DR MEAGHAN PEURAMAKI-BROWN
Uncovering the achievements and misconceptions of the Maya civilisation
You’re the principal investigator of the Stann Creek Regional Archaeology Project (SCRAP) in Belize. What has your research in this region revealed about the Maya?
The research program’s goals are to understand the ancient Maya peoples of East-central Belize, which is considered a distinct subregion of the lowlands and has been subject to little archaeological investigation. The uniqueness of this part of the Maya world is due primarily to its location along the eastern slopes of the Maya Mountains. This section of the mountains is mainly of igneous and metamorphic geologies, and so there is little-to-no limestone. The resulting environments are quite different from most of the lowlands, where life was (and is) situated atop the Yucatan Peninsula’s karstic shelf, and the Maya constructed their world with limestone and its by-products. In much of East-central Belize, granite provided the building blocks of settled life. Additionally, settlement layouts and locations differed from neighbouring regions, as did architectural styles. Our research at the ancient town of Alabama, which archaeologists named in the
1970s after a nearby village (original name unknown), is attempting to further document the diversity of lifeways represented by ancient Maya peoples. ‘The Maya’ is a misnomer in that we know they consisted then (and today) of multiple related languages and various identities, be they ethnic or other forms.
This diversity is an essential topic of investigation in this region, considered a borderland or frontier zone of the Maya world. Additionally, Alabama appears to have boomed during a time of general urban decline in much of the lowlands, and we’re working to figure out why.
We know that the Maya civilisation was not unified, so how did the different city-states interact with each other?
It was not unified in the sense of an empire, but it was certainly well connected. At an elite and royal level, this connection appeared in the form of official visits, occasional over-lordship, marriages, warfare, and general ideological affiliations.
“Maya subsistence practices and house construction techniques are innovative and dynamic”
In a broader sense, the Maya world was well-connected by trade routes and communication corridors, which continued well into modern times. More recently, we have a better understanding of additional physical connections between settlements and their populations through the use of Lidar, which has demonstrated that the Maya connected many of their cities – big and small –by causeways.
The Maya created a calendar system that was both accurate and complex. How did it develop and why does it continue to fascinate us?
The origins of the various calendars (e.g., Tzolk’in, Haab’, Long-count) that make up the system are not entirely understood. They seem to at least partially have their beginnings with the Olmec of the Gulf Coast region of Mesoamerica during the Middle Preclassic (c.1000-400 BCE). I think the similarities with our calendars today are fascinating. The combination of multiple cyclical calendars (such as our lunar months and solar years) and a linear year count
(eg 2020, 2021, 2022) would have been familiar to the ancient Maya. When you understand the logic and mechanics behind these systems, their similarities aren’t surprising, as they are both based on common observable natural phenomena. It’s riveting to learn about such systems’ origins and to appreciate that ancient peoples were concerned with something as abstract as time. The Maya system is arguably the most sophisticated in the Americas – or, at least, has the bestpreserved record – so I think people are drawn to it. It’s also incredible how parts of the calendrical system survive in many Maya communities up to this day, which demonstrates its persistence, accuracy, and utility over thousands of years.
In your opinion, are there any achievements of the Maya that don’t receive enough recognition?
I think the general day-to-day of ancient life – beyond the realm of elite lifeways
– is hugely underappreciated by the general public and under-represented in coverage about Maya peoples. I don’t think it’s fair to say that it’s understudied; it just doesn’t have the same flash or mystery as palaces and temple platforms so it doesn’t appear in glossy magazines or documentaries about archaeology and history. What is so unique about the ancient everyday is that much of it continues in Maya communities today, such as diverse subsistence practices and
house construction techniques. These are incredibly innovative, dynamic, and well-suited to the various lowland environments, and represent over 3,000 years of development and resilience.
Are there any misconceptions about the Maya civilisation that still persist today?
One of the biggest misconceptions is the notion of the Maya ‘Collapse’. The ‘Collapse’ represents a length of time toward the end of the Classic Period – labelled the ‘Terminal Classic’ (c.800-900 CE) – during which the institution of divine kingship waned, and many cities of the Southern and Central Lowlands started losing their populations for various reasons. People picked up and moved elsewhere. Some people may have headed north to where cities continued with new leadership forms, or some stayed on at places such as Lamanai in Belize that survived through the Post classic and beyond. We also see smaller communities such as Alabama appearing that may represent new settlements established by migrating peoples. Some oral histories of Maya peoples today even suggest many simply left urban life to live in the forests. The word ‘collapse’ is often taken as meaning the total loss of Maya cultures, despite over six million Maya peoples and an enduring legacy that still thrives today.