Publication:  The Terminal Classic in the Maya Lowlands:  Collapse, Transition, and Transformation

Transitions, Transformations, and Collapses in the Terminal Classic:  The Chapters in this Volume

What actually collapsed, declined, gradually disappeared, or was transformed at the end of the Classic period was a specific type of political system and its archaeological manifestations: a system of theater-states, identified by Emblem Glyphs, dominated by the k’ul ajawob (holy kings) and their inscribed stone monuments, royal funerary cults, and tomb-temples, the political hegemonies of these divine lords, and their patronage networks of redistribution of fineware polychrome ceramics, high-status exotics, and ornaments. This system ceased during the late eighth and ninth centuries in most of the west and some areas of central Petén. Its ending was often accompanied within a century by the depopulation of major cities, drastic reduction of public architecture, and other changes. Notably, however, in other areas, such as Belize, the Mopán Valley, and the northern lowlands, the close of the Classic period saw more gradual change or even florescence. There clearly was no "uniform" collapse phenomenon, but rather a sequence of highly variable changes. Yet in all cases there was a pronounced change in the Classic Maya sociopolitical order by the end of the Terminal Classic (varying from A.D. 950 to 1100), with the "termination" of the divine k’ul ajaw institution and most of its distinctive, archaeologically manifest features of elite culture.

The intention of this volume was not to find common cause(s) of these phenomena, but rather to plot this very variability as a starting point for future interpretations of the transition from Classic to Postclassic Maya lowland political and economic systems. The modest goal was to compile and compare summaries of the Terminal Classic and Florescent period (circa A.D. 750–1050) archaeological evidence and culture-histories from excavations and interpretations in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. With only brief epistemological digressions here and in Chapter 2, then, most chapters are archaeologists’ culture-historical summaries of their data on the late eighth to eleventh centuries from their regions of research. Most scholars in the volume implicitly or explicitly apply their reconstructions (regional or pan-lowland) of decline, transition, or transformation to the political systems of Classic Maya lowland kingdoms. And most of the chapters end with some speculative discussion of the broader nature of the end of the Classic Maya kingdoms and the beginnings of the Postclassic in their respective regions. Indeed, several move more broadly beyond the period under discussion to describe the Postclassic florescence (e.g., Chapters 17 and 18) or to posit a more gradual transition to Postclassic political and economic systems (Chapter 2). In our final summary (Chapter 23), we argue that some chronological patterns and parallels can be discerned in the wide array of evidence presented. There we also try to more clearly delineate the nature of the disagreements about data or interpretation seen in these many chapters.

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