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Maya Ruins: http://mayaruins.com/ Cholan was the Mayan language spoken in
Copan. Pop, Zip and Zotz were month names in the Mayan calendar.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.29)(SFEC, 4/6/97, Z1 p.5)
Ik'al was a Pre-Columbian cave-dwelling earth deity. Chak
[Chauk] was the Classic period water god.
(AM, 7/97, p.50) 3309BC Mar 10, A primordial Maya
god, named GI by scholars, began his mythical reign.
(AM, Jul-Aug/99, p.16)
3000BCE Maize and other crops were introduced in
the lowlands of what is now northern Belize.
(AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.A)
2000BC-1000BC Early preclassic period of the Maya.
(AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.B)
c1500BCE The Mayans began to process rubber using
latex from rubber trees mixed with juice from the morning glory
vine. The rubber was used to make a bouncy ball for their ball
games.
(SFC, 6/19/99, p.A9)
c1500BCE A court to play ulama was built about
this time in Chiapas, Mexico. Olmecs used latex balls for the game.
(Econ, 4/24/04, p.81)
1200BCE The Chau Hiix Maya site in Belize was
occupied from about this time. Occupation continued to after the
Spanish conquest.
(AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.B)
1200-400BCE The Olmecs dominated the coastal
civilization of what later became Mexico.
(SFC, 9/14/00, p.C8)
1000BC-300BC Middle preclassic period of the Maya.
The El Mirador and Nakbe sites in Guatemala were among the greatest
centers of the middle to late classic Maya world. Pyramids up to 230
feet survive.
(AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.B,E)
900BCE The site named Blackman Eddy in Belize was
occupied from this time to about 1000AD.
(AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.B)
850 The Chicanna temple in the
Mayan city of Calakmul was built about this time.
(SSFC, 4/25/10, p.M1)
800-900 The Mayan site of Xultun (Guatemala) dated
to about this time. It was discovered in 1912. In 2010 paintings
were discovered at the site dating to this period. Figures were
captioned as "Older Brother Obsidian," or "Senior Obsidian," and
"Younger Brother Obsidian," or perhaps "Junior Obsidian."
(www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18018343)
c800BCE-200CE The Mayan city of Takalik Abaj, in
later day Guatemala, served as one of the most important economic
and cultural centers of pre-Columbian times.
(NG, May, 04, p.70)
c600BC From about this time the Maya gradually
sculpted the land to channel water to a growing population.
(AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.A)
c600BC Analysis of pottery from this time
indicated that Mayans made cocoa drinks as early as this time.
(SFC, 7/22/02, p.A4)
c500BC The El Pilar site in Belize was founded
about this time.
(AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.D)
500-300BC Cival, about 25 miles east of the much
better known city of Tikal, was discovered in 1984. It was abandoned
about 100 CE. Artifacts at the site dated to this time.
(LAT, 5/5/04)
c300BC The painted Loltun cave in the Yucatan date
to the Late Preclassic.
(AM, 7/97, p.52)
300BC-250 Late preclassic period of the Maya.
(AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.B)
250BC-150BC The Mayan site at
El Mirador flourished during this period. In the 1980s archeologist
Richard Hansen found Mayan carvings at El Mirador, Guatemala, that
were sculpted well before Christ.
(WSJ, 11/12/05,
p.A1)(www.mostlymaya.com/el_mirador.html)
c150BCE Cival was a large and sophisticated Mayan
city of some 10,000 people.
(USAT, 5/11/04, p.7D)
100-0BCE The painted cave of Naj Tunich in the
Peten of Guatemala began attracting pilgrims.
(AM, 7/97, p.52)
100BCE-100CE The Mayan site of Palenque was
settled by farmers over this period.
(SSFC, 12/7/03, p.C10)
~0CE The Mayan city of La Milpa
was founded.
(SFC, 6/23/96, p.A10)
c200-400 Sealed royal tombs were found in 2
pyramids at the Yaxuna site in Mexico.
(AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.H)
250-600 Early Classic period of the Maya.
(AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.B)
250-900 The classic period of Maya culture.
(SFC, 6/23/96, p.A10)
300 The city of Cancuen was
already established by this time. Ruins of the city were discovered
in 1999 in Guatemala.
(SFC, 9/9/00, p.A2)
300 Mayans began building on
Cozumel Island off Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula about this time. The
town of San Gervasio was built and inhabited through 1650. Cozumel
covers 189 square miles, about the size of Lake Tahoe.
(SSFC, 9/25/05, E4)
300-400 By the 4th century El Mirador, the most
powerful city in the Preclassic Maya world, had become a ghost town.
(Arch, 9/00, p.28)
378 Tikal saw the establishment
of a new line of kings following its military victory over many
cities of the Maya Lowlands. The 1st king was Nuun Yax Ain (Green
Crocodile) and he claimed descent from a Teotihuacan lord that
scholars later dubbed Spear-thrower Owl.
(Arch, 9/00, p.27)
400-500 A tomb in 1996 was found in the ruins of
the Maya city of La Milpa in Belize near the Mexican border. It
contained the skeleton of a man adorned with a pendant depicting the
head of a vulture, signifying lord or ruler. Archeologist Norman
Hammond speculated that it could be the burial place of the king
known as Bird Jaguar, who lived around 450, or his successor.
(SFC, 6/23/96, p.A10)
400-500 Yax K’uk Mo (Blue-Green Quetzal Macaw) was
the 5th century founder of Copan, although the site was occupied
from early preclassic to late classic times.
(AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.F)
406 Some of the inscriptions
from a stone monument from La Milpa have been deciphered to give
this date.
(SFC, 6/23/96, p.A10)
426 Yax K’uk Mo’ founded Copan
in this year.
(AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.A)
431 A great Mayan dynasty arose
at Palenque and soon began trading with communities hundreds of
miles away.
(SSFC, 12/7/03, p.C10)
435-808 Yaxchilan in Mexico on the bank of the
Usumacinta was occupied at least over this period. King Mah K’ina
Skull III was one of the rulers during the construction of some 90
stone structures.
(AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.G)
c435-950 The Mayan city of Copan flourished in
what is now Honduras.
(SFC, 9/30/97, p.A13)
437 Nov 30, A glyph in Copan
records this date and mentions the 1st and 2nd rulers of the
city-state.
(NG, 12/97, p.81)
440-790 Palenque flourished.
(AM, 5/01, p.49)
500-600 El Pital, a regional hub on the gulf coast
since c300 BCE, suddenly became inactive. It was later suspected
that a catastrophic flood hit the area.
(SFC, 9/14/00, p.C8)
553-578 Moon-Jaguar, the tenth Mayan ruler of
Copan, reigned over this period.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.28)
562 Tikal in Guatemala was
conquered possibly by the Mayans of Calakmul city in Mexico.
Calakmul is one of the largest of Mayan cities with more than 6,000
structures. It was the capital of a widespread hegemony of Lowland
Maya kingdoms during the Late Classic (600-900).
(AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.G)(Arch, 9/00, p.27)
562CE Mayans from the city of
Ah Witz Na, in what is now Belize, conquered Tikal.
(SFEC, 6/1/97, p.T3)
573 In Copan the Rosalila
structure on the Acropolis culminated a period of intense
construction
(NG, 12/97, p.92)
c600CE The Joya de Ceren site in El Salvador was
buried beneath 16 feet of ash from nearby Loma Caldera.
(AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.D)
600-700 The Caracol Maya site in Belize was one of
the most prosperous cities in the Pre-Columbian world with some
120,000 people in a 65-square-mile metropolis. It has the
140-foot-high platform Caana, or “Sky-Place. “
(SFC, 4/26/97, p.E4)
600-700 Lady K'abel, considered the greatest ruler
of the Mayan Late Classic period, ruled with her husband, K'inich
Bahlam, for at least 20 years in the 7th century. She was the
military governor of the Waka kingdom for her family, the imperial
house of the Snake King, and she carried the title "Kaloomte" —
translated as "Supreme Warrior," higher in authority than her
husband, the king. In 2012 her tomb was discovered in northern
Guatemala.
(AP, 10/4/12)
c600-850 Late Classic Mayan paintings were found
in 1946 at a site in eastern Chiapas, Mexico, named “Bonampak,"
(painted walls).
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.35)
600-900CE Late Classic period of the Maya. The San
Andres site in El Salvador flourished during the late classic.
The El Tajin civilization thrived on the central coast of what
became Mexico.
(AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.BC)(SFC, 9/14/00, p.C8)
600-900 A three hundred year dynasty ruled over
Palenque. In the Pyramid of Inscriptions is the tomb of Pakal,
the greatest king of the dynasty.
(SFC, 5/19/96, T-9)
615 Pakal (12) became the Mayan
ruler of Palenque. His reign ended with his death in 683.
(SSFC, 12/7/03, p.C10)(WSJ, 9/16/04, p.D12)
c650 An early Mayan classic
temple in Copan, Honduras, was closed and covered about this time.
Ritual items of flint knives and stingray spines were later
discovered.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.28)
683 Pacal, Mayan ruler of
Palenque, died. His sarcophagus, found in 1952, has the intricately
carved lid later suggested to represent an extra-terrestrial
visitor.
(SSFC, 5/5/02, p.C5)(WSJ, 9/16/04, p.A1)
684-702 Mayan leader Kan Balam II, son of Pakal,
ruled over Palenque.
(SSFC, 12/7/03, p.C10)
688-714 The Maya of Tonina and Palenque fought
several battles over watershed areas in the region that fed the
Usumacinta river, which now marks the boundary between Mexico and
Guatemala.
(AP, 7/7/11)
692 Oct 2, A Mayan prisoner
from Copan, depicted in a well-preserved stone sculpture found in
2011, was captured on this day.
(AP, 7/8/11)
696 Jun 27, A Mayan ballcourt
at Tonina was dedicated and sculptures, found in 2011, were created
to commemorate the dedication.
(AP, 7/8/11)
700-800 The Bonampak site in Chiapas, Mexico, has
frescoes painted on the stucco walls of Structure I from this time.
They depict war, sacrifice and celebration. The name glyph for
Shield Jaguar II, king of nearby Yaxchilan, was recognized.
(AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.F)(AM, May/Jun 97 p.37)
738CE Butz Tiliw’ or Cauac Sky
defeated his overlord, Copan’s 13th ruler, 18 Rabbit. Monuments to
this event are at the Quirigua Maya site in Guatemala.
(AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.F)
738CE The great Lord 18 Rabbit
built a ball court at the Mayan city of Copan. In a surprise attack
he was captured and decapitated by Cauac Sky from the city of
Quirigia, some 60 km. to the east.
(Hem, Dec. 94, p.123)
740 Tah ak Chaan (Taj Chan Ank)
began a 50 year rule over the city of Cancuen in what later became
Guatemala.
(SFC, 9/9/00, p.A2)(AM, 7/04, p.16)
744 Lords of the Lowland Maya
city of Caracol conducted a burning ritual in the cave at Naj
Tunich, in the Peten of Guatemala.
(AM, 7/97, p.51)
746 June 12, The estimated date
for the dedication of the Mayan Temple 22 in Copan.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.31)
c750-850 The city of La Milpa reached its peak
with about 50,000 people.
(SFC, 6/23/96, p.A10)
763 Altar Q depicts Yax Pasah
(Yax Pasaj), Copan’s last dynastic ruler, receiving the symbolic
baton of office from founder K’inich Yax K’uk’ Mo’ in this year.
(NG, 12/97, p.80)(AM, 3/04, p.43)
776-795 Chan Muan (Sky Screech Owl) reigned over
the Bonampak site in what is now eastern Chiapas, Mexico. The site
was abandoned at the end of his reign.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.35)
795 Taj Chan Ahk, the Mayan
ruler of Cancuen (Guatemala), died.
(SFC, 11/17/05, p.A17)
796 A 600-pound limestone altar
was carved to honor a treaty in the Mayan city of Cancuen
(Guatemala). It was uncovered in 2001 and soon stolen. It was
retrieved in 2003.
(USAT, 10/30/03, p.12D)(SFC, 10/30/03, p.A11)
800 About this time
unidentified conquerors destroyed the Mayan palace at Cancuen
(Guatemala) and killed the members of the court. Archeologists in
2005 reported that King Maax, son of Taj Chan Ahk, was found buried
in full regalia.
(SFC, 11/17/05, p.A17)
c800 The height of the Mayan
city of Copan. Some 20,000 people lived in the Copan pocket, a
fertile section of the Copan River valley in what is now Honduras.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.29)
c820 The collapse of the Mayan
ruling Classic period dynasty in Copan. Post classic people removed
sculpture from the tomb of the last ruler, Yax Pasah (New Dawn).
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.25)
c875-925 Lord Chaak ruled over Uxmal in Mexico.
(AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.H)
c900 The Mayan city-state of
Palenque was abandoned
(SFC, 5/19/96, T-10)
c900 The Mayan city-state of
Copan was abandoned
(NG, 12/97, p.80)
900-1000 The terminal classic period of the Maya.
Chichen Itza destroyed the Yaxuna site, 12 miles to the south during
the terminal classic.
(AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.B,H)
1000-1250 Early post classic period of the Maya.
(AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.B)
1200-1330 A Mayan city in Peten state (Guatemala),
the “El Pajaral" site, dated to the post-classic period of this
time. The ruins were found in 2000.
(SFC, 5/15/00, p.A13)
1250-1540 Late post classic period of the Maya.
(AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.B)
1519 Francisco de Montejo, a
captain under Cortez, set about subjugating the Maya in Mexico.
(SSFC, 5/6/01, p.T6)
1542 Merida was founded by
Francisco de Montejo at the holy Maya city of T’Ho. Montejo was the
son of the captain under Cortez with the same name.
(SSFC, 5/6/01, p.T6)
1533 Spaniards arrived at Zaci,
the capital of the Cupul Maya, in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula and
were pushed out.
(SSFC, 6/29/08, p.E5)(http://tinyurl.com/4o62ox)
1546 A coalition of eastern
Maya laid siege to Valladolid, in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula.
Spanish conquistadores brutally crushed a major Mayan rebellion in
New Spain.
(http://tinyurl.com/4o62ox)(TL-MB, 1988, p.17)
1561 A great hurricane ravaged
Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula.
(AM, 7/05, p.49)
1562 Aug 8, Diego Te, a Maya
man in the Yucatec town of Sotuta, testified that a year earlier he
had witnessed a village leader and another man cut the hearts from 2
boys and hand them to a shaman, who rubbed the hearts onto the
mouths of two Maya idols. The account was preserved in the Archivo
General de Indias in Seville, Spain.
(AM, 7/05, p.43)
1562 A Spanish priest wrote
that the well at Chichen Itza was a place where Mayas had made
offerings to their gods.
(ON, 5/02, p.6)
1562 In the Yucatan a campaign
to root out idolatry ended with the destruction of thousands of
ritual objects and most of the Maya books in existence. The campaign
was led by Franciscan leader Diego de Landa, who was later tried in
Spain for his excessive behavior and acquitted. He recorded the oral
traditions of the Maya in “An Account of the Things of the Yucatan"
before returning there in 1573 as Bishop of Yucatan.
(AM, 7/05, p.44)
1784 The 1st Spanish military
officer who explored the Mayan ruins of Palenque thought it was
Atlantis risen.
(SSFC, 12/7/03, p.C10)
1839 John Lloyd Stephens and
Frederick Catherwood explored Copan. John L. Stephens attempted to
purchase the Mayan city of Copan in Honduras.
(RFH-MDHP, p.217)(NG, 12/97, p.80)
1847-1901 The Caste War of Yucatan extended over
this period. it began with the revolt of the native Maya people
against the population of European descent (called Yucatecos) in
political and economic control.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste_War_of_Yucat%C3%A1n)
1875 Oct 12, Mayan Indians
attacked the Xuxub sugar plantation in the Yucatan and dozens of
workers were killed or taken captive. Bernadino Cen, the Mayan
leader, was killed when the Mexican National Guard arrived the next
day. In 2004 Paul Sullivan authored “Xuxub Must Die."
(WSJ, 5/13/04, p.D10)
1894 Edward Herbert Thompson,
American consul, purchased land in the Yucatan that contained the
ruins of the Mayan city of Chichen Itza.
(ON, 5/02, p.6)
1904-1909 Edward Herbert Thompson led dredging
operations at the sacred well of Chichen Itza.
(ON, 5/02, p.7)
1952 The sarcophagus of Lord
Pakal was found in the ruins at Palenque by Alberto Ruz L’Huiller.
(SSFC, 5/5/02, p.C5)
1977 Prof. Gordon Willey
(1913-2002) authored “The Origins of Maya Civilization."
(SFC, 5/2/02, p.A27)
1981 In Guatemala 100,000 Maya
villagers were killed in a government crackdown on a left-wing
insurgency.
(SFC, 5/19/96, T-11)
1984 In Guatemala Cival, about
25 miles east of the much better known city of Tikal, was
discovered. Cival was abandoned about 100 CE. Artifacts at the site
dated from 500-300 BCE.
(LAT, 5/5/04)
1992 Michael D. Coe wrote
“Breaking the Maya Code."
(NH, 4/97, p.20)
1994 Jan, Poor Maya farmers
staged an uprising at the Lancandon rain forest near Palenque,
Mexico.
(SFC, 5/19/96, T-9)
1994 In Chiapas, Mexico, Maya
farmers organized into the Zapatista National Liberation Army.
(SFC, 5/19/96, T-10)
1995 Archeologists of the Basic
Pete Oil Co. discovered the Mayan city of La Joyanca.
(WSJ, 12/26/96, p.32)
1997 “The Maya Textile
Tradition" was edited by Margot Blum Schlevill with photographs by
Jeffrey Jay Foxx. The Mayan history, ecology and culture is viewed
through their textile tradition.
(NH, 9/97, p.16)
1997 A large Mayan site was
discovered at the Rio San Pedro Martir drainage in the Peten region
of northern Guatemala.
(AM, Jul/Aug ‘97 p.19)
1998 Michael D. Coe and Justin
Kerr published “The Art of the Maya Scribe," a look at the progress
made in decoding the Mayan writing system.
(Hem, Dec. 94, p.123)(SFEC, 7/5/98, BR
p.10)
1999 Ruins of the city of
Cancuen was were discovered in Guatemala.
(SFC, 9/9/00, p.A2)
2005 Mar 31, A UNESCO team
arrived in Guatemala to push forward the candidature process
of El Mirador archaeological site as a World Heritage Site. In the
spring Pres. Oscar Berger repealed a 2002 decree by Pres. Alfonso
Portillo declaring the Mayan site of El Mirador a protected area.
(WSJ, 11/12/05, p.A5)(http://tinyurl.com/beeku)
2012 Dec 21, Dawn broke over
ancient holy sites in southern Mexico to celebrations, ushering in
the start of a new era for the Maya people that had been billed as a
possible end of the world.
(Reuters, 12/21/12)
2013 May 13, Belize authorities
said a construction company has essentially destroyed the Nohmul
complex, one of the country’s largest Mayan pyramids, with backhoes
and bulldozers to extract crushed rock for a road-building project.
The ceremonial center dated back at least 2,300 years.
(AP, 5/14/13)
