Ancient Maya discovery sheds new light on the origins of civilization

Over 3,000 years ago , in the warm , productive lands that are now Mexico , Belize , and Guatemala , the bang-up Maya civilisation arose — its immense pyramid temples appearing to come out of nowhere . But new evidence suggests a fascinating extraction for this ancient , forward-looking culture .

Photo of the temple at Ceibal viaBournemania

Just asthe Inca once dominated South America , the Maya dominated declamatory parts of Central America and Mexico . But we know far less about Maya refinement . Now , after seven days of measured excavation at the far-famed Maya cultural center of Ceibal in Guatemala , University of Arizona anthropologists Daniela Triadan and Takeshi Inomata trust they have settled one of the not bad argumentation in their field of operations : where the Maya get along from . They write their work todayin Science .

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https://gizmodo.com/the-greatest-mystery-of-the-inca-empire-was-its-strange-5872764

For almost half a century , anthropologists studying the origins of the Maya have been separate into two camp . Some believe that the Maya civilization modernise in Guatemala and Belize , without any link from other groups in the region . But others believed the Maya were an outgrowth of the sophisticated Olmec civilization on the Gulf Coast .

In 1300 BCE , the Olmec had raise an impressive city at what is now San Lorenzo , complete with monumental ceremonial computer architecture have now - far-famed carvings of human head . The question of the Olmec ’s influence hinge in part on decades - old grounds that the Olmec center of La Venta , also on the Gulf Coast ( see mathematical function below ) , was the first extremely - advanced city to have Maya - esque architecture , including pyramids .

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Because La Venta had clearly been built after the Olmec metropolis of San Lorenzo , probably starting in 800 BCE , it made sense that the Maya applied scientist had follow in the Olmec ’s footstep . The melodic theme was that the characteristic Maya city layout developed between the mental synthesis of San Lorenzo and La Venta . La Venta ’s positioning also made it seem that Maya culture come in from the Olmec , then propagate from the Gulf Coast southward into Guatemala and Belize .

But now Inomata and Triadan and their colleagues have solid evidence that La Venta was not the older city with Maya features . In fact , their team conducted extensive carbon dating at the Guatemala site of Ceibal , and placed its origins at least two hundred years before La Venta . Ceibal has all the characteristic of a typical Maya settlement , with an enormous pyramid at one end of a turgid central plaza dominated by a ceremonial platform . And it was founded in about 1,000 BCE .

What this means , according to Inomata and Triadan , is that something a pile more complicated happened than either of the previous two scenarios would allow . The Olmec did not “ create ” the Maya acculturation , nor did it evolve by itself in Guatemala . Most probably , it was the product of a very speedy societal shift that was taking spot all over the realm — make , in part , by ethnical exchanges between unlike group , including the Olmec and the peoples who finally became the Maya .

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This forenoon , Inomata differentiate reporters at a press conference :

This chronology show that there was a gap between the declination of San Lorenzo and the ascent of La Venta . Major societal alteration occurred during this gap . Various groups in southerly Mesoamerica began to experiment with new forms of religion and societal organization . This resulted in the egression of schematic ceremonial complexes with pyramid at various colonization . San Lorenzo did not have pyramids or like spacial patterns . Ceibal was part of this shift .

What ’s entrancing about what Inomata calls “ this opening ” is that it constitute a dramatic — and still occult — speedup of the geological era ’s most advanced engineering . Those technologies include civil technology and agriculture . Over the course of just a few shortsighted centuries , the principally nomadic hunter - accumulator people of Guatemala transformed into urban center dwellers with vast farms . A huge internet of roads connected their hamlet and metropolis . And at Ceibal , the dig team was able to see that transformation unfolding in the many layers of human habitation that had been build on top of each other .

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Also , the cultural transformation had been underway before the founding of Ceibal . According to anthropologist Triadan , people who take root there already had a unclouded idea of how to build what we would now call a classic Maya community of interests . So the ethnic shift towards a Maya view of the humans was belike already taking hold throughout Central America .

Triadan described the early ontogenesis at Ceibal :

The actual blank where citizenry lived and celebrated ritual seemed to be extremely crucial , because they kept constructing Modern buildings over the original ones , now using clay in their constructions . By 800 BCE the westerly construction . . . became a Pyramids of Egypt and the program to the south of it extend to a monumental scale of measurement . No monolithic constructions of this day of the month have been found at other Maya sites . The first people who settled at Ceibal had already a well - germinate mind about what a village should calculate like . It include a plan ritual coordination compound and other construction projects that require the participation of the whole biotic community . Some people might already have had a extra place in the community and there were most certainly people with specialised ritual knowledge . This indicate that the transition from a fluid huntsman - gathering and horticultural lifestyle to for good settled agriculturalists was rapid .

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Below , you’re able to see a cutaway sight of the layers of the city ( snap to enlarge ) . you could also see how far down the scientists had to dig over seven years to see the bottom layers .

Below , here ’s one of the dig sites on the key platform ( telephone the A-24 platform above ) .

But what could have caused this rapid cultural transformation , which led so many masses to start ramp up pyramids and participate in what eventually became the Maya way of sprightliness ?

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Triadan and Inomata believe that Ceibal , and other Maya villages like it , were the result of ethnic mixing . The rapid pace of social modification was goad by many mass sharing raw engineering science with each other , as well as new idea . Social average decrease away and newfangled ritual take their stead . It would have been an extremely exciting time in history , when nobody was sure which cultures would amount to dominate the area nor which mind would take wait .

Ceibal was settled for 2,000 year , and became a Maya center . But when it was founded , the Maya as such did n’t exist yet . The Maya were creating themselves , forging a new identity out of many different groups — some with highly ripe technology , like the Olmec , and others nomads with nothing more than what they stockpile on their back .

What Triadan , Inomata and their fellow ’ new find advise is that great civilizations do n’t mature out of previous prevailing group like the Olmec , nor do they arise in isolation . They are the resolution of cross . The Maya come to dominate Mexico , Guatemala and Belize because they were able to integrate the creation of the Olmec along with the discoveries and beliefs of many peoples in the orbit whose lives we are just now beginning to study about . The ancient Maya were , in other words , a multiculture .

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We still are n’t sure what extend to the ruination of the Maya — though there aresome good leads — but now we have a better picture of where they come from .

https://gizmodo.com/what-really-destroyed-the-maya-civilization-5886796

Read the full scientific paperat Science .

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