The History of Maya Cities: Part 1

The lowland Maya left us hundreds of written inscriptions that recount the history of their cities, their kings and their wars. Let's explore this history in the first of three episodes.

Chapters:
Introduction: 0:01
Chapter 1: Dynastic Origins and Classic Beginnings: 6:13
Chapter 2: The Long Shadow of Teotihuacan: 14:36
Chapter 3: A Tale of Two Cities, Tikal and Calakmul: 26:00
Chapter 4: The Calakmul Hegemony: 31:53

AA's favorite presentations and lectures by Simon Martin:

Maya Majesty: Kings and Queens of the Classic Period

The Classic Maya Collapse: New Evidence on a Great Mystery (Spoiler Alert?)

Teotihuacan: Rome of the Ancient Americas

The Urbanized Jungle: Ancient Maya Garden Cities

[joeshmoe]

I very appreciate your “bloated beast” amount of content. Nothing better than 45 minutes of quality information for free!

[adblue]

Babe wake up Ancient Americas just dropped

[pastorwhiskey]

As someone who's previous exposure to Mayan culture was mostly just new age woo, it's amazing to see it discussed with historical rigour.

[Derek_]

As a Guatemalan 🇬🇹 I’ve always been interested in the history of my people and my country, but unfortunately the history of the maya side of my heritage has always been less popular and less talked about. I appreciate this documentary on maya history very much and hope that you keep creating content like this, specially on topics less talked about.

[doolittle]

I love it when a thing I want to see gets labeled with a part number, since that means we get even more than I was expecting

[verenka]

I crave this Illustratrive quality of content,
every episode feels like a beam of knowledge!

[Gidister]

A trilogy of the Mayan lowland history?! Sign me up!

[daviddeltoro]

AMAZING VIDEO! When i begged you to make a video covering the classic period like a year or two ago, i had no idea we'ed THREE videos on the crazy and dramatic dynastic historied of the great Maya kingdoms. The historical drama in these insciptions really is amazing to see on diplay like this, the constant betrayal and brutal conquests hint at so much human dram that you could write dozens of novels set in this period. I seriously hope you bring attention to the equally fascinating and detailed dynastic histories of the postclassic K'iche' and other highland kingdoms, because the wealth of post conquest literature is just as fascinating and exciting and dramatic as the classic period.

[L.P.]

The history of mayan cities is a very troubled one, but extremely interesting too. Several videogames and movies could be made about their wars and political stuff. Or just to see their past urbanistic majesty!



You should do a video about the Wari empire later. Probably the first empire in South America.

[oiaeyu]

Your videos are so relaxing that I astral projected to the Mayan city of Río Azul 1500 years ago, right before the war lord, Siyah K'ak, arrived for dinner and your video helped me broker an uneasy peace, ty!

[veggieboyultimate]

This guy so dedicated to Native American religion he has a three-parter about the Mayans

[loquemacuh]

Deberías considerar publicar tus videos ambos en inglés y español, viendo como la mayoría de las culturas que tu presentas son ancestrales a latinoamericanos. Puedes doblar tu audiencia! 👍💚

[gudea]

Crazy how we have a “pre-classic” with such a metropolis as El Mirador

[garbonomics]

It’s like game of thrones out there! Fascinating stuff.

[saint]

thank you thank you thank you for providing the internet with this page as a resource. I am a fashion student who is constantly drawing inspiration from my own ethnic cultural background (Mexican). there is no better way to do this than to study the history of the ancient peoples who occupied the land before Anglo-American colonisation.

[crimsonterror]

Amazing video!

Most other videos about the Mayans just say the same 3 things: the Mayans existed, they built impressive cities, and then they collapsed. I always want to know more then the basics, and this video is one of the only documentaries I've seen that has thus far given that to me. I'm looking forward to part 2!

[kelsey.targaryen]

I’m happy and smiling every time you post. Really, thank you for your work.

I even asked my art history teacher how you would be for a source and she watched your Nazca video and said that you did a good job!

[darkwynggryph]

Never apologize for having more Maya content in the works 😁 gaps in our understanding of the classical period (and book burning) aside, the amount of documented history that we DO have is frankly amazing, and compelling!
( also, those ruler’s names are very heavy metal-worthy 😂 and now I understand why mayan writing was equated to art, those glyphs are beautiful)

[DanDavisHistory]

Fascinating, thank you. I'm amazed at how much was recorded. These stories are incredible.

[LukeBunyip]

Mayan hospitality of the classic period:
1. Prepare a lavish meal for the guests;
2. Flee with everything else that you can carry before they arrive.