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THE NORTHERN MAYA COLLAPSE AND ITS AFTERMATH

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 July 2003

Anthony P. Andrews ,
E. Wyllys Andrews  and
Fernando Robles Castellanos
Anthony P. Andrews
Affiliation:
Division of Social Sciences, New College of Florida, Sarasota, FL 34243-2197, USA
E. Wyllys Andrews
Affiliation:
Middle American Research Institute, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA
Fernando Robles Castellanos
Affiliation:
Centro INAH Yucatán, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Apartado 1015, Mérida, Yucatán, México
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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.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , January 2003 , pp. 151 - 156
Copyright
© 2003 Cambridge University Press

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