Yaxhá and Ancient Maya 101

Today we visited Yaxhá, a major Mayan ruin. Yaxhá is significantly larger than any of the other sites I've visited this trip, but still smaller than Tikal, which we'll visit tomorrow, and El Mirador, which is virtually inaccessible in the rainy season and a five day hike in the dry season. Yaxhá would likely have been much larger, if not for its close proximity to and conflicts with Tikal. Yaxhá did dominate the nearby Maya state of Naranjo and trade with sites like Quiriga and Ceibal. Yaxhá hasn’t been excavated and restored to the same extent as Tikal, but so far they’ve found around five hundred structures. Since describing the site, building by building, wouldn’t be too interesting, I thought I’d share a little bit of what I’ve be reading about the ancient Maya.

Maya society was ruled by a hereditary monarchy. This included both a royal family, called the ahau, and a lesser nobility, called the cahal, who formed a royal court in the city-state or ruled subsidiary settlements elsewhere. Larger city-states center on the royal palace, with lesser palaces, pyramids, temples, acropolises and ball courts built around them, all linked by causeway. The colossal pyramids were built to commemorate important events, from passing centuries, to battle victories, to births, marriages and deaths, and to enhance each successive ruler’s prestige.

The highest Mayan royalty saw themselves as part human, part god. To maintain their status above and exact tribute from mere mortals they shrouded themselves in mystery and religious ritual. They would fast, abstain from sex, and alter their consciousnesses with drugs including my favorite, the mushroom of lost judgment. Many of the monuments depict Mayan rulers in elaborate regalia, including jaguar head helmets, stingray spine codpieces, quetzal feather capes and oversized, ornate jade and gold jewelry, making them appear larger then life. In these outfits Mayan rulers presided over elaborate public ceremonies, including blood sacrifice. Mayan rulers made public blood sacrifices from their own bodies, pricking their penises or tongues with obsidian blades. They also made blood sacrifices of their enemies, generally in gruesome public spectacles. Captives were had their hearts removed while they were still conscious, were decapitated, or were thrown down pyramid steps. (Pathetically ironically, a number of tourists have also died falling down the pyramid steps, perhaps appeasing the international travel Gods.)

Mayan rulers were backed by an elite, scholarly priesthood. They developed the Americas only written language, which has both phonetic symbols and logograms, and was used to record important events on many of the monuments we’ve seen so far. The Mayan priesthood also developed and advanced mathematical system in base twenty, complete with a concept of zero.

They used this numbering system to create a complex calendar. We’ve seen dates carved into many monuments, marking important events in the ruling elites lives. The calendar was based on a day unit, called a kin, a twenty day month unit, called a uinal, a 260 day year unit, called an almanac. Each day of the almanac has a particular name and in many indigenous communities people still name their children after their almanac day. They also had a year called the haab, consisting of eighteen uinals and five kins, or exactly 365 days, a solar year, which was used parallel to and periodically coincided with the almanac years. After unials came tuns, katuns, baktuns, pictuns, calabtuns and kinchiltuns, which work out to 23,040,000,000 days. Baktuns, a period of 5128 days, were used in historical contexts. The Mayan long count calendar resets after thirteen baktuns. Since the current calendar began on August 13, 3114 BCE, it will end on December 10, 2012, which some people believe will be the end of the world!

The Mayan priesthood was able to calculate the solar year with such precision because they had an incredible understanding of astronomy. Most major city-states, including Yaxhá, had observatories. The Maya were especially interested in zenial passages, and many of their structures are aligned with the sun on the equinoxes. Other buildings are aligned with the Pleiades and Eta Draconis. Above all else, the ancient Maya were concerned with Venus. They believed its appearance in the night sky could signal auspicious times to strike at enemies, among other things. While astronomy dictated armed conflict, it also had more practical applications, to agriculture. Modern astronomers have recently learned what the ancient Maya knew thousands of years ago, that precipitation and weather patterns can be predicted by the appearance of certain groups of stars in the night sky, which are occluded by invisible clouds in La Nina years, but not in El Nino years. This understanding of astronomy, and control of calendar, which dictated all-important ritual days, explains much of why the Mayan priesthood had such sway on the rulers, and by extension, the rulers had so much influence with the common people.

Since the more impressive structures are stone, easier to find, and more interesting to tourists they are generally first to be excavated and less is known about the common Maya. All accounts I’ve read suggest that the ancient Maya aren’t so different from their modern ancestors, indigenous Guatemalans like the Quiche, Kaqchikel and Mam. They were swidden subsistence farmers, supplementing corn and bean crops with fishing, hunting and gathering. Extended families lived together, and it appears that land was communally owned.

The site was as beautiful as it was impressive. Yaxhá takes its name from the Maya word for green-blue water, since the city was situated on an immense, intensely turquoise lake. The largest pyramid is called the Temple of the Red Hands, because the sunset, reflected in the lake, is so stunning from the top. In 2005 Survivor was filmed in the park. Fortunately, most reality TV fans don’t actually make it off the couch, let alone into other countries, so we saw few other tourists. We did see lots of spider monkeys, macaws and coatis in the park.

This evening we went into Flores, a lovely little colonial city on an island in Lago Peten Itza, accessed only by causeway. While it was wonderful to have dinner there, I’m glad we’re staying in El Remate, twenty kilometers down the road to Tikal and Yaxhá. There are fewer tourists, and we have the most charming hotel, built into a hillside, complete with thatched huts, mosquito nets and hammocks, overlooking a crocodile infested lake!