Spanish conquest of Petén
The Spanish conquest of Petén was the last stage of the conquest of Guatemala, a prolonged conflict during the Spanish colonisation of the Americas. A wide lowland plain covered with dense rainforest, Petén contains a central drainage basin with a series of lakes and areas of savannah, it is crossed by several ranges of low karstic hills and rises to the south as it nears the Guatemalan Highlands. The conquest of Petén, a region now incorporated into the modern republic of Guatemala, climaxed in 1697 with the capture of Nojpetén, the island capital of the Itza kingdom, by Martín de Ursúa y Arizmendi. With the defeat of the Itza, the last independent and unconquered native kingdom in the Americas fell to European colonisers. Sizeable Maya populations existed in Petén before the conquest around the central lakes and along the rivers. Petén was divided into different Maya polities engaged in a complex web of enmities; the most important groups around the central lakes were the Yalain and the Kowoj.
Other groups with territories in Petén included the Kejache, the Acala, the Lakandon Chʼol, the Xocmo, the Chinamita, the Icaiche and the Manche Chʼol. Petén was first penetrated by Hernán Cortés with a sizeable expedition that crossed the territory from north to south in 1525. In the first half of the 16th century, Spain established neighbouring colonies in Yucatán to the north and Guatemala to the south. Spanish missionaries laid the groundwork for the extension of colonial administration in the extreme south of Petén from 1596 onwards, but no further Spanish entry of central Petén took place until 1618 and 1619 when missionaries arrived at the Itza capital, having travelled from the Spanish town of Mérida in Yucatán. In 1622 a military expedition set out from Yucatán led by Captain Francisco de Mirones and accompanied by Franciscan friar Diego Delgado. In 1628 the Manche Chʼol of the south were placed under the administration of the colonial governor of Verapaz within the Captaincy General of Guatemala.
The Manche Chʼol unsuccessfully rebelled against Spanish control in 1633. In 1695 a military expedition tried to reach Lake Petén Itzá from Guatemala; the modern department of Petén is located in northern Guatemala. It is bordered on the west by the Mexican state of Chiapas. On the north side Petén is bordered by the Mexican state of Campeche and on the northwest by the Mexican state of Tabasco; the Petén lowlands are formed by a densely forested low-lying limestone plain featuring karstic topography. The area is crossed by low east–west oriented ridges of Cenozoic limestone and is characterised by a variety of forest and soil types. A chain of fourteen lakes runs across the central drainage basin of Petén; this drainage area measures 100 kilometres east–west by 30 kilometres north–south. The largest lake is Lake Petén Itzá, near the centre of the drainage basin. A broad savannah extends south of the central lakes; the savannah features a compact red clay soil, too poor to support heavy cultivation, which resulted in a low level of pre-Columbian occupation.
It is surrounded by hills with gentler northern approaches. To the north of the lakes region bajos become more frequent. In the far north of Petén the Mirador Basin forms another interior drainage region. To the south Petén reaches an altitude of 500 metres as it rises towards the Guatemalan Highlands and meets Paleozoic metamorphic rocks; the climate of Petén is divided into wet and dry seasons, with the rainy season lasting from June to December, although these seasons are not defined in the south. The climate varies from tropical in the south to semitropical in the north. Mean temperature varies from 24.3 °C in the southeast around Poptún to 26.9 °C around Uaxactún in the northeast. Highest temperatures are reached from April to June, January is the coldest month. Annual precipitation is high, varying from a mean of 1,198 millimetres in the northeast to 2,007 millimetres in central Petén around Flores; the extreme southeast of Petén experiences the largest variations in temperature and rainfall, with precipitation reaching as much as 3,000 millimetres in a year.
The first large Maya cities developed in Petén as far back as the Middle Preclassic, Petén formed the heartland of the ancient Maya civilization during the Classic period. The great cities that dominated Petén had fallen into ruin by the beginning of the 10th century AD with the onset of the Classic Maya collapse. A significant Maya presence remained into the Postclassic period after the abandonment of the major Classic period cities.
Diego de Landa
Diego de Landa Calderón, O. F. M. was a Spanish bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Yucatán. Historians describe him as a fanatical priest who led a violent campaign against idolatry. In particular, he burned all the Mayan manuscripts that would have been useful in deciphering Mayan script, knowledge of Maya religion and civilization, the history of the American continent. Born in Cifuentes, Spain, he became a Franciscan friar in 1541, was sent as one of the first Franciscans to the Yucatán, arriving in 1549. Landa was in charge of bringing the Roman Catholic faith to the Maya peoples after the Spanish conquest of Yucatán, he presided over a spiritual monopoly granted to the Catholic Franciscan order by the Spanish crown, he worked diligently to buttress the order's power and convert the indigenous Maya. His initial appointment was to the mission of San Antonio in Izamal, which served as his primary residence while in Yucatán, he is the author of the Relación de las cosas de Yucatán in which he catalogues the Maya religion, Maya language and writing system.
The manuscript was written around 1566 on his return to Spain. The account is known only as an abridgement, which in turn had undergone several iterations by various copyists; the extant version was produced around 1660 and was discovered by the 19th-century French cleric Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg in 1862, who published the manuscript two years in a bilingual French-Spanish edition, Relation des choses de Yucatán de Diego de Landa. After hearing of Roman Catholic Maya who continued to practice idol worship, he ordered an Inquisition in Mani, ending with a ceremony called auto de fé. During the ceremony on July 12, 1562, a disputed number of Maya codices and 5000 Maya cult images were burned; the actions of Landa passed into the Black Legend of the Spanish in the Americas. Only three pre-Columbian books of Maya hieroglyphics and fragments of a fourth are known to have survived. Collectively, the works are known as the Maya codices. Landa's Inquisition showered a level of physical abuse upon the indigenous Maya that many viewed as excessive and was, at the least, unusual.
Scores of Maya nobles were jailed pending interrogation, large numbers of Maya nobles and commoners were subjected to examination under "hoisting." During hoisting, a victim's hands were bound and looped over an extended line, raised until the victim's entire body was suspended in the air. Stone weights were added to the ankles or lashes applied to the back during interrogation; some contemporary observers were troubled by this widespread use of torture. Crown fiat had earlier exempted indigenous peoples from the authority of the Inquisition, on the grounds that their understanding of Christianity was "too childish" for them to be held culpable for heresies. Additionally, Landa dispensed with much of the extensive formal procedure and documentation that accompanied Spanish torture and interrogation. Scholars have argued that Mexican inquisitions showed little concern to eradicate magic or convict individuals for heterodox beliefs and that witchcraft was treated more as a religious problem capable of being resolved by confession and absolution.
Landa, however inspired by intolerant fellow Franciscan Cardenal, from the same Toledo convent, was "monomaniacal in his fervor" against it. Landa believed a huge underground network of apostasies, led by displaced indigenous priests, were jealous of the power the Church enjoyed and sought to reclaim it for themselves; the apostates, Landa surmised, had launched a counteroffensive against the Church, he believed it was his duty to expose the evil before it could revert the population to their old heathen ways. Landa claimed that he had discovered evidence of human sacrifice and other idolatrous practices while rooting out native idolatry. Although one of the alleged victims of said sacrifices, Mani Encomendero Dasbatés, was found to be alive, Landa's enemies contested his right to run an inquisition, Landa insisted a papal bull, Exponi nobis, justified his actions. However, Lopez de Cogolludo, Landa's chief Franciscan biographer, wrote of Landa's firsthand experiences with human sacrifices.
When Landa first came to the Yucatán, he made it his mission to walk the breadth of the peninsula and preach to the most remote villages. While passing through Cupules, he came upon a group of 300 about to sacrifice a young boy. Enraged, Landa stormed through the crowd, released the boy, smashed the idols and began preaching with such zeal and sincerity that they begged him to remain in the land and teach them more. Landa was remarkable in, he entered lands, only conquered, where native resentment of Spaniards was still intense. Armed with nothing but the conviction to learn as much of native culture as he could so that it would be easier for him to destroy it in the future, Landa formulated an intimate contact with natives. Natives placed him in such an esteemed position they were willing to show him some of their sacred writings, transcribed on deerskin books. To Landa and the other Franciscan friars, the existence of these Mayan codices was proof of diabolical practices. In references to the books, Landa said: We found a large number of books in these characters and, as they contained nothing in which were not to be seen as superstition and lies of the devil, we burned them all, which they regretted to an amazing degree, which caused them much affliction.
Landa's insistence of widespread cults throughout the Yuc
Jasaw Chan Kʼawiil I
Jasaw Chan Kʼawiil I known as Ruler A, Ah Cacao and Sky Rain, was an ajaw of the Maya city of Tikal. He reigned until his death. Before advances in the decipherment of the Maya script revealed this reading of his name, this ruler was known to researchers as Tikal Ruler A, Jasaw Chan Kʼawiil or by the nickname Ah Cacao. One of the most celebrated of Tikal's rulers, Jasaw Chan Kʼawiil's reign came at the end of a 130-year-long hiatus in Tikal's historical record, his defeat of the rival Maya city of Calakmul in 695 is seen to represent a resurgence in the strength and influence of Tikal. Two structures at Tikal in particular are associated with Jasaw Chan Kʼawiil. Tikal Temple I is a classically Petén-styled stepped pyramid structure which served as this ruler's tomb, although it is unclear whether it was built for this specific purpose. Tikal Temple II served as the tomb for his wife, Lady Lahan Unen Moʼ, his successor was his son Yikʼin Chan Kʼawiil
International Standard Serial Number
An International Standard Serial Number is an eight-digit serial number used to uniquely identify a serial publication, such as a magazine. The ISSN is helpful in distinguishing between serials with the same title. ISSN are used in ordering, interlibrary loans, other practices in connection with serial literature; the ISSN system was first drafted as an International Organization for Standardization international standard in 1971 and published as ISO 3297 in 1975. ISO subcommittee TC 46/SC 9 is responsible for maintaining the standard; when a serial with the same content is published in more than one media type, a different ISSN is assigned to each media type. For example, many serials are published both in electronic media; the ISSN system refers to these types as electronic ISSN, respectively. Conversely, as defined in ISO 3297:2007, every serial in the ISSN system is assigned a linking ISSN the same as the ISSN assigned to the serial in its first published medium, which links together all ISSNs assigned to the serial in every medium.
The format of the ISSN is an eight digit code, divided by a hyphen into two four-digit numbers. As an integer number, it can be represented by the first seven digits; the last code digit, which may be 0-9 or an X, is a check digit. Formally, the general form of the ISSN code can be expressed as follows: NNNN-NNNC where N is in the set, a digit character, C is in; the ISSN of the journal Hearing Research, for example, is 0378-5955, where the final 5 is the check digit, C=5. To calculate the check digit, the following algorithm may be used: Calculate the sum of the first seven digits of the ISSN multiplied by its position in the number, counting from the right—that is, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, respectively: 0 ⋅ 8 + 3 ⋅ 7 + 7 ⋅ 6 + 8 ⋅ 5 + 5 ⋅ 4 + 9 ⋅ 3 + 5 ⋅ 2 = 0 + 21 + 42 + 40 + 20 + 27 + 10 = 160 The modulus 11 of this sum is calculated. For calculations, an upper case X in the check digit position indicates a check digit of 10. To confirm the check digit, calculate the sum of all eight digits of the ISSN multiplied by its position in the number, counting from the right.
The modulus 11 of the sum must be 0. There is an online ISSN checker. ISSN codes are assigned by a network of ISSN National Centres located at national libraries and coordinated by the ISSN International Centre based in Paris; the International Centre is an intergovernmental organization created in 1974 through an agreement between UNESCO and the French government. The International Centre maintains a database of all ISSNs assigned worldwide, the ISDS Register otherwise known as the ISSN Register. At the end of 2016, the ISSN Register contained records for 1,943,572 items. ISSN and ISBN codes are similar in concept. An ISBN might be assigned for particular issues of a serial, in addition to the ISSN code for the serial as a whole. An ISSN, unlike the ISBN code, is an anonymous identifier associated with a serial title, containing no information as to the publisher or its location. For this reason a new ISSN is assigned to a serial each time it undergoes a major title change. Since the ISSN applies to an entire serial a new identifier, the Serial Item and Contribution Identifier, was built on top of it to allow references to specific volumes, articles, or other identifiable components.
Separate ISSNs are needed for serials in different media. Thus, the print and electronic media versions of a serial need separate ISSNs. A CD-ROM version and a web version of a serial require different ISSNs since two different media are involved. However, the same ISSN can be used for different file formats of the same online serial; this "media-oriented identification" of serials made sense in the 1970s. In the 1990s and onward, with personal computers, better screens, the Web, it makes sense to consider only content, independent of media; this "content-oriented identification" of serials was a repressed demand during a decade, but no ISSN update or initiative occurred. A natural extension for ISSN, the unique-identification of the articles in the serials, was the main demand application. An alternative serials' contents model arrived with the indecs Content Model and its application, the digital object identifier, as ISSN-independent initiative, consolidated in the 2000s. Only in 2007, ISSN-L was defined in the
Chilam Balam
The Books of Chilam Balam are handwritten, chiefly 17th and 18th-centuries Maya miscellanies, named after the small Yucatec towns where they were kept, preserving important traditional knowledge in which indigenous Maya and early Spanish traditions have coalesced. Written in the Yucatec Maya language and using the Latin alphabet, the manuscripts are attributed to a legendary author called Chilam Balam, a chilam being a priest who gives prophecies and balam a common surname meaning ʼJaguarʼ; some of the texts contain prophecies about the coming of the Spaniards to Yucatán while mentioning a chilam Balam as their first author. Nine Books of Chilam Balam are known, most those from Chumayel and Tizimin, but more have existed. Both language and content show that parts of the books date back to the time of the Spanish conquest of the Yucatec kingdoms. In some cases, where the language is terse, the books appear to render hieroglyphic script, thus to hark back to the pre-conquest period. Taken together, the Books of Chilam Balam give the fullness of 18th-century Yucatec-Maya spiritual life.
Whereas the medical texts and chronicles are quite matter-of-fact, the riddles and prognostications make abundant use of traditional Mayan metaphors. This holds more true of the mythological and ritualistic texts, cast in abstruse language, plainly belong to esoteric lore; the historical texts derive part of their importance from the fact that they have been cast in the framework of the native Maya calendar adapted to the European calendrical system. Reconstructing Postclassic Yucatec history from these data has proven to be an arduous task; the following is an overview of the sorts of texts—partly of Mesoamerican, of Spanish derivation—found in the Chilam Balam books. 1. History Histories, cast in the mold of the indigenous calendar: migration legends. Prognostication, cast in the framework of the succession of haabs, kʼatuns. Prophecy, ascribed to famous early 16th-century oracular priests.2. Formularies with Metaphors Collections of riddles, used for the confirmation of local lords into their offices.3.
Myth and Mysticism Myth the destruction and re-creation of the world as connected to the start of kʼatun 11 Ahau. Ritualistic mysticism concerning the creation of the twenty named days. Practical Calendars and Classifications Classifications according to the twenty named days. Treatises on astrology and the Catholic liturgical calendar; the astrology includes the European zodiac. Agricultural almanacs.5. Medical Recipes Herbal medicine: The Chilam Balam books contain the sort of medical prescriptions that derive from Greek and Arab traditions, rather than the Mayan'incantation approach', as represented by the Ritual of the Bacabs.6. Spanish Traditions Roman Catholic instruction: feast days of the saints and prayers. Spanish romance, such as the tale of the'Maiden Theodora'. Since many texts recur in various books of Chilam Balam, establishing a concordance and studying substitution patterns is fundamental to scholarship; the archaic Yucatec idiom and the allusive, metaphorical nature of many texts present a formidable challenge to translators.
The outcome of the translation process is sometimes influenced by external assumptions about the texts' purpose. As a result of these factors, the quality of existing translations varies greatly; the Spanish-language synoptic translation of Barrera Vásquez and Rendón is still useful. To date, complete English translations are available for the following Books of Chilam Balam: Chumayel Mani Tizimin Na Kaua An excellent overview and discussion of the syncretism involved is to be found in the introduction to the Bricker and Miram edition of the Book of Chilam Balam of Kaua. A detailed analysis and interpretation of the main mythological and ritualistic texts with a view to their syncretic origins is given by Knowlton; the Books of Chilam Balam are referenced in The Falling Woman by Pat Murphy as source material for the description of sacrifices at Chichén Itzá. Index of Mexico-related articles Maya civilization Cultural significance of the jaguar in Central and North America Songs of Dzitbalche Full text of "The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel" at www.mayaweb.nl Antje Gunsenheimer: Geschichtstradierung in den yukatekischen Chilam Balam-Büchern
Maritime trade in the Maya civilization
The extensive trade networks of the Ancient Maya contributed to the success of their civilization spanning three millennia. The Maya royals control and wide distribution of foreign and domestic commodities for both population sustenance and social affluence are hallmarks of the Maya visible throughout much of the iconography found in the archaeological record. In particular, moderately long distance trade of foreign commodities from the Caribbean and Gulf Coasts provided the larger inland Maya cities with the resources they needed to sustain settled population levels in the several thousands. Though the ruling class controlled the trade economy, a middle merchant class supervised import and export from cities and trade ports. Not much is known of the Maya merchant class. Notably, a canoe paddle accompanies the royal merchant depictions, signifying their association with marine resources. Water lilies are a recognizable feature of Maya iconography, appearing on ceramics and murals in landlocked cities like Palenque where the lilies cannot grow, further indicating the important political symbolism of water connections.
The dugout style canoes of the Maya and other small watercraft are represented in various codices, sometimes ferrying royal figures or deities. The rich tradition of maritime trade has continued into the modern era, exemplified by the resource exploitation of the coastal lagoons and cay locations along the Caribbean coast of Mexico, Belize and Honduras. One of the largest trade industries from the coast involved the establishment of salt mining. Salt is a basic dietary requirement and is difficult to obtain in the interior landscape of Central America. In response to this need, salt workshops cropped up along coastal Maya regions practicing the sal cocida technique of boiling brine in ceramics pots; these salt workshops, such as those found at Ambergis Caye, Placencia Lagoon, Punta Ycacos Lagoon in Belize, provided salt for dietary consumption as well as the salt packing of other subsistence resources, such as fish, for coastal-inland trade. Salt trade was a commodity of both common and elite social groups, though the quality of the salt fell under regulation between the classes, with elite grade “white” salt imported from the coasts of the Yucatán peninsula.
Basic household commodities, such as subsistence items, stone tools and metates, simple ceramic wares produced throughout the Maya sphere would have made their way to the major port trade sites for regional distribution. The trade of elite goods exemplifies Maya complex economic phenomena; the control of elite Maya commodities trade from inland to coastal regions was pivotal in creating and reinforcing political rule. Accessibility to obsidian, stingray spines, master crafted ceramics, cacao, quetzal feathers, gold were limited to the top of the Maya social strata. Presence of these commodities at sites both inland and coastal suggests connections to elite persons and to larger regional city centers, whether through trade or occupational usage. Not all coastal sites were occupied as settlements, instead acting as de facto ports of trade because of their strategic locations at river mouths; the major trade site of Moho Cay in southern Belize is one such specific port, where high quality chert and obsidian from interior obsidian outcrops in the Guatemalan highlands was amassed for distribution down the Belize River to large cities, like Tikal, during the Classic Period.
Wild Cane Cay on the northern Belizean coast operated as a trade port focused on foreign obsidian distribution. Seashells conch and spondylus, were prized for both ritual usage and elite adornment. Modern strontium isotope analysis provides a means for sourcing shells trade to interior Maya settlements. Stingray spines imported from the coast played a major role in royal Maya bloodletting rituals for communing with ancestors and deities. There is evidence that gold and jade, either as a raw material or a manufactured product, was produced in only limited quantities in the Maya regional sphere. Many instances of these two rare elite goods traveled by long-distance trade from the Ishmo-Columbian region outside of the Maya cultural sphere; the goldworks and jade originated in Costa Rica and Ecuador and traded up through coastal Caribbean routes, as interior routes were impassable. Artifacts of Maya origin appear in the archaeological record throughout Isthmo-Colombia; the Maya polities lacked access to large beasts of burden for carrying trade commodities throughout their civilization, instead relied on the labor of human porters.
The comparative ease and swiftness of water transport for moving large quantities of goods played a role in the Maya reliance on waterborne trade. This was accomplished by a well-established dugout vessel building technology; the canoes were hollowed from large cedar trunks with the addition of nailed plants to extend their holding capacity, made watertight with pitch asphaltum. As of yet, there have been no discoveries of an intact ancient Maya canoe, however artistic representations from prehistory as well as descriptions from Christopher Columbus' son, provide rich details about what these vessels were like. Ferdinand tells of an encounter with a Maya Canoe in the Bay of Honduras near the Bay Islands during Columbus' fourth voyage in 1506. Bartolomé de las Casas describes the encounter: "There arrived a canoe full of Indians, as long as a galley and eight feet wide, it was loaded with merchandise from the west certainly from the land of Yucatan, for
