1. The Sky is Falling in the Gulf
2. Majesty of the Maya
3. Maya v. Aztec and Spanish; (Ball) Court Is Now In Session
4. Eden of Eastern Mexico (Our Words)
5. You Ready for the Yucatan?

The Yucatan Peninsula is in eastern Mexico, northern Guatemala, and the entirety of Belize. It offers bountiful history, culture, and natural splendors.

Courtesy of Encyclopedia Britannica

Within Mexico itself, the Yucatan is divided into the states of Campeche, Yucatan, and Quintana Roo – courtesy of World Atlas

The Sky is Falling in the Gulf

The Yucatan is mainly limestone, or saskab (Maya for white soil), with calcium and magnesium carbonates slightly soluble in water.

The peninsula is a non-submerged section of a carbonate landform, a gigantic platform essentially. It steadily grew from the seabed through accumulation of millions of skeletons of marine organisms; these organisms use calcium carbonate to form their bones, shells, and spicules. On dying, these organisms deposited on the bottom, where they compacted and hardened together with fine clays over millions of years. The Yucatan began to surface 33 to 24 million years ago, while parts of the northern peninsula were formed 1.8 million years ago (the information lends credence to a scenario where the landform was south to north on the path to its modern state).

Yucatan, with submerged supporting platform emphasized by line – courtesy of Northwestern University

Merida, capital of Yucatan state in the peninsula’s north, is surrounded by a circular ring of cenotes, or deep sinkholes in limestone (found mostly in the peninsula). Rainwater seeps through the limestone and creates these sinkholes. Once hollowed, the rainwater continues to pour in and forms the underground pools these caves are famed for.

Cenote diagram – courtesy of ResearchGate

Cenote in the Yucatan – courtesy of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Cenotes can be independent or of a network – courtesy of Northwestern University

Merida’s cenote ring is what’s left of an event which happened 65 million years ago. A giant comet struck the Yucatan and created the Chicxulub crater (named after the town of the same name).

Courtesy of Astronomy Magazine

The same comet affected not only the Yucatan, but the world itself. Shockwaves far and wide caused earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. It’s also thought the impact resulted in a global temperature rise which killed off the dinosaurs, and in the wake of that mammals growing larger (human beings may’ve been a species produced from the event).

No evidence of the crater is inside the impact zone, as, at the time, the Yucatan was beneath the waves.

The lowland Maya used the Yucatan’s cenotes as a source of freshwater. Owing to the cenotes’ role in sustaining lowland Maya societies, the sinkholes were regarded as sacred.

The word “cenote” itself stems from the Yucatec dialect’s “dzonot”, meaning “well”.

Maya dialects; in the modern world, 70 Maya tongues are spoken by 5 million people in tandem with standardized and local Spanish varieties (plus English and dialects in Belize) – courtesy of Castro Marina

The Maya believed cenotes were gates to Xibalba, the underworld, and the rain god Chaac was thought to live at the bottom of the cenotes. Rituals taking place and/or revolving around the cenotes, Chaac, and anything tied to them were common.

Sculpture of Chaac – courtesy of Mythlok

Majesty of the Maya

The Maya, unusually for Mesoamericans, lived in a continuous, uninterrupted zone in the Yucatan, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, and Mexican states Tabasco and Chiapas.

Maya civilization within Mesoamerica – courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

The Maya’s earliest settlements are from 1800 B.C.E., the beginning of the civilization’s Preclassic or Formative period. In the Middle Preclassic era (a time of agricultural expansion), the Olmecs (the first major Mesoamerican civilization) rose. The Maya (as well as the Zapotec, Totonac, and Aztec) borrowed Olmec traditions and customs (i.e. their number system and calendar, which the Maya expanded and improved on) for themselves. Pyramid building, city construction, and stone monument inscription flourished.

Courtesy of Boston College

No Olmec artifacts are as famed as their giant stone heads, thought to resemble warriors or other important figures – courtesy of World Atlas

Pyramid at Uxmal; the hilly region it’s in (uncharacteristically elevated for the Yucatan) is Puuc, closer to the peninsula’s northern edge than Guatemala’s mountains – courtesy of XYUandBEYOND

Variant of the Maya Calendar – courtesy of Live Science

The Classic period began in 250 A.D. Tikal, Copan, and Calakmul were of the 40 cities (housing 5,000-50,000 people each, out of a total population of 2,000,000-10,000,000) produced in this Golden Age. Plazas, palaces, temples, pyramids, and even courts for the ball game Ulama – urban areas of the civilization had it all. Kuhul ajaw, or holy lords, were the top of Maya societies; these lords claimed to be related to the gods and succeeded themselves hereditarily. The cities relied on the cenotes and the methods (slash-and-burn, irrigation, terracing) of their large farmer numbers. Gods worshipped were connected to the sun, the moon, rain, and corn.

Ruins of Tikal, Guatemala – courtesy of Live Science

Ruins of Copan, Honduras – courtesy of Atlas & Boots

Ruins of Calakmul, Mexico – courtesy of Yucatan Magazine

Ulama ball court – courtesy of Mexicolore

Modern ulama game; though the sport is associated with the Aztec and Maya, archaeological findings imply the game was more widespread; similar games and ball court styles have been found as far north as the American Southwest; followers of this blog may recall Aztec traders went north of their peoples’ lands, and may’ve inspired the figure Kokopelli; Aztecs may’ve brought the game that far, though it doesn’t rule out it reaching there from other means – courtesy of American Indian Magazine

Murals of Maya elites performing ceremonies – courtesy of Live Science

Reconstruction of Maya terrace farming – courtesy of Twinkl

Sample of Mesoamerican crops; cuitlacoche, a corn fungus, is perceived as a nuisance in the United States and a savory object in Mexico (where some dishes are made with it) – courtesy of Planet Archaeology

Mathematics and astronomy were important to Maya societies (they were incorporated into, and driven by, religious rituals). Achievements comprised the use of zero, the Calendar Round (365 days), and the Long Count Calendar (designed for over 5,000 years into the future).

The Yucatan’s flatness (excluding the hills of Puuc) left lowland Maya (as Chacoans further north) ample space to examine the cosmos and reach sophisticated conclusions – courtesy of National Geographic

The Yucatan’s natural composition went into some of the most splendorous decorations ever seen. These employed Jade, quetzal feathers (oft used for costumes of the nobility), and marine shells (used as trumpets in ceremonies and warfare).

Jade ornamentation – courtesy of Mesoamerican Studies Online

Quetzal feather headdress – courtesy of Mexicolore

Shell trumpet – courtesy of Mexicolore

From the late eighth century on, Classic-era cities of the southern lowlands were abandoned, and by 900 A.D. the Maya societies of that region collapsed. Speculated reasons for the collapse range anywhere from resource exhaustion to breakdown of city-states (from warfare and marriage problems) and diminishment of traditional dynastic power. Concerning the latter explanation, it couldn’t have helped that what was perhaps a widespread, catastrophic drought followed. Either way, the Classic Maya civilization was done for (at least in the southern lowlands).

Chichen Itza, Uxmal, and Mayapan, of the northern Yucatan, took up the glorious mantle from the southern lowlands in the Postclassic era (900-1500 A.D.), but by the time of the Spanish invasion, the Maya lived in agricultural villages, their cities hidden in rainforest.

Maya v. Aztec and Spanish; (Ball) Court Is Now In Session

In the West, it’s a popular notion that the Maya and Aztec fought each other. In actuality, there were Aztec garrisons on the imperial frontier which planned to attack the Maya, but the garrisons’ soldiers never did due to the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs. That said, surviving Aztec warriors did launch attacks on their eastern neighbors (many more peoples than just the Maya) … as part of Spanish campaigns into Maya territories from the 1520s to the 1540s. The Spanish wouldn’t have been able to colonize the Yucatan and Guatemala without help from ethnic Aztec warriors and former subjects of the Aztec empire (these groups knew the terrain and cultures better than the Spanish).

This doesn’t absolve the Spanish of their instigating and driving role in conquest of Maya lands. The Spanish kept at their genocidal warfare and social structures even after ethnic Aztec warriors and Aztec subjects (who were betrayed anyway) helped them subjugate the Maya and fellow Mesoamericans.

The Maya knew of Europeans in 1502, ten years after Christopher Columbus and his soldiers (thugs would be more accurate) reached the Americas. Bartolome Colon, Columbus’ brother, was in the Gulf of Honduras when he encountered Maya merchants. In 1519, Hernan Cortes arrived at the Yucatan Peninsula, and in 1521 he led the conquest of Tenochtitlan (the Aztec capital) west of the peninsula. The Aztec, despite having a more centralized, theoretically stronger political entity, fell faster than the Maya. For comparison, only in 1697 did the Spanish capture the last holdout Maya city of Tayasal (on an island in Guatemala’s Lake Peten Itza).

Lago Peten Itza, Guatemala – courtesy of Heritage Daily

The Maya autonomous province system (multiple hubs instead of one, so subjugating one didn’t conquer them all) was a major reason their societies held out for so long, but it wasn’t the only. The Spanish, including Francisco de Montejo el Adelantado (who led Yucatan campaigns), were still unfamiliar with the region, even with help from local Mesoamericans. Shipwrecked Spaniard Gonzalo Guerrero familiarized himself with and assimilated into Maya culture; he was made captain of a Maya ruler’s armies, and advised other leaders on military strategies against the Spanish.

Dominated the Maya were, even with the advantages on their side, for various reasons (chiefly Spanish and Mexican tactical and technological advantages in warfare, and epidemics from European diseases).

Post-conquest, the Spanish, and white and mestizo Mexicans after, seized Maya lands for plantations and forced Maya to work on them. Citizens of cities such as Yaxchilan and Palenque fled to rural areas to flee this slavery. New Maya cultures were created.

Ruins of Yaxchilan, Mexico – courtesy of World Monuments Fund

Ruins of Palenque, Mexico – courtesy of Heritage Daily

The Maya Caste War, one of the conflicts post-subjugation, was named such since it wasn’t just a peasant rebellion which sought to redress grievances. It erupted since the colonial-era Maya couldn’t escape the reality which the Spanish and post-Spanish caste barrier enforced and preserved, of belonging to a group separate from the unassimilated overlords.

Latin American caste system basics – courtesy of ResearchGate

A component of the Latin American caste system was the Encomienda, or estate of land – where indigenous inhabitants were regarded as part of the property – stolen by Spanish colonists for purposes of tribute and evangelization; followers of this blog may remember how the treaties of Native Americans and First Nations were only ever designed to benefit Europeans and their descendants; the Encomienda system was the same – courtesy of Nuestra Verdad Publicacion

Forced evangelization – Maya or not – was difficult for the Spaniards to accomplish. Fifty years after the first conquering campaigns, there was a lack of sufficient evangelist numbers for a population so large and diverse. Hundreds of languages existed from region to region, town to town, and village to village. Geographic barriers also posed a problem.

Swiss German (not to be confused with Swiss Standard German) is the spectrum of the Alemannic dialects from Switzerland; there are a shocking number of differences in spelling and pronunciation (i.e. the number six (6) pictured) in a broad regional sense alone; the Maya tongues are like this, only ten times more diverse; on the map, purple is High Alemannic and light red/pink is Highest Alemannic; High Alemannic and Highest Alemannic, amazingly enough, are closer to Low Alemannic dialects (e.g. Alsatian and Swabian) than they are to Alemannic subgroup Walser German, represented by dark red/orange and “säksch”; Walser German is so geographically isolated, it has preserved many medieval Alemannic features since receded or disappeared elsewhere – courtesy of German Stack Exchange

Matterhorn (approximately “meadow peak” in English), the most famous Swiss mountain, is at the southern tail-end of the Walser German-speaking region (though Swiss Standard German is spoken as well) – courtesy of Smithsonian Magazine

Even after conquest was complete, the Maya hoped for peaceful coexistence with the Spanish and their Mexican successors. The Latin American caste and encomienda systems (see above photos) made this impossible.

Through highs and lows, the Maya peoples have persisted to the present day, be they in Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, or El Salvador. The Yucatan is the heart of lowland Maya cultures, while Guatemala (40% of the population of which is ethnic Maya) is the heart of highland Maya cultures.

Eden of Eastern Mexico (Our Words)

On the aquatic end, the Yucatan is home to whale sharks, manta rays, barracuda, catfish, stingrays, and other marine and freshwater creatures.

Whale shark (left) and manta ray (right) swim side by side in the Mexican Caribbean – courtesy of Save Our Seas Foundation

Barracuda patrols a reef – courtesy of Project Noah

Catfish – good news is you don’t need to replace their kitty litter – courtesy of Conservation Atlas

Caribbean whiptail stingray – courtesy of Project Noah

400 species of birds, half the total number in Mexico, live in the Yucatan. Pelicans, parrots, flamingos, quetzals, the list is endless (in a feathered figure of speech).

Pelican off the peninsula – courtesy of Reading Eagle

Yellow-lored parrot – courtesy of eBird

Flamingos in flight – courtesy of Cancun Airport Travel Network

Quetzal, an important bird for the Maya – courtesy of Solo es Ciencia

The Quetzal, not accidentally, appears on the flag of Guatemala (pictured) – courtesy of Encyclopedia Britannica

Many a mammal makes its living in the Yucatan. Howler monkeys, armadillos, jaguars, etc. lurk in the jungles.

Howler monkey; a Maya guide lead us to them (many thanks to him), and the howls for which they earned their name are so deep and loud as to take anyone aback – courtesy of New England Primate Conservancy

Nine-banded armadillo – courtesy of Animalia

The Jaguar is another important animal for the Maya – courtesy of WIRED

Left: drawing of a Maya elite in Jaguar costume; right: Jaguar ornamentation – courtesy of Bali Safari and Marine Park

The Yucatan’s general rule for vegetation is it gets drier, and plants get lower to the ground (as well as scrubbier and spinier), the farther northwest it is. Apart from where mangrove appears in brackish water, there is no rigid boundary between vegetation types here. Dry seasons see fires scourge the lands; weeds and bushes being burnt means nutrients enter soil; humus carbonization results in moisture and nutrients being sponged, and soil changes from crumbly to brick-like.

In the dry seasons, there are as many as 20 fires a day in the region – courtesy of The Yucatan Times

Maya food and medicinal sources were found in coastal dune soils. Yucca cactus, sea oats, and beach morning glory may not serve those purposes anymore, but they continue to be vital to the ecosystem.

Yucatan yucca – courtesy of Yucca (Agavaceae)

Sea oats, part of a salty oatmeal and not-so-balanced breakfast – courtesy of Nature Stories

Beach morning glory – courtesy of iNaturalist

Coastal wetlands are held together by red mangrove and black mangrove. Red mangroves’ roots are “houses” for aquatic animals while catching sediment which will build into new land. Black mangroves’ vertical root projections capture oxygen.

Floridian red mangrove ecosystem – courtesy of WUSF News – University of South Florida

Lemon shark among Bahamian red mangroves – courtesy of National Geographic

Black mangrove ecosystem at low tide – courtesy of National Geographic Society

Orchids, bromeliads, and an abundance of other flowering plants are in the interior.

Rhyncholaelia Gigbyana, one of 300 orchid types on the peninsula – courtesy of Cancun Airport Travel Network

Billbergia Pyramidalis, or Flaming Torch Bromeliad – courtesy of Backyard Nature

Henequen was used by Maya for ropes, cables, nets, lassos, curtains, hammocks, and dense fabrics. The Spanish used the plant for ship cables and grain sacks. In the 1800s, henequen was the Yucatan’s most important cash crop, and at one point the peninsula made 90% of the world’s rope and burlap bags.

Even now, henequen is commonly grown in the Yucatan – courtesy of Merida Elite

Coconut palms are vital in practical uses wherever they’re planted. In the Yucatan, the meat is used as food; coconut water has sugar, nutrients, and electrolytes; husk fiber goes into ropes, mats, and brushes; the leaves are processed for baskets and roofing; and the trunks’ palm wood is substituted for endangered hardwoods.

Coconut palms – courtesy of Backyard Nature

You Ready for the Yucatan?

Courtesy of Merida Elite

Sources:

1. “Speleogenesis: How Were Caves and Cenotes Formed?”. Northwestern University. 26 December 2017. https://sites.northwestern.edu/monroyrios/tag/yucatan/
2. Woodman, Stephen. “This is How Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula was Really Formed”. The Culture Trip. 14 March 2018. https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/mexico/articles/this-is-how-mexicos-yucatan-peninsula-was-really-formed
3. “Cenote”. Merriam-Webster. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cenote
4. Maschke, Becky. “Mexico’s Cenotes, the Hidden Gems of the Yucatan”. The Culture Trip. 2 September 2021. https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/mexico/articles/mexico-s-cenotes-hidden-gems-of-the-yucatan#:~:text=The%20Maya%20believed%20cenotes%20to,for%20rain%20and%20good%20crops.
5. “Maya”. History. 29 October 2009 (Original Publication), 11 August 2023 (Updated). https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-americas/maya
6. Restall, Matthew. “Question for October 2017”. Mexicolore. October 2017. https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/ask-experts/did-the-aztecs-ever-fight-against-the-maya
7. Vazquez, Indalecio Cardena. “The Conquest of the Maya… a long battle”. The Yucatan Times. 24 January 2020. https://www.theyucatantimes.com/2020/01/the-conquest-of-the-maya-a-long-battle/
8. Zorich, Zach. “Gallery: The Maya Who Escaped Spanish Conquest”. Scientific American. 1 October 2020. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/gallery-the-maya-who-escaped-spanish-conquest/
9. Fery, Georges. “The Endless Conquest of the Yucatan”. Popular Archaeology. 14 January 2022. https://popular-archaeology.com/article/the-endless-conquest-of-yucatan/
10. “Encomienda”. Merriam-Webster. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/encomienda
11. “Nature and Wildlife in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula”. Veloso Tours. https://www.veloso.com/mexico/reasons-to-visit/yucatan-nature/
12. “An Overview of the Vegetation of the Yucatan”. Backyard Nature. https://www.backyardnature.net/yucatan/vegetatn.htm
13. “Vegetation of Yucatan”. Yucatan Today. https://yucatantoday.com/en/vegetation-yucatan/#:~:text=Dune%20plants%20of%20the%20coast,medicine%20sources%20for%20the%20Mayas.

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