The Maya civilization

Key takeaways

• Cities: Maya city-states such as Tikal, Calakmul, Palenque and Copán competed and allied across the lowlands, led by divine rulers.
• Writing: the Maya script, which records both syllables and words, was written on stone monuments, ceramics and bark-paper books.
• Calendars and astronomy: they kept interlocking calendars, including the Long Count, and tracked the cycles of Venus and eclipses.
• Collapse: in the 8th–10th centuries many southern lowland cities were abandoned, due to a mix of drought, warfare and political change.
• Continuity: Maya communities remained, and the last independent Maya polity fell to the Spanish in 1697.

Politics and city life

Maya cities had plazas, temple-pyramids, ball courts, reservoirs and agricultural terraces. Kings claimed divine status and recorded their reigns, alliances and wars on carved stelae.

Knowledge systems

Scribes recorded history, ritual and astronomy. Only a few bark-paper books, such as the Dresden Codex, survive, since many were destroyed after the Spanish conquest. Scholars have deciphered most of the script since the late 20th century, often working with Maya epigraphers and communities.

After the Classic period

Centres in the northern lowlands such as Chichén Itzá and later Mayapán flourished in the Postclassic. Today the Maya are among the largest Indigenous peoples of the Americas, and their languages and traditions continue.