ABSTRACT
For Mayanists, as for experts in other ancient cultures, the scientific definition of “civilization” is normally tied to several material traits. Among the most commonly mentioned are social hierarchy, craft specialization or forms of interdependence among population segments, monumental architecture, complex ideology and public rituals, and writing systems. Maya archaeologists long believed the first appearance of these traits coincided with the onset of the Classic period (AD 300-900). For the Lowland Maya, the Classic period’s defining criteria were held to be the first appearance of writing in the form of carved stelae, craft specialization in the form of polychrome painted ceramics, and masonry architecture in the form of corbeled-vault roofed buildings. These categories were admittedly arbitrary and broad. They were largely based on the findings of these traits in the excavations of Uaxactun in the 1930s, and the AD 292 date of Tikal Stela 29, which is the earliest monument bearing a calendar date in the Lowlands. For decades, these markers served to guide archaeologists who attempted to make sense of disparate findings from 3000 years of development throughout the Yucatan Peninsula.
