The Pre-classical Mayan period

We have to bear in mind several aspects when trying to discover the history of the Mayas. Here we are going to talk about the periods in which scholars have divided this History. The first one is the Pre-classical period and, although it seems that there is no agreement as for the duration of this period, it seems the common dates are between the year 1000 before our era and the year 320 of the present era. Before this period, there are also evidences of human activity, mainly on the Yucatan Peninsula, were as we know, the Riviera Maya is.

The Maya empire covered the northwest of El Salvador and Honduras, Guatemala and Belize and the present states of Mexico: Yucatan, Campeche, Quintana Roo (where Playa del Carmen is located) and Chiapas.

According to recent studies, the Maya civilization originated from a migration of the inhabitants of the Pacific coast in the year 1220 before our era, who headed to the Yucatan Peninsula. They were the Olmecs, but their settlement and mixing with the inhabitants of the areas they were reaching gave rise to the people known as Protomayans or the ancestors of the Mayans. The Olmecs had a great influence on the first settlers and there was no fully autonomous and established Mayan culture at least until the first Century of our era.

During this period of the Maya History, the area that had the most influence was situated in El Petén, at the north of present-day Guatemala. There, they settled cities such as Nakbé, El Mirador, Cival and San Bartolo. It is worth mentioning that most of the original names of the Mayan cities are unknown and most are known with their present names.

The social organization of these first Mayan cities was stable and organized. Obviously, the western concept of city has nothing to do with the one of the Mayas of that period and the cities were perfectly integrated in the jungles were they were built, since the Mayas, at least during that period, professed a sacred respect to nature, on which their gods were based.

A more and more complex social and political organization started to develop in answer to the growth of the population and urbanization. A strong internal hierarchy appeared with priests and the nobles gaining more authority. This period is also known as the Agricultural Period, due to the important development of this human activity, mainly based on corn, beans, cacao and pumpkins. Other activities such as hunting, fishing or harvesting were then secondary.

As far as architecture is concerned, they started building the first temples and the origins of the future pyramids: some mounds used to bury the dead. Religion was very simple and was based on the belief in life after death and a great cult and veneration to the dead.

Little by little, at the end of this period, in the Late Pre-classical period, other important Mayan cities started to develop such as Santa Marta and Tonala in the Mexican state of Chiapas; Edzna and Xicalango in Campeche; Acanceh and Dzibilchaltun in Yucatan; El Trapiche and Casablanca in El Salvador and Kaminaljuyu in the south of Guatemala.

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Francisco Cenamor