Southern Maya Area

(noun)

The geographic region in which Mayan civilization first emerged.

Related Terms

Examples of Southern Maya Area in the following topics:

  • The Preclassic Period of the Maya

    • Though the exact starting date of Mayan civilization is unclear, there were Mayan language speakers in the Southern Maya Area by 2000 BCE.
    • Around this time, the Olmec culture began to emerge in nearby Tabasco, granting the early Maya an important trading partner and beginning a period of prolonged contact that would have profound effects on Maya society and artistic production.
    • The Maya also developed the concept of the number zero during this era.
    • In fact, the Maya remained an essential part of the region.
    • By 2000 BCE, there were speakers of Mayan languages in the Southern Maya Area.

  • The Classic Period of the Maya

    • The political, economic, and culturally dominant "core" Maya units of the Classic Maya world system were located in the central lowlands, while the corresponding peripheral Maya units were found along the margins of the southern highland and northern lowland areas.
    • But as in all world systems, the Maya core centers shifted through time, starting out during Preclassic times in the southern highlands, moving to the central lowlands during the Classic period, and finally shifting to the northern peninsula during the Postclassic period.
    • The palace at Cancuén is the largest in the Maya area, but the site has no pyramids.
    • The Classic Maya Collapse refers to the decline of the Maya Classic Period and abandonment of the Classic Period Maya cities of the southern Maya lowlands of Mesoamerica between the 8th and 9th centuries.
    • The classic Maya urban centers of the southern lowlands, among them Palenque, Copán, Tikal, Calakmul, and many others, went into decline during the 8th and 9th centuries and were abandoned shortly thereafter.

  • The Decline of the Maya

    • Maya cities during this era were dispersed settlements, often centered around the temples or palaces of a ruling dynasty or elite in that particular area.
    • The area degenerated into competing city-states until the Spanish arrived in the Yucatán and shifted the power dynamics.
    • Though less visible during this era, Postclassic Maya states also continued to survive in the southern highlands.
    • However, it was a time of technological advancement in areas of architecture, engineering, and weaponry.
    • However, the Yucatán does not offer rich mining opportunities, and some areas were difficult to navigate because of the dense jungle environment.

  • Teotihuacan

    • Archaeological evidence suggests that Teotihuacan was a multi-ethnic city, with distinct quarters occupied by Otomi, Totonac, Zapotec, Mixtec, Maya, and Nahua peoples.
    • Many Maya murals represent Teotihucuan and the leaders of the city during its zenith.
    • The founders of this religious and populous city remain a mystery to scholars of the area.
    • There is also evidence that at least some of the people living in Teotihuacan immigrated from those areas influenced by the Teotihuacano civilization, including the Zapotec, Mixtec, and Maya peoples.
    • This area was a large plaza surrounded by temples that formed the religious and political center of the city.

  • The Zapotec

    • The religious and cultural city of Monte Albán had become the largest city in what are today the southern Mexican highlands.
    • These areas developed regional centers of power with distinct leaders and linguistic dialects.
    • This writing system is thought to be one of the first writing systems of Mesoamerica and a predecessor of those developed by the Maya, Mixtec, and Aztec civilizations.

  • The Olmec

    • Pre-Olmec cultures had flourished in the area since about 2500 BCE, but by 1600–1500 BCE, Early Olmec culture had emerged.
    • They were the first Mesoamerican civilization and laid many of the foundations for the civilizations that followed, such as the Maya.
    • This area is characterized by swampy lowlands punctuated by low hills, ridges, and volcanoes.

  • The Bantu Migration

    • Before the expansion of farming and pastoralist African peoples, Southern Africa was populated by hunter-gatherers and earlier pastoralists.
    • The Bantu expansion first introduced Bantu peoples to Central, Southern, and Southeast Africa, regions they had previously been absent from.
    • The Trekboers were colonizing new areas of Southern Africa, moving northeast from the Cape Colony, and they came into contact with the Xhosa, the Southern Nguni.
    • At the same time the area in modern-day KwaZulu-Natal was populated by dozens of small clans, one of which was the Zulu, then a particularly small clan of no local distinction whatsoever.
    • Parts of the Bantu area include languages from other language families.

  • The Nomadic Tribes of Arabia

    • Additionally, from the beginning of the first millennium BCE, Southern Arabia was the home to a number of kingdoms, such as the Sabaean kingdom, and the coastal areas of Eastern Arabia were controlled by the Iranian Parthians and Sassanians from 300 BCE.
    • While ancient Arabian Christianity was strong in areas of Southern Arabia, especially with Najran being an important center of Christianity, Nestorian Christianity was the dominant religion in Eastern Arabia prior to the advent of Islam.
    • The first mention of Jews in the areas of modern-day Saudi Arabia dates back, by some accounts, to the time of the First Temple.
    • Arab tribes, most notably the Ghassanids and Lakhmids, began to appear in the south Syrian deserts and southern Jordan from the mid 3rd century CE, during the mid to later stages of the Roman Empire and Sassanid Empire.

  • The Double Disasters

    • During the time that the Normans had conquered southern Italy, the Byzantine Empire was in a state of internal decay; the administration of the Empire had been wrecked, the efficient government institutions that provided Basil II with a quarter of a million troops and adequate resources by taxation had collapsed within a period of three decades.
    • Otranto was besieged and fell in the October 1068; in the same year, the Normans besieged Bari itself and, after defeating the Byzantines in a series of battles in Apulia, and after any attempt of relief had failed, the city surrendered in April 1071, ending the Byzantine presence in southern Italy.
    • The Norman adventurer Robert Guiscard allied with the pope to drive the remaining Byzantines from southern Italy and replace them with a Roman Catholic Norman kingdom.
    • He died before he could complete his conquests, but southern Italy would never again be ruled by the Byzantine Empire.
    • This led to the mass movement of Turks into central Anatolia—by 1080, an area of 78,000 square kilometres (30,000 sq mi) had been gained by the Seljuk Turks.

  • The Sumerians

    • The Ubaid period (6500-4100 BCE) saw the first settlement in southern Mesopotamia by farmers who brought irrigation agriculture.
    • Second, trade goods began to flow down waterways in southern Mespotamia, and large, temple-centered cities (most likely theocratic and run by priests-kings) rose up to facilitate this trade.
    • Sumerian culture began to spread from southern Mesopotamia into surrounding areas.
    • The Sumerian Renaissance/Third Dynasty of Ur (2047-1940 BCE) saw the rulers Ur-Nammu and Shulgi, whose power extended into southern Assyria.