62 UNIT 1 PREHISPANIC MESOAMERICA
and on pottery. These inscriptions provide information on dynastic histories of Mayan
rulers, the political alliances forged between and among centers, warfare, and ritual
life. New publications such as Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queensby epigraphers
Simon Martin and Nikolai Grube (2000) have synthesized this information and made
it available to the interested public.
Although cities across a wide area of the Mayan lowlands shared a common cul-
ture, the area was never unified politically. Instead, several regional states existed
within the Mayan lowlands, with each region composed of a capital city and numer-
ous smaller subject cities, towns, and villages. The composition of each region was
fluid as centers were alternatively warring with each other and joining in alliances.
Two superstates, Tikal and Calakmul, vied to manipulate the southern networks of
alliances, which were not always geographically continuous. The Classic Mayan re-
gional states were in a continuous process of expansion and contraction owing to
changing fortunes in warfare, statecraft, and exchange.
For reasons that are still not completely understood, Classic Mayan civilization
in the southern lowlands collapsed between A.D. 800 and 900. Although the popular
image of the mysterious vanished Mayan civilization is not entirely accurate—Mayan
peoples continued to live in certain areas within the southern lowlands after the col-
lapse and to the present day—the state institutions that held society together during
the Late Formative and Classic periods became obsolete at most cities by around A.D.- The first evidence for the impending collapse was the cessation of construction
activity at sites in the western portion of the southern lowlands. No long count dates
(see Box 1.5) were recorded at sites along the Usumacinta River after A.D. 840. All
but a few centers were virtually abandoned by A.D. 900 or shortly thereafter.
The causes of the collapse of Classic Mayan civilization have eluded archaeologists
for many years. It is now generally agreed that no single factor can account for the col-
lapse; instead, several related factors contributed to the failure of elite institutions, and
variation in the importance of these factors varied among different geographic areas.
Demographic and ecological stress clearly played a role for some polities. The rapid
increase in population in the lowlands meant that much more food needed to be
grown to feed the population. In the fragile tropical ecosystem, the implementation
of more intensive forms of agriculture may have upset an already delicate ecological
balance and led to depletion of nutrients in soils in areas such as Copan. Skeletal ev-
(continued)
In cases where written records provide clues to urban function (such as ethnohistoric de-
scriptions of Aztec cities, or the content of glyphic inscriptions at Classic Maya cities), adminis-
tration and religion also stand out, providing additional support for this model. Outside the city
center, spatial patterns show considerable variation, but in most cases population density is not
extremely high. The exceptions to this pattern are Teotihuacan and Tenochtitlan, Central Mexi-
can imperial capitals with strong economic orientations and very large, dense populations. Nev-
ertheless, these two cities were also important administrative and religious centers for their
hinterlands, and the functional approach to urbanism provides insights into all of the urban cen-
ters of ancient Mesoamerica.