Maya and Aztec Civilizations: Palenque, Writing, Calendar, and Conquest

1949: Mexican archaeologist at Palenque’s Temple of the Inscriptions uncovered a rubble-filled passage descending into the pyramid; after 3 years, the passage opened a door to Palenque’s past.
Maya glyphs: long thought to be pictures; by the 1980s, recognized as a true writing system — symbols for sounds of the Maya language.
Pacal the Great (Pacal): buried under the five-ton sarcophagus lid; born in June; forehead bound to mark royal elite; rose to power at age 12; built a holy city and ruled for about 70 years; Palenque flourished under his era.

Agriculture roots go back thousands of years; by the mid-7th century, Palenque and surrounding Maya communities supported a complex society of farmers, weavers, stonemasons, and feather workers; roughly 200{,}000 Maya lived in regional communities.
Maya civilization produced advanced art, mathematics, astronomy, architecture, priesthood, and royalty; over 60 capital cities emerged.
Growth driven by a successful agricultural base spanning from Mexico into Central America.

By around 800 AD, wars and internal strife led to the decline of many capitals; most were deserted and reclaimed by jungle; some centers persisted, others faded.

South of the Maya, a desert barrier separates regions; beyond lies Mexico, where the Aztec built a powerful empire centered at its capital, Tenochtitlan.
The Aztecs were pyramid builders and developed their own sophisticated calendar and state structures.

Aztec calendar: a 365-day year; involvement of cyclical time concepts; cycles influenced decision-making.
A 90-year cycle, called One Reed, structured their calendar; after each cycle, a new cycle began.
Motecuhzoma (Montezuma) ruled over about 10{,}000{,}000 subjects from Tenochtitlan, governing a vast tribute-based empire.
Upon Cortes’s conquest, the wealth seized from the Aztecs was described as 2\times the wealth of the known world.
Comparatively, earlier Moorish wealth (in Europe) was described as roughly 2\times the wealth of all of Europe, illustrating how rapidly wealth accumulated in campaigns of conquest.

Aztecs believed in cycles: growth and fullness followed by decline and rapid collapse; the people did not die out but restarted new cycles.
Signs in the sky and dreams guided decisions (e.g., comets or celestial events viewed as omens).
Daytime sighting of a bright comet (likely Halley’s Comet) was interpreted as a significant indicator of coming events.

Spaniards arrived from Veracruz around 1519; Cortes led the campaign against the Aztecs, culminating in the fall of Tenochtitlan and the conquest in 1521.
The Aztec empire’s wealth and power contributed to establishing a new global power structure under the Spanish Empire.