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The great city of Chichén Itzá in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula is probably the best known vestige of the Mayan civilization, which at its height during the classic period, from about AD 250-900, rivaled those of Egypt and Rome. The established chronology of the development of Mayan societies has been called into question recently with the exciting finds at sites from the pre-classic period, c. 2000 BC to AD 240, in the ancient Guatemalan cities of Cival, San Bartolo, and El Mirador. The discoveries, among them a giant carved stone mask of a sun god in Cival, a mural depicting the Mayan creation myth in San Bartolo, and a massive pyramid amid the ruins of El Mirador, point to the flowering of the civilization several centuries earlier than previously thought, with the characteristics of the advanced cities of the classic period, including kings, palaces, intricate iconography, and elaborate rituals objects. See what else archaeologists have uncovered about these mythic people in the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SPECIAL "Dawn of the Maya."
Local Resources
To learn more about the Maya and other ancient civilizations, visit your local natural history museum or begin your research at the following Web sites:
American Museum of Natural History
http://www.amnh.org
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
http://www.metmuseum.org/
National Museum of the American Indian
http://www.nmai.si.edu
New Jersey State Museum
http://www.state.nj.us/state/museum
Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University
http://www.peabody.yale.edu
Photo: John Lizvey ©NGT&F
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