Archaic Period

ca 9000-2500 BC

Hunting and Gathering, nomadic/semi-nomadic lifestyle

Early to Middle Preclassic (Formative)

2500 BC - 600 BC

Expansion Across Lowlands.  First maize agriculture & settled farmsteads

Middle to Late Preclassic (Formative)

600 BC – AD 400

First monumental architecture and settled village life

Late Preclassic (Formative)

400 BC – AD 250

First cities, complex iconography, triadic architecture, road systems, first writing, hydraulic systems, organized trade, possible population migrations

Classic

AD 250 – 900

Dynastic rulership, alliances and conflicts, hegemonic politics, palaces, mortuary pyramids, peak population sizes in most sites, intensification of agriculture, hieroglyphic writing on different media, art, calendrics, astronomy & mathematics reach high degree of sophistication

Terminal Classic

900 – 1000

'Collapse' of the Classic Maya

Early Postclassic

1000 – 1250

Re-focus of Populations.  Chichen Itza's and later Mayapan's hegemony in N. Lowlands

Late Postclassic

1250 - 1521

Competition among Centers.  Riverine and lakeside settlement, towns, strong connections with northern Yucatan

Spanish Invasion

1521

Disease and Depopulation