SUMMARY OF MAJOR PERIODS

The evolution of the Maya civilization was not straightforward. Its development had attainments, collapses, and renewal. The following brief summary is according to Lynn V. Foster in the Handbook to Life in the Ancient Maya World.

Lithic - c. 12,000-7000 B.C.E.
Peopling of the America

Archaic - c. 7000-1200 B.C.E.
Permanent settlements and plant domestication lead to more populous, socially stratified, and pottery-producing villages sustained by maize agriculture. By 1400 B.C.E., an Isthmian culture was shared from the Pacific coast of the Maya region to the Gulf coast of southern Veracruz.

Early Preclassic (Early Formative) - c. 1200-1000 B.C.E.
Foundation of Mesoamerican civilization through evolution of Itshmian culture into Olmec culture, the first civilization of Mesoamerica.

Middle Preclassic - c.1000-300 B.C.E.
A distinctive Maya culture evolves; Olmec civilization flourishes then declines.

Late Preclassic - c. 300 B.C.E. -250 C.E.
The Izapán, or Epi-Olmec, horizon in the southern Maya area ushers in the stela cult with hieroglyphics texts and the earliest known Long Count date (31 B.C.E.). Maya urban civilization assumes its characteristics traits in the central and southern lowlands ("heartland"); population levels peak in settlements on the Pacific coast and in the Guatemala highlands.

Early Classic - c. 250-600 C.E.
Maya lowland cities flourish while ones on the Pacific coast decline or are abandoned; glyphic texts are carved on public monuments proclaiming feasts of dynastic rulers; there is contact with the central Mexican city of Teotihuacan.

Late Classic - c. 600-900 C.E.
Maya lowland cities proliferate; number of public hieroglyphic texts increases. The culture reaches its artistic zenith. As the population peaks in the heartland, widespread warfare precedes the collapse of most southern lowland cities.

Terminal Classic - c. 800-1000 C.E.
A period that overlaps the Classic and Postclassic in order to focus on the transition from the decline of the Petén cities to the rise of a pan-Mesoamerican culture in northern Yucatán. By the end of the period, public monuments no longer are inscribed with texts and Long Court dates.

Early Postclassic
Maya cities in the northern lowlands, particularly the great city of Chichén Itzá, are part of far-flung trade networks. Pan-Mesoamerican influences on the Maya art style typify the period, and the culture is less concerned with ruler glorification.

Late Postclassic - c. 1200-1521 C.E.
Maya rulers continue to govern cities on the periphery of the Maya region, especially in the Yucatán, along the Caribbean coast, and in fortified hill towns of highland Guatemala. Fortified cities typify the period, and the northern region in less invested in public monuments than in commerce. The Aztecs Empire in central Mexico increasingly influences the Maya region and receives tribute from kingdoms in the Guatemala highlands.

Post-conquest - 1521C.E. - to the present
Pre-Columbian Maya civilization ends the Spanish conquest in Mesoamerica, which begins with the defeat of the Aztecs in 1521 and continues into the southern Maya region in 1524 and Yucatán in 1542. The Maya persevere; in 2002 approximately 10 million Maya live in the area.