The conventional wisdom had been that the urban Mayan civilization arose in about 300 AD. While it had been thought that the “Preclassic” Mayan civilization existed for about 2,000 years, the rise of Mayan cities, known as the “Classic” era, came much later. Well before the European conquerors came the Classic Mayan civilization fell into ruins, for reasons that are still obscure. However, descendents of the Mayans, many speaking indigenous languages derived from those spoken in Classic times, still maintain their distinct identities in parts of Mexico and Guatemala. Now, however, the historiography of Mayan civilization will have to be amended. Archaeologists working on two separate digs --- a team from Southern Methodist University and Guatemala’s Universidad de San Carlos working around Guatemala’s Laguna del Tigre and an international group backed by the National Geographic Society working in the jungle of Guatemala’s El Peten province --- have discovered cities that are hundreds of years earlier than the Classic civilization.
The SMU-Universidad de San Carlos archaeologists have discovered, in a city called Waka’, the intact tomb of what appears to be a Mayan queen who died about 200 BC. The woman, who appeared to be the ruler of the city-state rather than the consort of a male king, died in her 30s or 40s and was laid to rest with a helmet made of jade plates. Waka’ dates back to about 500 BC, and was abandoned sometime around 800 AD, a couple of centuries before the fall of Classic Mayan civilization.
Meanwhile at the National Geographic-sponsored dig, archaeologists have been working a site that had been ransacked by huaqueros and thus shorn of much of the information that it could provide scholars. But the looters failed to find spectacular snake-fanged 15-foot-tall stucco masks, dating to around 200 to 150 BC, flanking what appeared to be a religious ceremonial center. The masks, and the temple they adorned, are evidence of theocratic institutions that were thought to have only arisen in the Classic period. At the site, called Cival, archaeologists also found a pillar inscribed with glyphs that they date back to 300 BC, which would make it the oldest sample of Mayan writing yet found.
Morover, the team exploring Cival has the resources to explore with more than just picks and shovels. They have used satellite and aerial imaging, including infrared and ground penetrating radar, and discovered that the city they are unearthings was not just a free-standing city-state but apparently part of a network of cities. If further excavations at the Cival and the other sites confirm that hunch, then it would reveal a level of political organization that was previously thought to have developed only in the Classic period.
Still other archaeological groups are working at different Preclassic Mayan sites, adding new pages to the historical record and ultimately creating new tourist attractions that could bring jobs to an impoverished region. However, the projects could also bring economic and environmental conflicts in their wake, beyond the usual rivalries between huaqueros and archaeologists. Much of the area around Waka’, for example, has been invaded by landless slash-and-burn farmers who are opposed by environmentalists concerned about the rare jungle wildlife there. It might be hard to convince hungry campesinos that it’s acceptable for well educated and relatively well paid scholars to cut down the forest to unearth cities and learn more about the ancient Mayan corn god but unacceptable for them to clear patches of jungle to grow corn to feed their families. But to the extent that the archaeologists create jobs at the sites they’re unearthing, these tend to pay better than does subsistence farming.
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