When the expeditions of John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood documented the ruined cities of the Maya in the mid-19th Century, they found no ostensible evidence of warfare, but what did seem obvious was the Maya’s aptitude for monumental architecture, mathematics and astronomy. This gave rise to an image of the Maya as an esoteric people, sedate priests who watched the stars a scarcely paid the world any attention.
That point of view took a sharp about-face with the discovery of the Murals of Bonampak. The painted murals had survived the ages, and they depicted shocking scenes of battle, the burning of temples, the taking of prisoners and their torture and sacrifice.
Interpretations
This began to cast the Maya instead as a people who were violent and frequently at war in the interest of procuring sacrificial victims: the Maya shared the pan-Mesoamerican custom of human sacrifice by heart excision. So the Maya did go to war. But to say that they went to war for capturing sacrifices is still an unsatisfactory one: it tends to suggest that the Maya were subjugated entirely by bloodlust and religious fanaticism.
Motives and Techniques of War
Oddly enough, the Maya were motivated in part by their fascination with the stars. Commemorative stelae in the city of Tikal – the Athens of the Maya – note victories over their enemy city states in ‘star wars,’ which were timed to coincide with favourable conjunctions of the stars, in particular the rise of Venus as the ‘morning star’ and lunar eclipses. Tikal’s king Hasaw Chan K’awil recorded a star war victory in 695 with slight changes in the record to put the record of the victory more in line with stellar portents.
Having said that, these portents were seen simply as promising pretexts for war, not the instigation of it. The fact that wars outside of astronomical pretexts, called ‘axe wars’ existed indicates that they had more worldly priorities. Nor was it just collecting bodies for the sacrificial altars and furthermore, the prisoner objective was not simply piling up bodies: Maya rulers and warriors of rank made themselves as distinctive as possible to make sure that men of the same class would be clashing. The core of a Maya battle was essentially a large number of simultaneous duels.
Tikal and its neighbours in the Classic Period were harbouring minor imperialist ambitions. In this vein, they invaded their neighbour city Caracol, abducted its leader, and ‘chopped’ him. They would then, it is understood, prop up a puppet leader loyal to Tikal in his place. Thus they would gain the armies, revenues and resources of that city and all its surrounding countryside.
Conclusions
Most summaries of Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya included, will emphasize their tradition of human sacrifice. However, when understanding the Maya, it is important not to get too distracted by the spectacle of these seemingly bizarre practices. The Maya were not fanatically devoted to astrology or blood cults. At the core of their conflicts were motivations of power, dynasty and land. Whatever their particular practices, the Maya were human beings. It is important never to forget it.
Sources
Harrison, Peter D. Lords of Tikal: Rulers of an AncientMayaCity. Thames and Hudson Ltd., 1999.
McKillop, Heather The Ancient Maya: New Perspectives. ABC-CLIO, Inc., 2004
Milbrath, Susan. Star Gods of the Maya: Astronomy in Art, Folklore, and Calendars. University of Texas Press, 1999.
Morley, Sylvanus Griswold. The Ancient Maya. Stanford University Press, 1956
Parker, Geoffrey, ed. Cambridge Illustrated History of Warfare. Cambridge University Press, 1995.
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