Mayan Civilization: Tikal

Mayan Civilization: Tikal The Maya are among the best-known of the classical civilizations of Mesoamerica. Mayan history starts back in the Yucatan dating around 2600 B.C., Mayan history rose to prominence around A.D. 250 in what is present-day southern Mexico, Guatemala, western Honduras, El Salvador, and northern Belize. The Mayans were able to develop astronomy, calendrical systems and hieroglyphic writing, and were noted for their construction of elaborate and highly decorated ceremonial architecture. Mayan history consists of three distinct time periods; Classic period (300 - 900 A.D.), Post classic period (1000 – 1500 A.D.), and the Post Columbian period (1500 A.D.). Among these the Classic period is the most artistically and culturally
It is a heavy tropical rainforest area not well suited for the human kind to live off of but it somehow flourished. Tikal is the largest most powerful and wealthiest of all the lowland Maya cities. The city was established at around 800 B.C. “It is estimated to have had a peak population of 100,000 to 200,000 with an urban density of 600 to 700 people per square kilometer” (CyArk.com). Tikal was the dominant epicenter where most of the market transaction of the Mayan empire occurred but it as well was limited due to its geographic location. Tikal was ultimately believed to be conquered and overtaken by Teotihuacan in the late classic period due to findings that no new monuments were built and evidence that elite palaces were burned
This was a key point for Tikal since its budding population required it to obtain goods from other settlements far away. The main goods traded were food which consisted of squash, potatoes, corn, beans, maize, honey, and cocoa. But as well they traded hard stone, salt and pottery. The prestige goods that the elites would trade and receive consisted of are Quetzal feathers, fine ceramics, jade, obsidian and pyrite. These prestige goods were just a representation of the power the elite rulers had. “Maya farmers transported their cocoa beans to market by canoe or in large baskets strapped to their backs, and a Mecapal, (forehead band tied to the basket). Wealthy merchants traveled further, employing porters, as there were no horses, pack animals or wheeled carts in Central America at that time.” The methods of transporting the goods needed for trade heavily relied on ones status and resources available to them. Tikal was the largest market known and allowed for the redistribution of all the products to end up for sale in all the minor cities within the