Ancient Maya Metropolis: Explore ancient Maya cities and learn why their inhabitants abandoned them. The ancient ancestors of today’s Maya people thrived in large sophisticated cities across Central America for centuries. Why, around 750 CE, did they begin to abandon many of their major cities? Archaeologists investigate dramatic new evidence of the catastrophic droughts and instability that pushed cities beyond their limits. The evidence also testifies to the survival and resilience of the Maya people, whose traditions and creativity continue to enrich the world today.
More than a thousand years ago, the ancient ancestors of today’s Maya people thrived in large sophisticated cities across Central America. At their peak, some housed over 100,000 inhabitants and were among the biggest cities anywhere in the world. They were hubs of trade, art, and writing, where Maya rulers commissioned magnificent pyramids and palaces. But beginning around 750 CE, many of the great Maya cities were abandoned, only to be reclaimed by the jungle.
On NOVA “Ancient Maya Metropolis,” learn how archaeologists are using new technology and recently uncovered evidence to try to find out why the era of the Maya metropolis came to an end. Did catastrophic droughts cause widespread crop failures? Did political infighting destabilize the region?
An extraordinary “diary” of warfare between three cities adds vivid new detail to our understanding of a major shift in the ancient Maya world. The evidence also testifies to the survival and resilience of the Maya people, whose traditions and creativity continue to enrich the world today.
Ancient Maya Metropolis
The Maya civilization (/ˈmaɪə/) was a Mesoamerican civilization developed by the Maya peoples, and noted for its logosyllabic script—the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system in pre-Columbian Americas—as well as for its art, architecture, mathematics, calendar, and astronomical system. The Maya civilization developed in the area that today comprises southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador.
It includes the northern lowlands of the Yucatán Peninsula and the highlands of the Sierra Madre, the Mexican state of Chiapas, southern Guatemala, El Salvador, and the southern lowlands of the Pacific littoral plain. “Maya” is a modern term used to refer collectively to the various peoples that inhabited this area. They did not call themselves “Maya” and did not have a sense of common identity or political unity. Today, their descendants, known collectively as the Maya, number well over 6 million individuals, speak more than twenty-eight surviving Mayan languages, and reside in nearly the same area as their ancestors.
The Archaic period, before 2000 BC, saw the first developments in agriculture and the earliest villages. The Preclassic period (c. 2000 BC to 250 AD) saw the establishment of the first complex societies in the Maya region, and the cultivation of the staple crops of the Maya diet, including maize, beans, squashes, and chili peppers. The first Maya cities developed around 750 BC, and by 500 BC these cities possessed monumental architecture, including large temples with elaborate stucco façades.
Hieroglyphic writing was being used in the Maya region by the 3rd century BC. In the Late Preclassic a number of large cities developed in the Petén Basin, and the city of Kaminaljuyu rose to prominence in the Guatemalan Highlands. Beginning around 250 AD, the Classic period is largely defined as when the Maya were raising sculpted monuments with Long Count dates. This period saw the Maya civilization develop many city-states linked by a complex trade network. In the Maya Lowlands two great rivals, the cities of Tikal and Calakmul, became powerful.
