Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Not So Peaceful Civilization: A Review of Maya War

  • Published:
Journal of World Prehistory Aims and scope

Abstract

The first Maya encountered by Europeans in the early sixteenth century were exceedingly warlike, but by the 1940s the earlier Classic Maya (AD 250–1000) were widely perceived as an inordinately peaceful civilization. Today, in sharp contrast, conflict is seen as integral to Maya society throughout its history. This paper defines war, reviews the evidence for it in the Maya archaeological record, and shows how and why our ideas have changed so profoundly. The main emphasis is on the Classic period, with patterns of ethnohistorically documented war serving as a baseline. Topics include the culture history of conflict, strategy and tactics, the scope and range of operations, war and the political economy, and the intense status rivalry war of the eighth and ninth centuries AD that contributed to the collapse of Classic civilization. Unresolved issues such as the motivations for war, its ritual vs. territorial aims, and sociopolitical effects are discussed at length.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  • Andrews, E. W. V., and Fash, B. (1992). Continuity and change in a royal Maya residential complex at Copán. Ancient Mesoamerica 3(1): 63–87.

    Google Scholar 

  • Armillas, P. (1951). Mesoamerican fortifications. Antiquity 25: 77–86.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aveni, A., and Hotaling, L. (1994). Monumental inscriptions and the observational basis of Maya planetary astronomy. Archaeoastronomy: Supplement to the Journal for the History of Astronomy 19: 21–53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ball, J. (1977). The rise of the northern Maya chiefdoms. In Adams, R. E. W. (ed.), The Origins of Maya Civilization, School of American Research, Santa Fe, pp. 101–132.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ball, J. (1993). Pottery, potters, palaces, and polities: Some socioeconomic and political implications of Late Classic Maya ceramic industries. In Sabloff, J., and Hernderson, J. (eds.), Lowland Maya Civilization in the Eighth Century AD, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC, pp. 243–272.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ball, J., and Taschek, J. (1991). Late Classic Lowland Maya political organization and central place analysis: New insights from the upper Belize Valley. Ancient Mesoamerica 2: 149–165.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baudez, C. F. (1994). Maya Sculpture of Copán, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Becker, M. (1976). Preists, peasants, and ceremonial centers: The intellectual history of a model. In Hammond, N., and Willey, G. R. (eds.), Maya Archaeology and Ethnohistory, University of Texas Press, Austin, pp. 3–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bey, G., III, Hanson, C., and Ringle, W. M. (1997). Classic to Postclassic at Ek Balam, Yucatan: Architectural and ceramic evidence for defining the transition. Latin American Antiquity 8(3): 237–254.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boone, E. (2000). Stories in Red and Black, University of Texas Press, Austin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Byland, B., and Pohl, J. (1994). In the Realm of 8 Deer, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Casten, J., and Hugh-Jones, S. (1995). About the House, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chase, A., and Chase, D. (1989). The investigation of Classic Period Maya warfare at Caracol, Belize. Mayob 5: 5–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chase, A., and Chase, D. (eds.). (1994). Details in the Archaeology of Caracol, Belize, Monograph 7, Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute, San Francisco.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chase, A., and Chase, D. (1996). A mighty Maya nation: How Caracol built an empire by cultivating its ‘middle class.' Archaeology 49: 66–72.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chase, A., and Chase, D. (1998). Late Classic Maya political structure, polity size, and warfare arenas. In Ruiz, A. C., Marquinez, Y. F., Campillo, J. M. G., Ponce de Leon, J. I., Garcia-Gallo, A. L., and Sanz Castro, L. T. (eds.), Anatomía de una Civilizació n, Sociedad Espanola de Estudios Mayas, Madrid, pp. 11–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Child, M. B. (1999). Classic Maya warfare and its sociopolitical implications. Paper presented the 1999 Palenque Mesa Redonda, Palenque, Mexico.

  • Coe, M, (1962). Mexico, Frederick A. Praeger, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coe, M. (1966). The Maya, Thames and Hudson.

  • Coe, M. (1992). Breaking the Maya Code, Thames and Hudson, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cortés, H. (1986). Letters from Mexico, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.

    Google Scholar 

  • Culbert, T. P. (ed.) (1991). Classic Maya Political History, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Culbert, T. P., and Rice, D. S. (eds.) (1990). Precolumbian Population History in the Maya Lowlands, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

    Google Scholar 

  • Demarest, A, (1978). Interregional warfare and situational ethics. In Giardino, M., Edmonson, B., and Creamer, W. (eds.), Codex Wauchope: A Tribute Roll, Human Mosaic, Tulane University, New Orleans, pp. 101–111.

    Google Scholar 

  • Demarest, A. (1993). Violent saga of a Maya kingdom. National Geographic Magazine 183(2): 95–111.

    Google Scholar 

  • Demarest, A., O'Mansky, M., Woolley, C., Van Tuerenhout, D., Inomata, T., Palka, J., and Escobedo, H. (1997). Classic Maya defensive systems and warfare in the Petexbatú n region: Archaeological evidence and interpretations. Ancient Mesoamerica 8: 229–254.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diaz, B. (1963). The Conquest of New Spain, Penguin Books, Baltimore.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dillon, B. J. (1982). Bound prisoners in Maya art. Journal of New World Archaeology 5: 24–45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edgerton, R. (1995). The Fall of the Asante Empire, Free Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Farris, W. W. (1999). Japan to 1300. In Raaflaub, K., and Rosenstein, N. (eds.), War and Society in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 47–70.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fash, W. (1989). The sculptural fac¸ade of structure 9N-82: Content, form, and significance. In Webster, D. (ed.), The House of the Bacabs, Copán, Honduras, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC, pp. 41–72.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fash, W. (1991). Scribes, Warriors, and Kings, Thames and Hudson, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fedick, S. (ed.) (1996). The Managed Mosaic, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.

    Google Scholar 

  • Flannery, T. (1998). Throwim Way Leg, Grover Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fowler, W. (1984). Late Preclassic mortuary patterns and evidence for human sacrifice at Chalchuapa, El Salvador. American Antiquity 49: 603–618.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fox, J. (1978). Quiche Conquest, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fox, R. (977). Urban Anthropology, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freidel, D. (1986a). The monumental architecture. In Robertson, R., and Freidel, D. (eds.), Archaeology at Cerros, Belize, Central America, Vol. 1. An Interim Report, Southern Methodist University Press, Dallas, pp. 1–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freidel, D. (1986b). Maya warfare: An example of peer-polity interaction. In Renfrew, C., and Cherry, J. (eds.), Peer-Polity Interaction and Sociopolitical Change, Cambridge University Press, London, pp. 93–108.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freidel, D., and Schele, L. (1988). Kingship and power in the Late Preclassic Maya Lowlands. American Anthropologist 90(3): 547–567.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freidel, D., Schele, L., and Parker, J. (1993). Maya Cosmos, William Morrow, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freidel, D., Suhler, C. K., and Palma, C. R. (1998). Termination ritual deposits at Yaxuná. In Mock, S. B. (ed.), The Sowing and the Dawning, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, pp. 135–146.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fried, M. (1967). The Evolution of Political Society, Random House, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamblin, R. L., and Pitcher, B. L. (1980). The Classic Maya collapse: Testing class conflict theories. American Antiquity 45(2): 46–67.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hammond, N., Tortellot, G., Donaghey, S., and Clarke, A. (1998). No slow dusk: Maya urban development and decline at La Milpa, Belize. Antiquity 72(278): 831–837.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hanson, R. (1998). Continuity and disjunction: The Pre-Classic antecedents of Classic Maya architecture. In Houston, S. (ed.), Function and Meaning in Classic Maya Architecture, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC, pp. 49–122.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harrison, P. (1999). The Lords of Tikal, Thames and Hudson, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hassig, R. (1992). War and Society in Ancient Mesoamerica, University of California Press, Berkeley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hassig, R. (1999). The Aztec world. In Raaflaub, K., and Rosenstein, N. (eds.), War and Society in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 361–388.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holley, G. R. (1983). Ceramic Change at Piedras Negras, Guatemala, Ph.D. dissertation, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hopkins, N. (1988). Classic Mayan kinship systems: Epigraphic and ethnographic evidence for patrilineality. Estudios de Cultura Maya 17: 87–121.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hotaling, L. (1995). A reply to Werner Nahm. Maya warfare and the Venus year. Mexicon 17(2): 32–37.

    Google Scholar 

  • Houston, S. (1987). The Inscriptions and Monumental Art of Dos Pilas, Guatemala, Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, New Haven, CT.

    Google Scholar 

  • Houston, S. (1993). Hieroglyphics and History at Dos Pilas: Dynastic Politics of the Classic Maya, University of Texas Press, Austin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Houston, S. (ed.) (1998). Function and Meaning in Classic Maya Architecture, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Houston, S., and Stuart, D. (1989). The wayglyph: Evidence for “co-essences” among the Classic Maya. Research Reports on Ancient Maya Writing 30, Center for Maya Research, Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Houston, S., and Stuart, D. (1996). Of gods, glyphs, and kings: Divinity and rulership among the Classic Maya. Antiquity 70(268): 289–312.

    Google Scholar 

  • Houston, S., Robertson, J., and Stuart, D. (2000). The language of Classic Maya inscriptions. Current Anthropology 41(3): 231–256.

    Google Scholar 

  • Inomata, T. (1995). Archaeological Investigations at the Fortified Center of Aguateca, El Petén, Guatemala: Implications for the Study of the Classic Maya Collapse, Ph.D. dissertation, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN.

    Google Scholar 

  • Inomata, T. (1997). The last day of a fortified Classic Maya center. Ancient Mesoamerica 8(2): 337–351.

    Google Scholar 

  • Inomata, T., and Stiver, L. (1998). Floor assemblages from burned structures at Aguateca, Guatemala: A study of Classic Maya households. Journal of Field Archaeology 25(4): 431–452.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, G. D. (1998). The Conquest of the Last Maya Kingdom, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keightley, D. (1999). The Shang: China's first historical dynasty. In Lowe, M., and Shaugnessy, E. L. (eds.), The Cambridge History of Ancient China, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 232–291.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirch, P. (1984). The Evolution of the Polynesian Chiefdoms, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirch, P. (1990). The evolution of sociopolitical complexity in prehistoric Hawaíi: An assessment of the archaeological evidence. Journal of World Prehistory 4: 311–345.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kowalski, J., and Dunning, N. (1999). The architecture of Uxmal. In Kowalski, J. (ed.), Mesoamerican Architecture as Cultural Symbol, Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 274–297.

    Google Scholar 

  • Landa, D. (1941). Landa's Relacio´n de Las Cosas de Yucatan (edited and annotated by Tozzer, A. M.), Papers of the Peabody Museum, Vol. 17, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laporte, J. P., and Fialko, W. C. (1990). New perspectives on old problems: Dynastic references for the Early Classic at Tikal. In Clancy, F. S., and Harrison, P. D. (eds.), Vision and Revision in Maya Studies, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, pp. 33–66.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lothrop, S. K. (1924). Tulum: An archaeological study of the east coast of Yucatan. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 335, Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lucero, L. J. (1999). Classic Lowland Maya political organization: A review. Journal of World Prehistory 13: 211–263.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lundell, C. L. (1937). The Vegetation of Petén, Publication 478, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marcus, J. (1992a). Political fluctuations in Mesoamerica. National Geographic Research and Exploration 8(4): 392–411.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marcus, J. (1992b). Mesoamerican Writing Systems, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marcus, J. (1993). Ancient Maya political organization. In Sabloff, J., and Henderson, J. (eds.), Lowland Maya Civilization of the Eighth Century AD, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC, pp. 111–184.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, S., and Grube, N. (1995). Maya superstates. Archaeology 48(6): 41–46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matheny, R. (1986). Investigations at El Mirador, Petén, Guatemala. National Geographic Research 2: 332–353.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mathews, P. (1991). Classic Maya emblem glyphs. In Patrick, T. P. (ed.), Classic Maya Political History, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, pp. 19–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mathews, P., and Willey, G. R. (1991). Prehistoric polities of the Pasió n region: Hieroglyphic texts and their archaeological settings. In Patrick, T. P. (ed.), Classic Maya Political History, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, pp. 30–72.

    Google Scholar 

  • McAnany, P. (1995). Living with the Ancestors, University of Texas Press, Austin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Means, P. A. (1977). The philosophic interrelationship between Middle American and Andean religions. In Hay, C. L., Linton, R., Lothrop, S. K., Shapiro, H., and Vaillant, G. C. (eds.), The Maya and Their Neighbors, Dover, New York, pp. 430–440. (Original 1940.)

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, M. (1986). The Murals of Bonampak, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, M. (1999). Maya Art and Architecture, Thames and Hudson, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mock, S. B. (1998). The defaced and the forgotten: Decapitation and flaying/mutilation as a termination event at Colha. In Mock, S. B. (ed.), The Sowing and the Dawning, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, pp. 113–124.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morley, S. G. (1946). The Ancient Maya, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nahm, W. (1994). Maya warfare and the Venus year. Mexicon 16(1): 6–10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pendergast, D. (1985). Lamanai, Belize: An updated view. In Chase, A., and Rice, P. (eds.), The Lowland Maya Postclassic, University of Texas Press, Austin, pp. 91–103.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pendergast, D. (1986). Stability through change: Lamanai, Belize, from the ninth to the seventeenth century. In Sabloff, J., and Andrews, E. W. V. (eds.), Late Lowland Maya Civilization, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, pp. 223–250.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pohl, M., and Pohl, J. (1994). Cycles of conflict: Political factionalism in the Maya Lowlands. In Brumfiel, E., and Fox, J. (eds.), Factional Competition and Political Development in the New World, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 138–157.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pollock, H. E. D., and Stromsvik, G. (1953). Chacchob, Yucatan. Publication 6, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Puleston, D., and Callender, D. W., Jr. (1967). Defensive earthworks at Tikal. Expedition 9(3): 40–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • Proskouriakoff, T. (1961). The lords of the Maya realm. Expedition Fall: 14–21.

  • Raaflaub, K. (1999). Archaic and classical Greece. In Raaflaub, K., and Rosenstein, N. (eds.), War and Society in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 71–104.

    Google Scholar 

  • Raaflaub, K., and Rosenstein, N. (eds.) (1999). War and Society in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rands, R. (1952). Some Evidences of Warfare in Classic Maya Art, Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reents-Budet, D. (1994). Painting the Maya Universe: Royal Ceramics of the Classic Period, Duke University Press, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Restall, M. (1997). The Maya World: Yucatec Culture and Society, 1550–1850, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Restall, M. (1998). Maya Conquistador, Beacon Press, Boston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rice, D. (1993). Eighth-century physical geography, environment, and natural resources in the Maya Lowlands. In Sabloff, J., and Henderson, J. (eds.), Lowland Maya Civilization in the Eighth Century AD, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC, pp. 11–63.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ringle, W. M., and Andrews, E. W. V. (1990). The demography of Komchen, an early Maya town. In Culbert, T. P., and Rice, D. S. (eds.), Precolumbian Population History in the Maya Lowlands, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robles, F., and Andrews, A. (1985). A review and synthesis of recent Postclassic archaeology in northern Yucatan. In Sabloff, J., and Andrews, E. W. V. (eds.), Late Lowland Maya Civilization, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, pp. 53–98.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roys, R. (1943). The Indian Background of Colonial Yucatan, Publication 548; Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roys, R. (1957). The Political Geography of the Yucatan Maya, Publication 613, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruz L., A. (1973). El Templo de las Inscripciones, Palenque. Colleció n Cientifica Arquelogia 7, Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, Mexico City.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sabloff, J., and Henderson, J. (eds.) (1993). Lowland Civilization of the Eighth Century AD, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sabloff, J., and Willey, G. R. (1967). The collapse of Maya civilization in the southern Lowlands: A consideration of history and process. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 23: 311–336.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sanders, W. T. (1977). Environmental hererogeneity and the evolution of Lowland Maya civilization. In Adams, R. E. W. (ed.), The Origins of Maya Civilization, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, pp. 287–298.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sanders, W. T. (1989). Household, lineage, and state at eighth-century Copán, Honuduras. In Webster, D. (ed.), The House of the Bacabs, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC, pp. 89–105.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sanders, W. T. (1992). Ranking and stratification in prehispanic Mesoamerica. In Chase, D. Z., and Chase, A. F. (eds.), Mesoamerican Elites, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, pp. 278–291.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sanders, W. T., and Webster, D. (1988). TheMesoamerican urban tradition. American Anthropologist 90: 521–46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schele, L. (1984). Human sacrifice among the Classic Maya. In Boone, E. (ed.), Ritual Human Sacrifice in Mesoamerica, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC, pp. 6–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schele, L., and Freidel, D. (1990). A Forest of Kings, William Morrow, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schele, L., and Mathews, P. (1991). Royal visits and other intersite relationships among the Classic Maya. In Culbert, T. P. (ed.), Classic Maya Political History, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 26–252.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schele, L., and Miller, M. (1986). The Blood of Kings, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shaughnessy, E. L. (1990). Western Zhou history. In Lowe, M., and Shaugnessy, E. L. (eds.), The Cambridge History of Ancient China, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 292–352.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shook, E. (1952). TheGreat Wall of Mayapán, Current Report Number 2, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spinden, H. J. (1975). A Study of Maya Art, Dover, New York. (Original 1913.)

  • Stephens, J. L. (1949). Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatán, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ. (Original 1841.)

    Google Scholar 

  • Storey, R. (1992). The children of Copán. Ancient Mesoamerica 3(1): 161–168.

    Google Scholar 

  • Storey, R. (1997). Individual frailty, children of privilege, and stress in Late Classic Copán. In Whittington, S. L., and Reed, D. M. (eds.), Bones of the Maya, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC, pp. 116–126.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stuart, D. (1993). Historical inscriptions and the Maya collapse. In Sabloff, J., and Henderson, J. S. (eds.), Lowland Maya Civilization in the Eighth Century AD, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC, pp. 321–354.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stuart, D. (1995). A Study of Maya Inscriptions, Ph.D. dissertation, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stuart, D. (1998). The arrival of strangers. Precolumbian Art Research Institute Newsletter 15: 10–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Suhler, C., and Freidel, D. (1998). Life and death in a Maya war zone. Archaeology 51(3): 28–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, J. E. S. (1954). The Rise and Fall of Maya Civilization, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Viel, R. (1999). The pectorals of Altar Q and Structure 11: An interpretation of the political organization at Copán, Honduras. Latin American Antiquity 10(4): 377–399.

    Google Scholar 

  • Webster, D. (1972). Defensive Earthworks at Becan, Campeche, Mexico, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Webster, D. (1975). Warfare and the origin of the state. American Antiquity 40(4): 464–471.

    Google Scholar 

  • Webster, D. (1976a). Lowland Maya fortifications. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 120(5): 361–371.

    Google Scholar 

  • Webster, D. (1976b). Defensive Earthworks at Becán, Campeche, Mexico: Implications for yMaya Warfare, Publication 41, Middle American Research Institute, Tulane University, New Orleans.

    Google Scholar 

  • Webster, D. (1977). Warfare and the evolution of Maya civilization. In Adams, R. E. W. (ed.), The Origins of Maya Civilization, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, pp. 335–372.

    Google Scholar 

  • Webster, D. (1979). Cuca, Chacchob, Dzonot Ake: Three walled sites of the northern Maya lowlands. Occasional Papers in Anthropology 11, Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park.

  • Webster, D. (1985). Surplus, labor and stress in Late Classic Maya society. Journal of Anthropological Research 41(4): 375–399.

    Google Scholar 

  • Webster, D. (1993). The study of Maya warfare: What it tells us about the Maya and about Maya archaeology. In Sabloff, J., and Henderson, J. (eds.), Lowland Maya Civilization in the Eighth Century AD, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC, pp. 415–444.

    Google Scholar 

  • Webster, D. (1998). Warfare and status rivalry: Lowland Maya and Polynesian comparisons. In Feinman, G., and Marcus, J. (eds.), Archaic States, School of American Research, Santa Fe, pp. 311–352.

    Google Scholar 

  • Webster, D. (1999a). Ancient Maya warfare. In Raaflaub, K., and Rosenstein, N. (eds.), War and Society in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 333–360.

    Google Scholar 

  • Webster, D. (1999b). The archaeology of Copán, Honduras. Journal of Anthropological Research 7(1): 1–53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Webster, D., Sanders, W. T., and van Rossum, P. (1992). A simulation of Copán population history and its implications. Ancient Mesoamerica 3(1): 185–197.

    Google Scholar 

  • Webster, D., Freter, A., and Nancy, G. (2000). Copán: The Rise and Fall of a Classic Maya Kingdom, Harcourt Brace, Fort Worth, TX.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whittington, S. (1989). Characteristics of Demography and Disease in Low-Status Maya from Classic Period Copán, Honduras, Ph.D. dissertation, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park.

  • Wingard, J. (1996). Interactions between demographic processes and soil resources in the Copán Valley, Honduras. In Fedick, S. (ed.), The Managed Mosaic, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, pp. 207–235.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolf, E. R. (1999). Envisioning Power, University of California Press, Berkeley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yates, R. (1999). Early China. In Raaflaub, K., and Rosenstein, N. (eds.), War and Society in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 7–46.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University, 409 Carpenter Building, University Park, Pennsylvania, 16802

    David Webster

Authors
  1. David Webster
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Webster, D. The Not So Peaceful Civilization: A Review of Maya War. Journal of World Prehistory 14, 65–119 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007813518630

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007813518630

Search

Navigation