Maya History on Ambergris and Surrounding Area

Of the many empires and cultures that flourished in preconquest Mesoamerica, the Maya have enjoyed the best press. The European travelers who rediscovered their ruined cities imagined them idealistically as a spiritual, artistic and pacific people. They were, it was said, the Greeks to the Aztecs' Romans. To this day, their majestic temples at Palenque, Uxmal, Chichen lzta and Tikal are among the most admired pre-Columbian sites.

Mayan texts: Yucatan Before and After the Conquest by Diego de Landa, tr. William Gates [1937] The best primary source on the Maya, ironically by the monk who burned most of their books. The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel by Ralph L. Roys [1930] The Mayan Calendar The Book of the People: Popol Vuh by Delia Goetz and Sylvanus Griswold Morley from Adrián Recino's translation from Quiché into Spanish [1954, copyright not registered or renewed] Maya Hieroglyphic Writing (excerpts) by J. Eric S. Thompson [1950] The Popul Vuh excerpt from The Mythic and Heroic Sagas of the Kichés of Central America, by Lewis Spence; London [1908] 79,023 bytes The Myths of Mexico and Peru by Lewis Spence

"Today we know much more about these peoples," writes Mercedes de la Garza, a Mexican expert. "But this does not mean that we have the absolute truth and that the 21st century will not reject many of our interpretations, just as we have discarded those of the 18th and 19th centuries."

Still, one fundamental reading of the Maya has not been challenged. It is that they had a cosmic vision of life, one that conceived their gods, nature and man as inseparable (with the first humans born of the sacred corn). Thus, their entire existence was dictated by religious beliefs, with their study of astronomy and mathematics, their social and political organization, their artistic creation and even their wars all a function of their faith.

Yet scholars believe they have recently learned much that is new about each of these facets of Maya life. Turning their focus from the gods toward the people, they have begun investigating everyday life, settlement patterns, farming practices and relations between different Maya city-states and between the sprawling Maya region (covering today's southern and southeast Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and part of Honduras and El Salvador) and other important ethnic groups, notably the Olmecs and Toltecs.

As a result, many scholars have chosen not to follow the more traditional approach of presenting the Maya chronologically through their three identifiable periods: Pre-Classic (1800 B.C. to A.D. 250), Classic (A.D. 250 to 900) and Post-Classic (A.D. 900 to 1524). This approach also tends to emphasize the so-called collapse of the Maya Empire in the late Post.-Classic era, when many great urban centers of the Yucatan Peninsula were abandoned for mountain and jungle refuges.

It is now thought that Maya lords also associated themselves with the gods to enhance their earthly powers. The gods themselves are portrayed in myriad forms, sometime as fertility figures, other times as warriors, often as birds. The religious ballgame called pelota in which the ball, like the sun, was to be kept in permanent motion, was a favorite sport.

In the drainages in southern Campeche, Tabasco, and Belize and on the Pacific slope of Guatemala groves of cacao trees were planted, but in the north these were restricted to the bottoms of filled-in cenotes and other natural depres-sions. The chocolate bean from this tree provided the pre-ferred drink of the Mesoamerican ruling classes, but well into Colonial times the beans served as a form of money in regional markets, so precious were they that the Maya traders en-countered off the coast of Honduras by Columbus were said to have snatched up any that had dropped as though it was their own cyes that had fallen to the canoe bottom.

Every Maya household had its own kitchen garden in which vegetables and fruit trees were raised, and fruit groves were scattered near settlements as well. Papaya, avocado, custard apple, sapodilla, and the breadnut tree were all cultivated, but many kinds of wild fruits were also eaten, especially in times of famine.

There were several breeds of dogs current among the Maya, each with its own name. One such strain was barkless; males were castrated and fattened on corn, and either eaten or sacrificed. Another was used in the hunt. Both wild and domestic turkeys were known, but only the former used as sacrificial victims in ceremonies. As he still does today, the Maya farmer raised the native stingless bees, which are kept in small, hollow logs closed with mud plaster at either end and stacked up in A-frames, but wild honey was also much appreciated.

The larger mammals, such as deer and peccary, were hunted with the bow and arrow in drives (though in Classic times the atlatl and dart must have been the principal weapon), aided by packs of dogs. Birds like the wild turkey, partridge, wild pigeon, quail, and wild duck were taken with pellets shot from blow-guns. A variety of snares and deadfalls are shown in the Madrid Coda, especially a trap for armadillo.

In the Yucatan fishing was generally of the offshore kind, by means of sweep and drag nets and hook and line, but fish were also shot with bow and arrow in lagoons. Inland, especially in the highland streams, stupefying drugs were pounded in the water, and the fish taken by hand once they bad floated into artificial dams; one of the beautifully incised bones (figure a~) from Late Classic Tikal shows that this was also the practice in the PetŽn. Along the coasts the catch was salted and dried or roasted over a fire for use in commerce.

Among wild products of the lowland forests of great cut-tural importance to the Maya was the resin of the copal tree, which (along with rubber and chewing gum!) was used as incense- so holy was this that one native source describes it as the `odour of the centre of heaven'. Another tree produced a bark for flavouring ba/eke, a `strong and stinking' mead imbibed in vast amounts during festivals.

Modern observers have also benefitted from progress made in recent years in understanding both the glyphic writing and numbers used by the Maya. The Maya's grasp of mathematics and astronomy was particularly noteworthy: they invented the concept of zero a millennium before it was introduce in Western civilization, while their numerous calendars included one of 365 days. More alarmingly, they calculated that the Maya era began on August 11, 3114 BC, and will end on Dec. 21, 2012.

On the other hand, such is the strength of Maya culture that it is no more likely to disappear 14 years hence than it was after Hernan Cortes sent Francisco de Montejo to the Yucatan in 1527 to complete the con quest that he had begun in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan six years earlier. Much of the area was subjugated by 1546, but one mountain region to the south held out until 1697.

Even then, the fashionable pacific image of the Maya seemed out of place. There were sporadic Indian uprisings until, in 1847, a broad Maya rebellion known as the Caste War erupted in the Yucatan. (With Mexico itself in disarray at the time, the besieged elite of Merida even offered to become an American colony in exchange for protection against the Maya.) The uprising was eventually put down with huge loss of life, although some Maya communities were not pacified until 1900.

More significantly, despite hardship and loss of land, Maya culture survives today, through the languages, costumes, social organization and religious practices of more than a score of ethnic groups in Mexico's southernmost state of Chiapas and in Guatemala. Perhaps the link between these peoples and the exhibition in Venice may at times seem tenuous, yet the new rebellion launched by the Zapatista National Liberation Front in Chiapas on Jan. 1, 1994 would suggest that, 500 years after the Spanish Conquest, a Maya identity remains intact.

It's difficult to present Maya sites to the tourist on Ambergris Caye, for Ambergris has no huge temples or pyramids. On the other hand, the entire island is a Maya site, and excavations for any projects often turn up Maya artifacts. There is an active excavation being done the south. We have pictures of artifacts recovered from Ambergris Caye. Check the Ambergris Museum for these and other information. Also, a tremendous amount of information about the Maya is available in the Early Belize History section of this site. There is an excellent timeline of Belizean history as well as some photos of Maya ceramicware.

Also browse through the fantastic MundoMaya tours that depart from Ambergris Caye.

• Click here for a for a look at a trip up the New River to the large Maya settlement of Lamanai.
• Click here for a rotating panorama of the view from the top of the largest temple at Lamanai.
• Click here for a rotating panorama of the "Center Court" of the Grand Plaza at Tikal.