evevi cture out of the primordial forest and sunk its roots into the soil. today, we know the region by its countries-- mexico honduras el salvador, belize and guatemala. but long ago it was the world of the maya. not an empire, nor a country the classic maya culture flourished from the third to the ninth century in a far flung collection of city-states. at palenque, tonina bonampak and other cities, dynastic kings ruled absolutely, controlling trade and tribute. they presided over intricate hierarchies of nobles and officials at courts resplendent with works of art. maya culture, shrouded in a mystery as dense as the forests in which it took root, revealed itself fitfully over three centuries. when the ruins in the jungle were first discovered, there was no way of understanding how the civilization was organized. so it's really through the inscriptions that we've been able to identify kings to find out their capitals their seats of power. and through this we recognize now that there were many kingdoms. there was no unified maya state. there wasn't even just

evevi cture out of the primordial forest

complex society sprang to life in mesoamerica-- imaginative, literate, philosophically-inclined evevi cture and sophisticated. out of the primordial forest and sunk its roots into the soil. today, we know the region by its countries-- mexico, honduras, el salvador, belize, and guatemala. but long ago, it was the world of the maya. not an empire, nor a country, the classic maya culture flourished from the third to the ninth century in a far flung collection of city-states. at palenque, tonina, bonampak and other cities, dynastic kings ruled absolutely, controlling trade and tribute. they presided over intricate hierarchies of nobles and officials at courts resplendent with works of art. maya culture, shrouded in a mystery as dense as the forests in which it took root, revealed itself fitfully over three centuries. when the ruins in the jungle were first discovered, there was no way of understanding how the civilization was organized. so it's really through the inscriptions that we've been able to identify kings, to find out their capitals, their seats of power. and through this, we recognize

evevi cture out of the primordial forest and sunk its roots into the soil. today, we know the region by its countries-- mexico honduras el salvador, belize and guatemala. but long ago it was the world of the maya. not an empire, nor a country the classic maya culture flourished from the third to the ninth century in a far flung collection of city-states.