Yucatán Peninsula and Central America · Classical Era
Classic Maya Civilization
The only fully deciphered pre-Columbian script
250 CE – 900 CE · 650 years
A network of rival city-states whose script — fully deciphered only in recent decades — recorded dynastic history in stone.
Where it sits on the calendar
Government
City-state
Writing system
Maya hieroglyphic script
Estimated peak population
10,000,000
How it ended
Climate shift or drought
Traits
Monumental architecture Irrigation agriculture Standing army Long-distance trade Astronomical record-keeping Urban planning Bronze metallurgy Iron metallurgy Codified law Seafaring
How Classic Maya Civilization ended
A severe multi-decade drought is widely linked to the abandonment of major southern lowland cities.
See other civilizations that fell the same way →Notable for
- Fully deciphered hieroglyphic writing system
- Highly precise astronomical and calendrical calculation
- Independent invention of the zero concept
Who else was alive at the same time
8 other civilizations in this dataset overlap with Classic Maya Civilization's 650-year span.
See every overlap involving Classic Maya Civilization →