Maya Materialization of Time: History and Prophecy in Long-term Perspective

The Maya are justly famous for elevating time keeping to a fine art and science, especially in their glyphic calendars. In the two previous Maya Working Group sessions on E Groups and the origins of Maya complexity time keeping and calendar reckoning were consensually identified as an important reason for the establishment of ceremonial centers. Virtually all of the discussions concentrated on Preclassic contexts in which the calendar and writing played no significant role. What happened to time keeping in the ensuing Classic period among those many lowland Maya societies that chose not to inscribe public monuments? How did they relate to those southern lowland societies that made public writing and calendar chronicling institutionally central? Were those southern lowland societies exceptional in their historical consciousness and if so what difference did it make to their developmental trajectory? The Maya continued to be literate and numerate, to reckon calendar cycles, to write history and prophecy through the Postclassic period and into the Colonial period. How do we detect the impact of such understanding in the archaeological record? The Working Group will address these and related questions.