Ups and downs of Yucatan Maya.

Ups and downs of Yucatan Maya

During the Classic period of Maya civilization, from A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, cities in lowland regions of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and Belize grew in size and amassed much power. Increasing archaeological evidence now suggests that Maya settlements in the west-central Yucatan Peninsula languished for much of that Maya "golden era" but then flourished as centers to the south fell on hard times.

Witness Yaxuna, an ancient Maya settlement in the center of the peninsula. Excavations and pottery analysis indicate that Yaxuna was a sparsely populated "backwater site" at the height of the Classic period, asserts Charles Suhler of Southern Methodist University in Dallas. However, Yaxuna expanded rapidly as the Classic period wound down, holding prominence until A.D. 1000. Military conquest of the city by as-yet-unidentified forces then occurred, Suhler says.

Ceramic evidence places the founding of Yaxuna at around 500 B.C., with the first large buildings appearing by 100 B.C. Extensive construction of monuments and residences kicked off the Classic period, during which Yaxuna maintained trade and political ties to southern Maya cities, as well as to cultures in central Mexico, Suhler contends. From A.D. 600 to A.D. 750, pottery and population dwindled at Yaxuna, he argues. The city bounced back over the next 250 years, based on the reappearance of elaborate pottery and monumental structures.

About the time of Yaxuna's military defeat in A.D. 1000, residents of the city conducted ceremonies in which they destroyed all or part of various structures, notes SMU's David A. Freidel. Little evidence of human activity at Yaxuna has been recovered for the 200 years that followed, he says.

During that period, Maya living in the northern Yucatan may have entered a cultural decline comparable to the Dark Ages of medieval Europe, theorizes Anthony P. Andrews of the New College of California in San Francisco.