subject: Calender Period in Maya Tribes [print this page] Calender Period in Maya Tribes Calender Period in Maya Tribes
This period also saw many scientific advances. The Maya refine the calendar and Script, and Mathematics, to its highest level of development. Writing came to be used throughout the Maya area, even though it was regarded as a noble activity and practiced only by noble scribes, painters and priests. Using a similar system of writing, other cultures developed their own, the most notable examples being those of the uie culture and the Zapotecs of Oaxaca, although the only fully developed writing system in Pre Columbine America was the Maya. Astronomy remain as a matter of vital significance because of its importance for agriculture, the economic basis of Mesoamerican society and to predict events in the future such as Lunar and Solar eclypses, a very important feature for the rulers in mesoamerica, proving to the commoners their links with the heavenly world.
The Middle Classic period ended in Northern Mesoamerica with the decline of Teotihuacan ca 700 CE. This allowed regional centers of power to flourish and compete for control of trade routes and the exploitation of natural resources. In this way the late Classic era commenced. As stated above, this was a time of political fragmentation during which no city had complete hegemony. Various population movements occurred during this period, caused by the incursion of groups from Aridoamerica and other northern regions, who pushed the older populations of Mesoamerica toward the south. Among these new groups were the Nahua, who would found the cities of Tula and Tenochtitlan, the two most important capitals of the Postclassic era. In addition to the migrations from the north, southern peoples finally established themselves in the center of Mexico. Among these were the Olmec-Xicalanca, who came from the Yucatn Peninsula and founded Cacaxtla and Xochicalco.
Mural of the Battle, in Cacaxtla, Tlaxcala
In the Maya region, Tikal, Teotihuacan's old ally, had a decline, the so called Tikal Hiatus, after being defeated by Dos Pilas, and Caracol, Calakmul's allies it lasted around 100 years. During this hiatus, the cities of Dos Pilas, Piedras Negras, Caracol. Calakmul, Palenque, Copn, and Yaxchiln are consolidated. These and other city-states of the region found themselves involved in bloody wars with changing alliances, until Tikal defeated, in order, Dos Pilas, Caracol with the help of Yaxha and El Naranjo, then Waka, Calakmul's last Allie and finally Calakmul itself, and event that took place in 732 CE, with the Sacrifice of Yuknom Cheen's son in Tikal, that led to the construction of monumental architecture in Tikal, from 740 to 810 CE, being the last date documented here 899 CE. The ruin of the Classic Maya civilization in the northern lowlands, begun at La Passion states such as Dos Pilas, Aguateca, Ceibal and Cancuen ca 760 CE, followed by the Usumacinta system cities of Yaxchilan, Piedras Negras, and Palenque, following a south to north path. Toward the end of the late Classic period, the Maya stopped recording the years using the Long Count calendar, and many of their cities were burned and abandoned to the jungle. Meanwhile, in the Southern Higlands Kaminal Juy, continued its growth, up to 1200 CE. In Oaxaca, Monte Alban reached the apex of its splendor ca 750 CE, though it finally succumbed toward the end of the ninth century for reasons that are still unclear. Its fate was not much different than that of other cities such as La Quemada in the north and Teotihuacan in the center: it was burned and abandoned. In the last century of the Classic era, hegemony in the valley of Oaxaca passed to Lambityeco, several kilometers to the east.
