RESEARCHNEWSs
ARCHAEOLOGY
dealt with hieroglyphicsas if they were referringmostlyto local events,"he explains,
but by relating wars and marriagesto a
largerpatternof alliancebuildingandsuperpower rivalry, Martin and Grube have
openedthe wayto readingthe Mayatexts as
a singlehistory.
Other scholarsremainless enthusiastic.
The Mayaachievedthe high point of their Martinand Grubealso drawmore modem One is epigrapherStephenHoustonof Brigcivilizationmorethan a thousandyearsago parallels.LikeNATO andthe WarsawPact, ham Young University in Provo, Utah.
in the remotejunglesof MexicoandCentral each alliancewas led by a dominantpower: HoustonthinksMartinandGrubegreatlyexAmerica,but with every passingyear their the greatcity of Tikal in Guatemalaand an aggeratethe authorityof their"superpowers."
society is looking more and more like ours. even larger(though less well-known)me- Still, he concedesthat "there'sno doubtthat
As recentlyas30 yearsago,manyarchaeolo- tropolisat the base of the Yucatancalled [their model] is useful"for understanding
gists imagined the Maya as peaceful mys- Calakmul.Thesepowersfoughtwarsthrough Mayapoliticallife.
tics, their lives centeredon statelyceremo- proxystatesand preservedthe allegianceof
The fact that Mayanistsarenow arguing
nial centerswhereastronomer-priests
inter- their "vassal"city-statesthroughforce and about the nature and importanceof large
intermarriage.
pretedthe stars.Butthatpicturefadedin the
politicalstructures-not aboutwhetherthey
1960sand '70s as a breedof anthropologists
And drawingan eerieparallelto the fallof
existed-shows howmuchthe consensushas
known as epigrapherscrackedthe complex the Soviet Union, the researchersspeculate shiftedin the lastyearor two, as Martinand
that the collapse of one great allianceGrube'sideas made the rounds.Previously,
hieroglyphicsystem of Maya writing.The
glyphstold a lively storyof politicsandwar- Calakmul's-in the middle of the eighth says archaeologist Arthur Demarest of
fare, and the ceremonial centers became centurycouldhave contributedto the politi- VanderbiltUniversityin Nashville,Tennesquarrelsomecity-states.Now, with a new cal fragmentationand widespreadwarfare see, leaderof an importantprojectcentered
on the site at Dos Pilasin Guatemala,mostscholarssawMayapolitical organizationas a mosaicof
weak city-states"no morethan a
day'swalkin radius."
That idea was one of the first
legacies of the deciphermentof
Maya script. Epigraphersrecognizedcertainglyphsasroyaltitles,
and they foundthat each of these
"emblemglyphs"appearedmost
often in inscriptionsfroma small
city.
regioncenteredon a particular
"Everycityseemedto haveitsown
king,"saysGrube,with no indication of anyhigherauthority.
A few Mayanistshad advocatedthe ideaof largerstates,but
they madelittle headwayagainst
this dominantview. One suchresearcher,RichardAdams of the
Universityof Texas, San Antonio, arguedin 1985 that the great
disparityin size amongthe Maya
centers marked some of them,
Spheresof influence. The map, whichis an enlargementof the shaded area (inset)includingpartsof the
such as Tikal,as capitalsof larger
YucatAn,Guatemala,and Belize, shows the politicalalignmentsof Mayastates at aboutA.D.680. While
Calakmulthen held sway over more areas (orange)thanTikal,itwouldeventuallyfallto its rival.
regions.By tracingsimilaritiesin
potterystyle and architecturebereadingof texts from sites throughoutthe
that followed.If they are right,Martinand yond individualsites,he says,he wasableto
drawthe boundariesof five or six well-deMayaheartlandin Mexico,Guatemala,and Grube will have shed light on one of the
Belize, the Mayahave taken another step enduringmysteriesof ClassicMayaciviliza- fined states. But without the force of the
towardmodernity.
tion: its collapsein aboutA.D. 800.
texts behind his interpretation,it failed to
In their as-yet-unpublishedanalysis of
Many of Martinand Grube'scolleagues convince manyof his colleagues.
these texts, MayaepigraphersSimon Mar- say that as they learnedof the proposalat
Troublingclues. Still, scholarsdeciphertin of University College, London, and conferencesand in the letters and manu- ingthe historiesrecordedon the carvedstone
Nikolai Grubeof the Universityof Bonn in
script draftsthe two have circulated,they slabscalledstelaeandon templereliefswere
Germanysee many of the individualcity- realizedit makessenseof previouslymysteri- awarethat somecity-stateshad strongerties
states tied in two large, durablealliances. ous clues in the Mayatexts. "Iregardit as a
to others than the pictureof independent
Eachone, they say,resemblesthe loose-knit seminal paper-a watershedeffort in our city-statesseemedto allow."Thesethingson
"empires"documented among the Aztecs field," says archaeologistDavid Freidel of
the monumentsweretroubling,"saysDemaand other Mesoamericanpeoples by 16th- SouthernMethodistUniversity,who plans rest, "butwe sort of ignoredthem."In incenturySpanishandnative chroniclers.But to collaboratewithGrube."Upto nowwe've scriptionsfrom Dos Pilas, he says, "there's
Clashing
Emerge
Maya
From
Superpowers
a New
Analysis
SCIENCE * VOL. 266 * 4 NOVEMBER1994
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
733
alwaysa presenceof Calakmul."
And other researchershad seen
hints that Calakmulenlisted allies in its warsagainstTikal. But
mostMayascholarssawtheselinks
as temporarystrategicalliancesnot lasting political formations.
"Whenyoustudyjustone city,you
don'tget the pattern,"saysGrube.
"Wetook datafromall the Maya
lowlandsandput them together."
An earlyclue that moreformal
associationsexisted came in the
late 1980s froma glyph that had
been translatedroughlyas "bythe
doing of." While workingindependently, Martin and Grube
spotted this "agency"glyph in
texts fromseveralcities, implying
that key events there had been
broughtabout by outsideagents.
Forexample,Martinfoundthat it
linkedthe accessionof a rulerof El
Peru,a city in Guatemala,to the
emblemglyph of Calakmul.And
in earlyClassictextsfromCaracol
in Belize, Grube saw much the
same pattern:agency glyphs implying, he says, that "the first
kings of Caracol acceded under
the auspicesof Tikal."
.50 M
I
I
Then,about3 yearsago,Martin
O
and Grubejoinedforcesand wid- Spoils of war. This carved wooden lintelfromTikalrecenedtheirstudy,findingevidence ords a key victoryover its rivalCalakmuland captureof
of Calakmuland Tikal'spre-emi- Calakmul's"giantjaguar"war deity.
nence throughout the lowland
Maya region. Much of it rests on another states'relationswith one another.A stela
from Caracol,for example, tells how that
glyph, which means"the lord of."One example is a hieroglyphicstairwayfrom Dos city's forces overthrewSmoking Squirrel's
at Naranjo,apparentlyat CalakPilas, which Houston, epigrapherDavid predecessor
Stuartof HarvardUniversity,andothershad mul'sbehest.The war,MartinandGrubesuglaunchedbyCalakdeciphered.It identifiesthe rulerof Calakmul gest,wasaproxycampaign
as lord of the local king, known as ruler1. mul becausethe Naranjorulerhad tried to
Another comes fromthe city of Naranjo:a
switchhis allegianceto Tikal.
Throughsuchmaneuvers,sayMartinand
stelathat namesCalakmul'sruleras the lord
of the Naranjoking,SmokingSquirrel."We Grube,Calakmulheld the upperhand over
had reallyfiguredout that this patternwas Tikal for more than 150 years, from the
middleof the sixth centurythroughthe early
importantin 1992,"recallsGrube.
eighthcentury."Theevidenceseemsto indiWhat they saw was two far-flungnetworksthat includedcities adjacentto Tikal cate that Calakmultriedto unifythe whole
and Calakmulbut also extendedto distant lowlands"into a networkof statesunderits
satellitestates."ByA.D. 730,"saysGrube,"it sway, says Martin. But somehow, it overreached. "Around 740 or 750, the Tikal
seemsthat there was not one single state in
the Mayalowlandsthatwasnot in a political kings had acquiredenough power to beat
sphere."Calakmul'sdomainincludeda ring Calakmul"in a seriesof conflicts,saysGrube.
of citiesnearTikal,amongthemDosPilas,El And after that date, referencesto CalakPeru, and Naranjo. Tikal's smallersphere mul-which often included a glyph that
includedother neighborsand such distant translatesroughlyas "the unifier"-disapsitesasPalenque,a sometimeallyat the west- pearat distantsites.
Decline and fall.Thosedefeatsmayhave
ern edge of the Mayaregion.
The assigningof individualcitiesto these openedthe wayforthe collapseof the Maya
two huge blocs isn't just an academicexer- civilizationthat followed,Grubespeculates.
cise, its authorssay: It can explain many He proposesthat Calakmul'sdecline, along
twistsand turnsin Mayahistory.Although with Tikal'sinabilityto consolidateits hold
vassal kings generallyruled without overt over Calakmul'sformerterritory,mayhave
interference,the alliances.shapedthe city- helped triggerpolitical fragmentation.In a
processtracedby otherresearchers,emblem
glyphsproliferatedthroughthe Maya lowlands, indicatingthe rise of scoresof small
city-statesclaimingindependence.With the
fragmentationcame violence and social
breakdown.By the eighth century, says
Demarest,the Dos Pilasregionhad become
"a Road Warriorlandscape,"with villages
transformedinto fortressesand a precipitous
dropin population.
In DosPilas,at least,Grubemaybe on the
righttrack,saysDemarest."Itcould be that
the power and prestigeof the king of Dos
Pilasdependedon the powerandprestigeof
Calakmul,"he says.But Grubeand Martin
agree with other Maya scholars that the
breakupof the alliancesmaynot have been
the only factor-or even the primaryonein the collapseof classicMayacivilization.
As NormanHammondof BostonUniversity
puts it, the political collapsemay be just a
manifestationof "alongertermmalaiseconnectedto an overstressed
environmentanda
burgeoningpopulation."
Indeed,some Mayascholarssay Martin
andGrube-like Calakmulwhen it went for
a regional synthesis-have overextended
themselves."There'sno questionthat there
weresomeoverarchinghierarchiesin the politicalorganizationof the Maya,"saysHouston, who addsthat for severalyears,he and
Stuarthave been seeing some of the same
patterns, although they never published
their observations."Sites like Tikal and
Calakmulwere enormouslyinfluential. ...
But I don'tbelieve that all dynasticinteractions-marriage,warfare,and so on-can be
relations]."
reducedto [superpower
Stuartaddsthat Martinand Grubemay
be takingthe texts too literally."The texts
alwaysleave some room for play-they're
not terriblyexplicit about these relationships."A text might declarethat one lord
was seated on his throne "bythe doing"of
another."Butdoes this reflecta lot of reality
It'spossible,he says,thatthe
on the ground?"
apparentlysubordinaterulerwassimplytrying to wraphimself in the prestigeof the
morepowerfulstate. Stuartaddsthat so far,
there'slittle evidence of the long-distance
tributeflows and coerciveforce that would
have cemented Martinand Grube'ssuperpowerblocs.
Martinand Gruberespondthat if not for
eyewitnesstestimony,the same could have
been said about the Aztec empire, which
they believe the Mayaalliancesresembled.
Still, Demarestagreesthat it'shardto gauge
the authorityof these political structures.
"Alliances,leagues,macrostates,tyrannical
empires-where exactly [these structures]
fall I can'tsay."Buthe and manyof his colleaguesno longer doubt their importance.
tL~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~L
734
"The whole field," he says, "has suddenly
been jerked into reality."
-Tim Appenzeller
SCIENCE * VOL. 266 * 4 NOVEMBER 1994
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