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Missionary Conquest

The worst damage to the Maya was done by the missionaries who traveled with the conquistadores. Diego de Landa, a Franciscan missionary, decreed the destruction of the Mayan holy books. Landa cared for the Mayan people and interceded on their behalf with the Spanish conquistadores. Unfortunately, he was convinced Mayan religious practices consisted of devil worship and he ordered the burning and destruction of all Mayan books and idols. The only known books that survived the destruction are the three and a half we mentioned earlier in this chapter.

In 1566, Landa wrote a book describing the customs, hieroglyphs, temples, religious practice, and history of the Maya, colored by his own religious bias. In addition, many Mayans learned Spanish and translated the creation stories and prophecies as well as some of the original codices. This was done to preserve them, as anything written in the Mayan language was sure to be destroyed. Two of these books, the Popol Vuh and Chilam Balam, have become cornerstones in understanding Mayan beliefs.

Some of the codices written in Spanish actually describe the Spanish conquest from the Aztec and Maya perspective. However, the accuracy of post-conquest codices and translations are questionable simply because the contents seem to have been tampered with by the missionaries. Undoubtedly the Maya wrote and hid books still to be revealed.

The Neighboring People

The Maya were not the only people living in the region. Mesoamerica was a richly populated place with many different tribes contributing to the greater culture of the region. The best-known friends, enemies, and relations to the Maya were the Olmec, Zapotec, Teotihuacanos, Toltec, and Aztec. Each group offered something unique to the whole of Mesoamerican culture—some good, some bad. They cross-fertilized each other with ideas, advances, tradition, and legends. The Olmec and Zapotec are credited with starting the style of hieroglyphic writing, astronomy, and even the calendars that the Maya later perfected. This, of course, is hotly disputed! Here is some brief info on these key cultures.

Olmec

The Olmec established the region’s first major civilization. They lived along the central coast of the Gulf of Mexico, just west of the Yucatán Peninsula, in the swampy jungle river basins. Later they expanded into the highlands of Mexico, Mexico Valley, Oaxaca, and Guerrero. The height of their influence was between 1500 and 600 B.C.E. The Olmec used stone in sculpture and architecture, traveling to distant mountains to quarry it. Their colossal stone heads remain one of the mysteries of the ancient world. The male heads stand about nine feet high and weigh several tons. The Olmec may have developed the earliest known writing system in the Americas, but the symbols are not related to other hieroglyphic scripts like the Maya’s, indicating other scripts derived separately.

Zapotec

The Zapotec lived in the highlands of Oaxaca, Mexico, and might have been the first to create a hieroglyphic writing system. The Zapotec language probably originated more than 6,000 years ago but is still spoken by approximately 300,000 people. They built the first plaster-style houses and created the first political system of the region. Their capital, Monte Alban, housed about 30,000 people at the height of its power. This was the first true city-state in Mesoamerica.

Teotihuacanos

Teotihuacanos are the people who inhabited the city of Teotihuacán, northeast of present-day Mexico City. The city was founded in 200 B.C.E., although it was built on a site inhabited since 1000 B.C.E. The Teotihuacanos had close contacts with the Maya during the early classic period (about 300 to 900 C.E.), especially at Tikal in Guatemala. At its peak in 600 B.C.E., Teotihuacán was one of the largest cities in the world. It covered an area of eight square miles and had a population of over 100,000 people! It had two great pyramids, the Pyramid of the Sun and the