city of La Milpa in Belize near the Mexican border. It contained the skeleton of a man adorned with a pendant depicting the head of a vulture, signifying lord or ruler. Archeologist Norman Hammond speculated that it could be the burial place of the king known as Bird Jaguar, who lived around 450, or his successor

 

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400-500    

Yax K’uk Mo (Blue-Green Quetzal Macaw) was the 5th century founder of Copan, although the site was occupied from early preclassic to late classic times

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406        

Some of the inscriptions from a stone monument from La Milpa have been deciphered to give this date

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426        

Yax K’uk Mo’ founded Copan in this year

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431        

A great Mayan dynasty arose at Palenque and soon began trading with communities hundreds of miles away

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435-808    

Yaxchilan in Mexico on the bank of the Usumacinta was occupied at least over this period. King Mah K’ina Skull III was one of the rulers during the construction of some 90 stone structures

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c435-950    

The Mayan city of Copan flourished in what is now Honduras

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30-11-437

A glyph in Copan records this date and mentions the 1st and 2nd rulers of the city-state

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440-790    

Palenque flourished

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500-600    

El Pital, a regional hub on the gulf coast since c300 BCE, suddenly became inactive. It was later suspected that a catastrophic flood hit the area

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553-578  

Moon-Jaguar = King of Copan

Moon-Jaguar, the tenth Mayan ruler of Copan, reigned over this period

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562        

Tikal in Guatemala was conquered possibly by the Mayans of Calakmul city in Mexico. Calakmul is one of the largest of Mayan cities with more than 6,000 structures. It was the capital of a widespread hegemony of Lowland Maya kingdoms during the Late Classic (600-900)

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562CE        

Mayans from the city of Ah Witz Na, in what is now Belize, conquered Tikal

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573        

In Copan the Rosalila structure on the Acropolis culminated a period of intense construction

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c600CE    

The Joya de Ceren site in El Salvador was buried beneath 16 feet of ash from nearby Loma Caldera

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600-700    

The Caracol Maya site in Belize was one of the most prosperous cities in the Pre-Columbian world with some 120,000 people in a 65-square-mile metropolis. It has the 140-foot-high platform Caana, or “Sky-Place. “

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c600-850    

Late Classic Mayan paintings were found in 1946 at a site in eastern Chiapas, Mexico, named “Bonampak,” (painted walls)

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600-900CE    

Late Classic period of the Maya. The San Andres site in El Salvador flourished during the late classic.  The El Tajin civilization thrived on the central coast of what became Mexico

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600-900

A three hundred year dynasty ruled over Palenque.  In the Pyramid of Inscriptions is the tomb of Pakal, the greatest king of the dynasty

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615        

Pakal-12   became the Mayan ruler of Palenque

 His reign ended with his death in 683

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c650        

An early Mayan classic temple in Copan, Honduras, was closed and covered about this time. Ritual items of flint knives and stingray spines were later discovered

 

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683        

Pacal, Mayan ruler of Palenque, died. His sarcophagus, found in 1952, has the intricately carved lid later suggested to represent an extra-terrestrial visitor

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684-702    

Mayan leader Kan Balam II, son of Pakal, ruled over Palenque

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688-714    

The Maya of Tonina and Palenque fought several battles over watershed areas in the region that fed the Usumacinta river, which now marks the boundary between Mexico and Guatemala

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2-10-692

A Mayan prisoner from Copan, depicted in a well-preserved stone sculpture found in 2011, was captured on this day

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27-6-696

A Mayan ballcourt at Tonina was dedicated and sculptures, found in 2011, were created to commemorate the dedication

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700-800    

The Bonampak site in Chiapas, Mexico, has frescoes painted on the stucco walls of Structure I from this time. They depict war, sacrifice and celebration. The name glyph for Shield Jaguar II, king of nearby Yaxchilan, was recognized

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721-764    

Kinich Ahkal Mo' Nab ruled Palenque

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738CE        

Butz Tiliw’ or Cauac Sky defeated his overlord, Copan’s 13th ruler, 18 Rabbit. Monuments to this event are at the Quirigua Maya site in Guatemala

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738CE        

The great Lord 18 Rabbit built a ball court at the Mayan city of Copan. In a surprise attack he was captured and decapitated by Cauac Sky from the city of Quirigia, some 60 km. to the east

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740        

Tah ak Chaan (Taj Chan Ank) began a 50 year rule over the city of Cancuen in what later became Guatemala

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744        

Lords of the Lowland Maya city of Caracol conducted a burning ritual in the cave at Naj Tunich, in the Peten of Guatemala

 

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12-6-746

The estimated date for the dedication of the Mayan Temple 22 in Copan

source:

Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.31

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c750-850    

The city of La Milpa reached its peak with about 50,000 people

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763        

Altar Q depicts Yax Pasah (Yax Pasaj), Copan’s last dynastic ruler, receiving the symbolic baton of office from founder K’inich Yax K’uk’ Mo’ in this year

 

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776-795    

Chan Muan (Sky Screech Owl) reigned over the Bonampak site in what is now eastern Chiapas, Mexico. The site was abandoned at the end of his reign

 

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795        

Taj Chan Ahk, the Mayan ruler of Cancuen (Guatemala), died

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796      

A 600-pound limestone altar was carved to honor a treaty in the Mayan city of Cancuen (Guatemala). It was uncovered in 2001 and soon stolen. It was retrieved in 2003

 

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800        

About this time unidentified conquerors destroyed the Mayan palace at Cancuen (Guatemala) and killed the members of the court. Archeologists in 2005 reported that King Maax, son of Taj Chan Ahk, was found buried in full regalia

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c800        

The height of the Mayan city of Copan. Some 20,000 people lived in the Copan pocket, a fertile section of the Copan River valley in what is now Honduras

 

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c820        

The collapse of the Mayan ruling Classic period dynasty in Copan. Post classic people removed sculpture from the tomb of the last ruler, Yax Pasah (New Dawn)

 

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c875-925    

Lord Chaak ruled over Uxmal in Mexico

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c900        

The Mayan city-state of Palenque was abandoned

 

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c900        

The Mayan city-state of Copan was abandoned

 

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900-1000    The terminal classic period of the Maya. Chichen Itza destroyed the Yaxuna site, 12 miles to the south during the terminal classic

 

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1000-1250    

Early post classic period of the Maya

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1200-1330    

A Mayan city in Peten state (Guatemala), the “El Pajaral” site, dated to the post-classic period of this time. The ruins were found in 2000

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1250-1540    

Late post classic period of the Maya

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1519        

Francisco de Montejo, a captain under Cortez, set about subjugating the Maya in Mexico

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1542        

Merida was founded by Francisco de Montejo at the holy Maya city of T’Ho. Montejo was the son of the captain under Cortez with the same name

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1533        

Spaniards arrived at Zaci, the capital of the Cupul Maya, in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula and were pushed out

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1546        

A coalition of eastern Maya laid siege to Valladolid, in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. Spanish conquistadores brutally crushed a major Mayan rebellion in New Spain

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1561        

A great hurricane ravaged Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula

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8-8-1562

Diego Te, a Maya man in the Yucatec town of Sotuta, testified that a year earlier he had witnessed a village leader and another man cut the hearts from 2 boys and hand them to a shaman, who rubbed the hearts onto the mouths of two Maya idols. The account was preserved in the Archivo General de Indias in Seville, Spain

 

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1562

A Spanish priest wrote that the well at Chichen Itza was a place where Mayas had made offerings towhat they believe their gods

 

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1562

In the Yucatan a campaign to root out idolatry ended with the destruction of thousands of ritual objects and most of the Maya books in existence. The campaign was led by Franciscan leader Diego de Landa, who was later tried in Spain for his excessive behavior and acquitted. He recorded the oral traditions of the Maya in “An Account of the Things of the Yucatan” before returning there in 1573 as Bishop of Yucatan

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1784

The 1st Spanish military officer who explored the Mayan ruins of Palenque thought it was Atlantis risen

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1839

John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood explored Copan. John L. Stephens attempted to purchase the Mayan city of Copan in Honduras

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1847-1901

   The Caste War of Yucatan extended over this period. it began with the revolt of the native Maya people against the population of European descent (called Yucatecos) in political and economic control

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12-10-1875

Mayan Indians attacked the Xuxub sugar plantation in the Yucatan and dozens of workers were killed or taken captive. Bernadino Cen, the Mayan leader, was killed when the Mexican National Guard arrived the next day. In 2004 Paul Sullivan authored “Xuxub Must Die.”

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1894        

Edward Herbert Thompson, American consul, purchased land in the Yucatan that contained the ruins of the Mayan city of Chichen Itza

 

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1904-1909

   Edward Herbert Thompson led dredging operations at the sacred well of Chichen Itza

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1952

       The sarcophagus of Lord Pakal was found in the ruins at Palenque by Alberto Ruz L’Huiller

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1977

Prof. Gordon Willey (1913-2002) authored “The Origins of Maya Civilization

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1981        

In Guatemala 100,000 Maya villagers were killed in a government

crackdown on a left-wing insurgency

 

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1984        

In Guatemala Cival, about 25 miles east of the much better known city of Tikal, was discovered. Cival was abandoned about 100 CE. Artifacts at the site dated from 500-300 BCE

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1992        

Michael D. Coe wrote “Breaking the Maya Code"ـ

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1994  Jan

Poor Maya farmers staged an uprising at the Lancandon rain forest near Palenque, Mexico

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1994        

In Chiapas, Mexico, Maya farmers organized into the Zapatista National Liberation Army

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1995        

Archeologists of the Basic Pete Oil Co. discovered the Mayan city of La Joyanca

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1997        

“The Maya Textile Tradition” was edited by Margot Blum Schlevill with photographs by Jeffrey Jay Foxx. The Mayan history, ecology and culture is viewed through their textile tradition

 

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1997        

A large Mayan site was discovered at the Rio San Pedro Martir drainage in the Peten region of northern Guatemala

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1998        

Michael D. Coe and Justin Kerr published “The Art of the Maya Scribe,” a look at the progress made in decoding the Mayan writing system

 

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1999        

Ruins of the city of Cancuen was were discovered in Guatemala

 

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31-3-2005

A UNESCO team arrived in Guatemala to push forward the candidature process  of El Mirador archaeological site as a World Heritage Site. In the spring Pres

 Oscar Berger repealed a 2002 decree by Pres. Alfonso Portillo declaring the Mayan site of El Mirador a protected area

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