Warfare and Maya Civilization

Until quite recently Maya civilization was envisioned by most scholars as peaceful and non-warlike, although there were some notable exceptions to this view. To be sure, early Spanish expeditions were beset by large and effective May armies, and during the Contact period Maya fought incessantly among themselves. Such bellicosity was usually seen, however, as the unfortunate legacy of Mexican intrusions of the Late Postclassic. Military imagery in Classic period art was ignored or explained away as portrayals of ritual conflict. Intellectual priest-bureaucrats rather than kings purportedly held sway over Classic Maya polities, exercising their theocratic benevolence form essentially vacant ceremonial centers. Huge temples, built by masses of devoted commoners, dominated a tranquil political landscape. Monuments portrayed gods, and associated dates and inscriptions conveyed religious and astronomical information.

Beginning in the 1950s, developments rapidly undermined this charming if unconvincing set of conceptions. First, some temples were shown to be burial monuments for important individuals. Shortly thereafter, breakthroughs in decipherment of Maya texts demonstrated the existence of dynasties of kings who recorded their deeds, including military exploits, in public inscriptions. Third, the rapid maturation of Maya archaeology revealed much new data about the character and chronology of Maya centers, polities, and populations that were impossible to reconcile with the traditional theocratic view. For example, major fortifications appeared in the Maya Lowlands at least by the end of the Preclassic period. Reevaluation has accelerated even more rapidly since 1980, and nothing has changed more radically than our perceptions of Maya warfare, which, along with its attendant rituals and sacrifices, is now recognized as perhaps the single largest theme of Late Classic texts and art. While the pendulum of opinion has perhaps swung too far toward an almost Aztec-like conception of the Maya as compulsively warlike, at least we can no longer envision them as a uniquely peaceful ancient civilization.