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The Northern Maya Collapse and Its Aftermath

Article  in  Ancient Mesoamerica · January 2003

DOI: 10.1017/S095653610314103X

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Ancient Mesoamerica, 14 (2003), 151–156
Copyright © 2003 Cambridge University Press. Printed in the U.S.A.
DOI: 10.1017/S095653610314103X

THE NORTHERN MAYA COLLAPSE

AND ITS AFTERMATH

Anthony P. Andrews,a E. Wyllys Andrews,b and Fernando Robles Castellanos c

a
Division of Social Sciences, New College of Florida, Sarasota, FL 34243-2197, USA
b
Middle American Research Institute, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA
c
Centro INAH Yucatán, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Apartado 1015, Mérida, Yucatán, México

Abstract
Recent adjustments to the chronology of the northern Maya Lowlands have brought about a closer alignment of the decline of
Terminal Classic/Early Postclassic Yucatecan polities with the collapse of the southern Maya states. The collapse of the entire
Classic-period societal structure throughout the lowlands can now be compressed into a 200- or 250-year period and seen as a
progressive chain of events that began in the south and culminated with the fall of Chichen Itza in the eleventh century. This new
reconstruction has led us to propose eliminating the Early Postclassic period, the existence of which was based largely on a
purportedly late occupation of Chichen Itza. We assign this final occupation of the Itza capital to the Terminal Classic period,
which ended sometime in the eleventh century in the northern Maya Lowlands.

The ninth-century Classic Maya Collapse has sometimes been ing the first half of the twentieth century, began to change in the
viewed as a process that was limited to the southern Maya Low- 1970s and early 1980s. The first challenges to the older views
lands. In contrast, the cities and polities of the northern lowlands emerged as archaeologists began questioning the traditional
were seen as having survived the Collapse and, in some regions, chronology constructed by Carnegie archaeologists, which pro-
to have forged ahead in a new period of prosperity and growth posed a sequential and nonoverlapping series of cultural phases
during the Terminal Classic (a.d. 800–1000) and Early Postclas- defined by both architectural and ceramic complexes: Puuc/
sic (a.d. 1000–1200) periods. Cehpech being replaced by Itza/Sotuta, which in turn gave way to
By “Collapse” we mean the cessation of elite activities and Mayapan/Tases.
rapid depopulation of a site or region (e.g., Adams 1973:22). The New data from the field and re-examinations of the older chro-
term does not necessarily imply abrupt abandonment. The chro- nological data gave rise to the notion that there was partial or total
nology and intensity of the Collapse, and the degree to which overlap between the Puuc/Cehpech and Itza/Sotuta periods, and
different causal factors were involved, varied from region to re- that this overlap might vary from region to region (Andrews V
gion (Culbert 1973; Webster 2002). Many sites around the penin- 1979; Andrews V and Sabloff 1986; Ball 1979; Lincoln 1983,
sula show continuity of settlement through these years. For example, 1986; Sabloff 1990). Additional data from excavations conducted
Chunchucmil, Dzibilchaltun, Izamal, Yaxuna, Ek Balam, Chiquila, in the 1980s and 1990s have provided new evidence for overlap of
and Coba, while suffering drastic declines at the end of the Ter- the Cehpech and Sotuta ceramic spheres (Anderson 1998; An-
minal Classic period, nevertheless continued to be occupied dur- drews et al. 1988; Bey, Hanson, and Ringle 1997; Bey, Bond,
ing the Postclassic period. Certain regions, such as the Caribbean Ringle, Hansen, Houck, and Peraza 1998; Carrasco Vargas 1996;
coast, northern Belize, and the Peten Lakes region, show less Chung 2000; Kowalski 1994; Kowalski et al. 1996; Robles Cas-
evidence of a Terminal Classic collapse. These areas may have tellanos 1987, 1988; Suhler et al. 1998). Restudies of ceramic
been spared because of their more favorable locations—coastal, collections and their contexts also support overlap models (Chung
lacustrine, or riverine—and the commercial, agricultural, or water 2000; Ochoa 1999). Although the extent of overlap of these ma-
resources these locations offered. Sites in these areas nevertheless terial complexes in time and space varies from region to region in
saw marked shifts in ceramic and architectural styles, settlement complex ways that are not fully known, we know that many types
patterns, and political organization, suggesting that they, too, were of Sotuta-sphere ceramics appear in mixed deposits with Cehpech
affected by and had to adjust to the changes that followed the end materials from at least a.d. 850–900 onward, and that diagnostic
of the Classic period. types from both spheres were produced well into the eleventh
The reconstruction of the northern past as essentially different century.
from that of the southern lowlands, based primarily on the re- With the realignment of the ceramic spheres, and partially as a
search conducted by the Carnegie Institution of Washington dur- result of it, came a re-examination of the history of Uxmal and
Chichen Itza. Architectural, epigraphic, iconographic, and ce-
ramic data suggest that elite buildings and carved monuments at
E-mail correspondence to: andrews@[Link] Uxmal ceased in the early tenth century (Kowalski 1994; Kowal-

151
152 Andrews et al.

ski et al. 1996). Some archaeologists believe that there is evidence center of the site ended in the late eighth century, the collapse of
of occupation and modest residential construction here and at Kabah the dynasty occurred about a.d. 820, and near-total demographic
(Carrasco Vargas 1996) for another half- or even full century. collapse followed within a generation or, at most, two (Fash et al.
Although these and other Puuc sites were not all rapidly aban- 2003).
doned, they were no longer powerful political and economic cen- Although the major loss of population at Chichen Itza proba-
ters by the close of the tenth century (G. Andrews 1994; Alfredo bly occurred within a few years of the political collapse, an event
Barrera Rubio and José Huchím Herrera, personal communication that may have resulted from conflict, possibly with the nascent
1998). city of Mayapan (Suhler and Freidel 1995), the site was never
New research and reassessments of the data from Chichen Itza abandoned. Scattered archaeological evidence (see Chung 2000)
have led to a dramatic reconstruction of its history, as well. The and historical data attest to a continued, though much reduced,
re-dating of prominent Sotuta ceramic types to the ninth century occupation of the site until the Spanish Conquest, when Francisco
brings the ceramic evidence in line with the epigraphic and radio- de Montejo the Younger established his headquarters at “Ciudad
metric data from the site, suggesting that the Itza city emerged as Real de Chichen Itza” in 1532.
a major regional capital in the first half of the ninth century and This scenario leaves us with the question of what happened
held sway over a large part of northern Yucatan until the end of during the Early Postclassic period, which traditionally began with
the tenth century and perhaps into the first half of the eleventh the rise of Chichen Itza in a.d. 1000 and ended with the rise of
century. Mayapan in a.d. 1200. If our current reconstruction is correct, we
Most of the Long Count dates from Chichen Itza and the nearby are left with a 100- to 150-year gap in the chronology of the
sites of Yula and Halakal fall between a.d. 832 and 897. One con- northern lowlands in which very little appears to have happened.
troversial inscribed date, from the High Priest’s Grave, has been There are several scenarios that may explain this: (1) evidence of
variously read as a.d. 842, 894, and 998. A recent analysis by Dan- late elite activity at Chichen Itza (i.e., post-a.d. 1000 or even
iel Graña-Behrens, Christian Prager, and Elisabeth Wagner (1999) 1100) is present but has not yet been documented; this is a possi-
favors the latest reading. But even if the epigraphic record at bility because large parts of Chichen Itza have not been exca-
Chichen Itza ends before a.d. 900, this does not necessarily date the vated; (2) there was a “dark age” of 100–200 years in which elite
end of elite activity. As Ruth Krochock and others have suggested, activity ceased between the fall of Chichen Itza and the rise of
the change may reflect a shift to a public narrative iconographic Mayapan; (3) Mayapan and other Late Postclassic centers emerged
program directed to an increasingly cosmopolitan and multiethnic before a.d. 1200, perhaps by a.d. 1100 (A.P. Andrews 1993).
population (Krochock 1998; Krochock and Freidel 1994). Recent excavations at Chichen Itza and a reinterpretation of ear-
The midpoints of relevant Sotuta-related calibrated radiocar- lier ceramic data suggest that the city was occupied until a.d.
bon dates from Chichen Itza range from a.d. 883 to 891, and four 1300 (Chung 2000). Evidence is also growing that Mayapan arose
calibrated dates from Balankanché range from a.d. 968 to 1009 earlier than previously thought, perhaps as early as a.d. 1050 (Mil-
(uncorrected dates listed in Andrews IV and Andrews V 1980, brath and Peraza 2001). Similarly, some of the monumental build-
Table 4; see Ringle, Bey, and Peraza 1991; Ringle, Gallareta ings in the “East Coast style” of architecture of coastal Quintana
Negrón, and Bey 1998:242 for calibrated dates). Calibrated mid- Roo, which has traditionally been dated to the Late Postclassic
points of Sotuta-related dates at Isla Cerritos, the main port for period, may date to the Early Postclassic period, before a.d. 1200
Chichen Itza, range from a.d. 740 to 1075 (Andrews et al. 1988). (Toscano 1994).
In sum, these data favor a substantial overlap of Uxmal and Current data therefore favor a combination of the latter two
Chichen Itza. The former site emerged as a prominent regional scenarios: a “dark age” followed by an early emergence of Maya-
center in the late eighth century and survived until the middle or pan. As we have discussed elsewhere (Andrews 1990; Robles and
late tenth century, and Chichen Itza emerged in the first half of the Andrews 1986), the Terminal Classic period in northern Yucatan
ninth century and survived into or beyond the first half of the was a time of growing stress. The Itza emergence came when
eleventh century. overpopulation, land shortages, ecological stress, and climatic
For all practical purposes, then, the period of monumental con- change were testing the capacity of the existing political and eco-
struction and other elite activity at Chichen Itza has now been nomic frameworks. Cities and towns erected fortifications, sug-
redated to the Terminal Classic period (Andrews V and Sabloff gesting competition over land and other resources. The Itza were
1986:449– 456; Cobos Palma 1997, 1998, 1999; Ringle 1990; Rin- initially able to flourish despite these conditions, with an economy
gle, Bey, and Peraza 1991; Ringle, Gallareta Negrón, and Bey fueled by the control of coastal resources and access to external
1998; Schele and Mathews 1998:198–200). Although more pre- trade networks, coupled with the probable collection of tribute
cise dates will be needed to determine how late the Itza remained and the exploitation of labor and agricultural resources in the inter-
a strong political and economic presence in the northern lowlands, ior. As the Itza state grew, however, many cities in northern Yuca-
there should be little doubt that their period of supremacy was tan ceased monumental construction and were severely depopulated,
over before a.d. 1100, and possibly before a.d. 1050. The cessa- and some were eventually abandoned. Whether this was the result
tion of monumental construction at Chichen Itza, which we date of a demographic and ecological crisis or of commercial and mil-
to about a.d. 1000, may not necessarily indicate the demise of the itary competition with the Itza is not known; it may have been the
city’s political power, for it is likely that the Itza continued to play outcome of a combination of these factors. Eventually, Chichen
a major role in the economy and politics of the northern lowlands Itza, whose economy could no longer be sustained in the face of
long after monumental construction slowed down or came to a overpopulation and exhaustion of resources, also collapsed, some-
halt, much like downtown Washington, DC, today, where most of time in the eleventh century.
the monumental construction dates to the late nineteenth and early Several authors have noted the possible role of climatic change
twentieth centuries. The situation at Chichen Itza may have been in the Classic Maya Collapse, as there is increasing evidence to
similar to the collapse at Copan, where major construction at the suggest that the Terminal Classic period was a dry and warm
The northern Maya Collapse and its aftermath 153

period in which the lowlands may have suffered severe droughts V 1994; Robles and Andrews 1986). The Itza, while evidently
(Andrews 1990; Dahlin 1988; Folan et al. 1983; Gill 2000; Hodell experimenting with new forms of political organization, were un-
et al. 1995). Most recently, David Hodell and colleagues (Hodell able to stop a series of processes that had begun in the south
et al. 2001) have identified a major drought event brought on by during the eighth century. Although Mayanists have not reached a
solar forcing at ca. a.d. 1020, which coincides roughly with the consensus on which of these processes were the predominant causes
period of decline at Chichen Itza. Other researchers, however (e.g., of the collapse, they agree that rapidly rising populations, ecolog-
Dunning and Beach 2000:198), urge caution, believing that the ical degradation, a burgeoning noble class with declining pros-
evidence for a major pan-lowland drought at the end of the Classic pects of wealth and power, warfare, and a failure of rulership
period is not demonstrated. contributed to the demise of the Classic Maya. These factors var-
In recent years, a number of Mayanists have suggested that the ied in intensity from region to region. The same factors appear to
Itza owed their success not only to their mercantilist and other have been at work in northern Yucatan, where native chronicles
economic strategies, but also to their attempts to develop new attest to corrupt rulership, social strife, diseases, and endemic fam-
forms of government. Epigraphic research by David Stuart (1993) ines. The abandoned ruins that greeted the Spaniards in Yucatan
and Krochock (1988, 1998; Krochock and Freidel 1994) suggests bespoke the collapse of great cities.
that a new type of political structure was forged at Chichen Itza, With the collapse of the northern cities of the Terminal Classic
one that shifted the focus of power away from the Classic-period period between a.d. 900 and 1000, the Yucatec Maya appear to
emphasis on individual rulers to the development of shared ruler- have entered a dark age lasting more than a century. Sotuta and
ship, perhaps under the control of rulers from different social groups Cehpech ceramics fade by a.d. 1050–1100, replaced by ceramics
(Lincoln 1988; Schele and Freidel 1990; Wren and Schmidt 1991). of the Hocaba and Tases spheres (Robles 1987, 1988). We have
Some scholars envision the emergence of a confederate type of little evidence of large-scale construction until the rise of Maya-
government, similar to the multepal confederacy of later Postclas- pan and the coastal cities of the Caribbean and southern Gulf
sic states (Fox 1989; Freidel and Schele 1989; Schele and Freidel Coast. These Postclassic cities probably began to emerge in the
1990). Rafael Cobos Palma (1999) has argued that the transition twelfth century. Smaller than many cities and states of the Classic
to shared rulership may have been temporary, corresponding to period, the coastal communities were adapting to changed politi-
the early (ninth-century) period of Itza rule, when references to cal and economic conditions, more responsive to developments
such rulership are alluded to in the inscriptions. In the tenth cen- elsewhere in Mesoamerica than their predecessors. The new tra-
tury, however, relying on historical and archaeological evidence, jectory was cut short by the arrival of the Spaniards.
he suggests that the Itza reverted to having single rulers (for yet Mayapan is traditionally thought to have seen its major settle-
another perspective on this issue, see García Campillo 2001). ment from a.d. 1200 or 1250 to 1450, but the beginning date is
This departure from the Classic-period focus on individual rul- uncertain (Brown 2001). Some archaeologists are now willing to
ers and lineages marked an evolutionary step in Maya political entertain a date 100 or 150 years earlier. This view results in part
organization, in which the small dynastic state was replaced by a from the inability of excavators and ceramicists to demonstrate
larger polity with a more complex state level of organization. This that the Hocaba and Tases ceramic complexes at Mayapan (Smith
shift is evident in the development of historic and symbolic imag- 1971) characterize separate and sequential phases. The appear-
ery at Chichen Itza. Classic Maya glyphic texts, which often pro- ance of Hocaba pottery (Peto Cream Ware) at the end of the Chi-
vide a narrative record of major events in the lives of rulers, do not chen Itza sequence therefore suggests that the rise of Mayapan
serve such a purpose at Chichen Itza; they record names of indi- follows the decline of Chichen Itza by only a short interval. Mil-
viduals and relationships among them, without much historical brath and Peraza (2001) believe that a significant occupation at
narrative. Moreover, glyphic texts are eventually replaced by icon- Mayapan may date back to the eleventh century. Stelae 5 (4 Ahau)
ographic imagery with a broad variety of themes that incorporate and 6 (13 Ahau) at Mayapan probably date to the thirteenth cen-
foreign elements. In short, Chichen Itza is thought by many to tury (a.d. 1244 and 1283). Stela 1 (10 Ahau), and an altar frag-
have been developing into a cosmopolitan Mesoamerican capital ment with the date 1 Ahau may date to a.d. 1185 and 1141, or
with a multiethnic social and political structure different from that to a.d. 1441 and 1401 (Proskouriakoff 1962:135; Schele and
of previous Maya polities (Freidel 1986; Schele and Freidel 1990; Mathews 1998:367). The earlier dates for Stela 1 and the altar
Wren and Schmidt 1991). The multiethnic character of Itza soci- fragment would precede the 13 Ahau (a.d. 1283) date mentioned
ety is further suggested by García Campillo’s (2000) lexical study in native chronicles as the founding date of Mayapan.
of the inscriptions of Chichen Itza, which documents a strong These changing views of late northern Maya archaeology lead
Cholan component. to several judgments about Maya cultural history. None of these
Although these developments appear to be radically different conclusions is entirely new, but none has until now been widely
from those recorded in traditional Classic dynastic texts, there are accepted. First, Chichen Itza is now correctly viewed as a Late
earlier indications in the inscriptions of Xkalumkin of a shift in Classic Maya capital—it can no longer be seen as representing a
political authority from individual rulers to larger family or lin- major break with the Classic past and the beginning of a new
eage groups (Grube 1994) and Copan (Fash et al. 1992; Fash Postclassic era. Its demise was the product of the same processes
2001), suggesting that the evolution toward a confederate type of that characterized the end of the Classic horizon. Second, it is no
government had its beginnings in the Late Classic period (Kro- longer appropriate to consider the “southern Classic collapse” as a
chock 1998). Itza attempts to forge a new political framework regionally restricted phenomenon. We believe there was a pan-
were thus rooted in the past and ultimately were not sufficient to lowland collapse. Third, if we accept Chichen Itza as the last of
overcome the crises they faced at the end of the first millennium. the Classic-period states, the term “Early Postclassic” must then
The Terminal Classic decline of the northern cities was a de- refer to a period that is transitional. This time witnessed the de-
layed version of the massive societal collapse that occurred in the cline and abandonment of many northern cities, a likely dark age
southern lowlands in the ninth century (Andrews 1990; Andrews in which the worst prophecies of Maya priests came to be, and, at
154 Andrews et al.

the same time, the stirrings of a new era (especially on the Carib- the term should no longer be used. The eleventh century was a
bean coast). We think that the term “Early Postclassic” is too transition—an interregnum—from a Late or Terminal Classic pe-
laden with obsolete associations and that it has lost much of its riod, characterized by Cehpech, Sotuta, and Hocaba ceramics and
meaning. It no longer signifies the beginning of a new era, and it related styles of architecture, to a Postclassic period defined by
does not convey a sense of the collapse and chaos of the tenth and Hocaba and Tases ceramics and a Mayapan-East coast style of
eleventh centuries in the northern lowlands. We therefore believe architecture.

RESUMEN
Revisiones recientes de las evidencias cronológicas en el norte de Yucatan artículo exploramos las causas que condujeron a la caída del clásico en el
sugieren una correlación temporal entre el momento de la caída de los norte de la península y los procesos que caracterizaron la transición al
estados mayas del sur y el período de deterioro político-cultural de las período postclásico. Esta nueva reconstrucción nos ha llevado a proponer
entidades yucatecas del clásico terminal y postclásico temprano. En efecto, la eliminación del período postclásico temprano, cuya existencia se basa
el proceso de desmoronamiento y fin de la estructura sociopolítica de la en una presunta ocupación tardía de Chichen Itza, entre 900/1000 y
civilización maya del clásico puede ser compactado en su conjunto en un 1200 d.C. Una combinación de nuevas evidencias cerámicas, radi-
lapso de aproximadamente 200–250 años. Este proceso parece haber sido ométricas y epigráficas sugieren que el apogeo de Chichen Itza data más
una sucesión paulatina de colapsos individuales de las sedes políticas ma- bien del clásico tardio y terminal. Asimismo, parece que la ciudad dejó de
yas que tuvo su orígen en las tierras bajas del sur y que desplazándose fungir como capital regional y sede metropolitana en el norte de Yucatan
hacia el norte culminó con la caída de Chichen Itza en el siglo XI. En este al final del período clásico terminal, en las postrimerías del siglo XI.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
An earlier version of this paper was presented in April 2000 at the 65th and Carlos Peraza for sharing unpublished information with us. We are
Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in Philadelphia. also grateful to Traci Ardren, Rafael Cobos Palma, George L. Cowgill, and
We thank Alfredo Barrera Rubio, José Huchím Herrera, Susan Milbrath, Jeremy A. Sabloff for comments on previous iterations of this paper.

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