Gypsy Jan
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Ancient Maya discovery sheds new light on the origins of civilization
From ion9.com
For photos and charts: http://io9.com/ancient-maya-discovery-sheds-new-light-on-the...
"Over 3,000 years ago, in the warm, fertile lands that are now Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala, the great Maya civilization arose — its vast pyramid
temples appearing to come out of nowhere. But new evidence suggests a fascinating origin for this ancient, advanced culture.
Just as the Inca once dominated South America, the Maya dominated large parts of Central America and Mexico. But we know far less about Maya
civilization. Now, after seven years of careful excavation at the famous Maya cultural center of Ceibal in Guatemala, University of Arizona
anthropologists Daniela Triadan and Takeshi Inomata believe they have settled one of the greatest debates in their field: where the Maya came from.
They published their work today in Science.
For almost half a century, anthropologists studying the origins of the Maya have been divided into two camps. Some believe that the Maya civilization
developed in Guatemala and Belize, without any contact from other groups in the region. But others believed the Maya were an outgrowth of the advanced
Olmec civilization on the Gulf Coast.
In 1300 BCE, the Olmec had erected an impressive city at what is now San Lorenzo, complete with massive ceremonial architecture featuring now-famous
carvings of human heads. The question of the Olmec's influence hinged in part on decades-old evidence that the Olmec center of La Venta, also on the
Gulf Coast (see map below), was the first highly-advanced city to have Maya-esque architecture, including pyramids.
Because La Venta had clearly been built after the Olmec city of San Lorenzo, probably starting in 800 BCE, it made sense that the Maya engineers had
followed in the Olmec's footsteps. The idea was that the characteristic Maya city layout developed between the construction of San Lorenzo and La
Venta. La Venta's location also made it seem that Maya culture came from the Olmec, then spread from the Gulf Coast southward into Guatemala and
Belize.
But now Inomata and Triadan and their colleagues have solid evidence that La Venta was not the oldest city with Maya features. In fact, their team
conducted extensive carbon dating at the Guatemala site of Ceibal, and placed its origins at least two hundred years before La Venta. Ceibal has all
the characteristics of a typical Maya settlement, with an enormous pyramid at one end of a large central plaza dominated by a ceremonial platform. And
it was founded in about 1,000 BCE.
What this means, according to Inomata and Triadan, is that something a lot more complicated happened than either of the previous two scenarios would
allow. The Olmec did not "create" the Maya culture, nor did it evolve by itself in Guatemala. Most likely, it was the product of a very rapid social
transformation that was taking place all over the region — caused, in part, by cultural exchanges between different groups, including the Olmec and
the peoples who eventually became the Maya.
This morning, Inomata told reporters at a press conference:
This chronology indicates that there was a gap between the decline of San Lorenzo and the rise of La Venta. Major social change occurred during
this gap. Various groups in southern Mesoamerica began to experiment with new forms of religion and social organization. This resulted in the
emergence of formal ceremonial complexes with pyramids at various settlements. San Lorenzo did not have pyramids or similar spatial patterns. Ceibal
was part of this transformation.
What's fascinating about what Inomata calls "this gap" is that it represented a dramatic — and still mysterious — acceleration of the era's most
advanced technologies. Those technologies included civil engineering and agriculture. Over the course of just a few short centuries, the primarily
nomadic hunter-gatherer peoples of Guatemala transformed into city dwellers with vast farms. A huge network of roads connected their villages and
cities. And at Ceibal, the excavation team was able to see that transformation unfolding in the many layers of human habitation that had been built on
top of each other.
Also, the cultural transformation had been underway before the founding of Ceibal. According to anthropologist Triadan, people who settled there
already had a clear idea of how to build what we would now call a classic Maya community. So the cultural shift towards a Maya view of the world was
probably already taking hold throughout Central America.
Triadan described the early developments at Ceibal:
The actual space where people lived and celebrated rituals seemed to be extremely important, because they kept constructing new buildings over the
original ones, now using clay in their constructions. By 800 BCE the western building . . . became a pyramid and the platform to the south of it
reached a monumental scale. No monumental constructions of this date have been found at other Maya sites. The first people who settled at Ceibal had
already a well-developed idea about what a village should look like. It included a planned ritual complex and other building projects that required
the participation of the whole community. Some people might already have had a special position in the community and there were most certainly people
with specialized ritual knowledge. This indicates that the transition from a mobile hunter-gather and horticultural lifestyle to permanently settled
agriculturalists was rapid.
But what could have caused this rapid cultural transformation, which led so many people to start building pyramids and participating in what
eventually became the Maya way of life?
Triadan and Inomata believe that Ceibal, and other Maya villages like it, were the result of cultural mixing. The rapid pace of social change was
spurred by many peoples sharing new technologies with each other, as well as new ideas. Social norms fell away and new rituals took their places. It
would have been an extremely exciting time in history, when nobody was sure which cultures would come to dominate the area nor which ideas would take
hold.
Ceibal was settled for 2,000 years, and became a Maya center. But when it was founded, the Maya as such didn't exist yet. The Maya were creating
themselves, forging a new identity out of many different groups — some with highly advanced technology, like the Olmec, and others nomads with nothing
more than what they carried on their backs.
What Triadan, Inomata and their colleagues' new discoveries suggest is that great civilizations don't grow out of previous dominant groups like the
Olmec, nor do they arise in isolation. They are the result of hybridization. The Maya came to dominate Mexico, Guatemala and Belize because they were
able to incorporate the innovations of the Olmec along with the discoveries and beliefs of many peoples in the area whose lives we are just now
beginning to learn about. The ancient Maya were, in other words, a multiculture.
We still aren't certain what lead to the downfall of the Maya — though there are some good leads — but now we have a better picture of where they came
from."
Read the full scientific paper at Science.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness.”
—Mark Twain
\"La vida es dura, el corazon es puro, y cantamos hasta la madrugada.” (Life is hard, the heart is pure and we sing until dawn.)
—Kirsty MacColl, Mambo de la Luna
\"Alea iacta est.\"
—Julius Caesar
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Osprey
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Paleobiologists would place this particular cultural boom at about the time real corn began to be harvested -- not Indian corn but hardy field corn.
At times families who lived and farmed around the ceremonial cities could raise a year's supply of corn for their family and their tithe in just 100
days.
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MrBillM
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Perhaps ................
The decline began when they started wasting that corn producing Ethanol in an attempt to become Energy-Independent ?
Or not.
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Skipjack Joe
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Osprey
Paleobiologists would place this particular cultural boom at about the time real corn began to be harvested -- not Indian corn but hardy field corn.
At times families who lived and farmed around the ceremonial cities could raise a year's supply of corn for their family and their tithe in just 100
days. |
My thoughts as well, although I didn't know when corn became 'domesticated'. The transition from hunter-gathering nomadism to large central cities
wouldn't occur with just a mixing of cultures. Perhaps the Olmecs already had advanced forms of agriculture.
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Osprey
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They were into milpas mostly. Big claim to fame for the Olmecs was when they (maybe as far back as 10,000 years) INVENTED corn >> crossed
teosinte with gamma grass. Nobel prize would go to the next guy who can do that. Since that time only corn seeds make corn and now there are 50 kinds
which the Olmec can take credit for a big part of.
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mtgoat666
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Gypsy Jan
What Triadan, Inomata and their colleagues' new discoveries suggest is that great civilizations don't grow out of previous dominant groups like the
Olmec, nor do they arise in isolation. They are the result of hybridization. The Maya came to dominate Mexico, Guatemala and Belize because they were
able to incorporate the innovations of the Olmec along with the discoveries and beliefs of many peoples in the area whose lives we are just now
beginning to learn about. The ancient Maya were, in other words, a multiculture.
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good argument for open borders, fostering immigration,...
good argument for teaching multiculturism, to counteract insularism and isolationism
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Osprey
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Wrong thinking by the goat. Does not compute. This is here, this is now, we are cultural combatants not cousins. There were no gringos around then, no
borders and no goats.
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monoloco
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Osprey
They were into milpas mostly. Big claim to fame for the Olmecs was when they (maybe as far back as 10,000 years) INVENTED corn >> crossed
teosinte with gamma grass. Nobel prize would go to the next guy who can do that. Since that time only corn seeds make corn and now there are 50 kinds
which the Olmec can take credit for a big part of. |
If Monsanto has their way we'll be back to one variety
soon.
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bajagrouper
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I have always found it funny when archeologist state the Maya disappeared hundreds of years ago, yet there are probably more than 6 million Maya
living in Mexico and Central America today...Maybe they should ask where the Olmecs are.
I hear the whales song
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