The Maya and Olmec, living in tandem
According to a new study by Takeshi Inomata and colleagues, the formal plazas and pyramids at Ceibal, an ancient Maya site in Guatemala, probably arose from broad cultural exchanges that took place across southern Mesoamerica from about 1,000 to 700 BCE. Until now, two theories have dominated the debate concerning the origin of the Maya civilization: one suggesting that the Maya developed almost entirely on their own in what is now southern Mexico, Guatemala and Belize, and another suggesting that the older Olmec civilization was the Maya’s dominant cultural influence. The new findings, however, mean that neither of these theories can tell the full story of the Maya. Inomata and his team provide radiocarbon dating measurements taken from some of the ceremonial constructions at Ceibal that predate the growth of La Venta, a major center of the Olmec, by as much as 200 years. This research appears in the April 26, 2013, issue of Science. (Getty Images)
New work at the archaeological site of Ceibal in Guatemala has uncovered new evidence about the Maya that disputes the traditional theories about their development.
Some scholars have viewed the Mayan civilization as developing independently from the Olmec; while others believe the Mayans developed from an Olmec “mother culture.”
University of Arizona anthropologist Takeshi Inomata’s newest work in Guatemala has led him to believe the two societies existed side by side.
Inomata says “the influence flowed both ways. La Venta (an Olmec site) and Ceibal appear to have developed in tandem in a great cultural shift throughout the region. ‘It seems more likely that there was a broad history of interactions across these regions, and through these interactions, a new form of society developed,’” he told National Geographic.
“To further complicate matters, Inomata stresses that the evidence doesn’t show clear distinctions between the Olmec and Maya at the preclassic stage.”
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