Itzá

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"El Castillo", Chichén Itzá
The cenote of Chichén Itzá
Flores on Lake Petén Itzá was built on the rubble of the Itzá metropolis Tayasal.

The Itzá are an indigenous Maya people on the Yucatán Peninsula . They were the people of the Mayan city of Chichén Itzá and the last Mayan state in Tayasal on Lake Petén Itzá in the Guatemalan Department of Peten , which was independent until 1697 . Descendants of the old Itzá still live in Petén, of whom almost 2000 called themselves Itzá in the 2002 census.

language

The Itzá traditionally speak a variant of Mayathan , the Itzá language . Today, however, this is only spoken by a few, mostly elderly people at Lake Petén-Itzá.

Ethnonym

The Maya word itza means “magician of the water” or “enchanted water” and is possibly derived from the name of the lake.

history

The origin of the Itzá is traced back to the historical group of the Ah Itzá in Yucatán. Its origins are obscure, but it is believed to have started in the classic Mayan city ​​of Motul near Lake Petén Itzá. After the decline of the classical Maya, they migrated to the north and founded their metropolis Chichén Itzá , whose name means "at the edge of the fountain of the Itzá". The Ah Itzá ruled the Yucatán Peninsula in the post-classical period . Chichén Itzá had far-reaching trade connections, including to Naco in Honduras .

According to the Mayan manuscript Chilam Balam by Chuyamel, the Itzá came to the Yucatán from the headwaters of the Usumacinta and founded the city of Siyan Can Bakhalal (Bacalar) in today's Mexican Quintana Roo around the year 320 . Around 525 they moved west and founded Chichén Itzá and then Izamal , Ti'ho ' (now Mérida), Motul and Chakán Putum (Champotón). The Itzá lived in Chichén Itzá from 525 to 692, then left it and moved to Chakán Putum , where they ruled until 928.

After the arrival of the Tutul Xiú in Yucatán, the Itzá Chakán had to leave Putum in 928. After 40 years on the run, they returned to Chichén Itzá. Here their culture flourished again under the influence of the Toltecs . The central Mexican deity Quetzalcoatl ( Nahuatl for "feathered serpent") was worshiped here under the synonymous Mayathan name Kukulkan . Chichén Itzá was involved in the League of Mayapán until its destruction .

Chilam Balam traces the downfall of Chichén Itzá to a group of Mexican Putún Maya under the leadership of Hunac Ceel . This was the founder of the Cocom rule of Mayapán . In the fight against the Itzá he was captured by them and thrown into the cenote of Chichén Itzá as a human sacrifice . However, he survived, spent a night in the water and was able to tell of a prophecy by the rain god Chac about the coming harvest. As ruler of Mayapan, he succeeded in destroying Chichén Itzá with the help of magic. Archaeological research indicates that Chichén Itzá and other Itzá towns, including Isla Cerritos , were abandoned around 1331. Around this time Putún Maya immigrated from Tabasco and central Mexico.

In 1194 the Itzá moved to Lake Peten-Itzá, where they founded their new capital, Tayasal , on an island . They themselves called the city Noh Petén ("city island") or Tah Itzá ("place of the Itzá").

Hernán Cortés came in 1523 on his march to Honduras in pursuit of Cristóbal de Olid , shortly after he had hanged the Aztec king Cuauhtémoc near Xicalango, with an army of Spaniards and about 600 Chontal Mayas through Tayasal. He met the Itzá ruler Ah Kaan Ek (Canek) and held a Catholic mass with him . The Spaniards left a dying horse. Fearing that the Spanish would blame the Itzá for the death of the horse, they built a wooden horse to replace it.

The island city of Tayasal was the last independent Maya state. Some Spanish priests came to visit and preached the gospel, but the Itzá clung to their Mayan beliefs. When Franciscan monks came to the city in 1618 , they also found the wooden horse, which they said was worshiped. In 1696 missionaries tried to convert the last king of Tah Itzá, who was also called Ah Kaan Ek.

On March 13, 1697, a Spanish army led by the governor of Yucatán, Martín de Ursúa , stormed the last free Mayan city of Tah Itzá or Tayasal.

Todays situation

Families live in the Guatemalan region of Peten whose history can be traced back to the Itzá era before the Spanish conquest. Maya cultivation practices such as agroforestry are still used today and traditional food and medicinal plants are grown.

In the last census in Guatemala in 2002, people called themselves Itzá in 1983, but only 1094 of these gave Itzá as their mother tongue. SIL International gives only 12 fully competent speakers for 1986 and a total of 60 mostly older, no longer fully competent speakers for 1991, living in San José Petén north of Lake Petén Itzá.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Raúl Casares G. Cantón, Juan Duch Colell, Michel Antochiw Kolpa, Silvio Zavala Vallado and others: Yucatán en el tiempo. Mérida, Yucatán 1998, ISBN 970-9071-04-1 , pp. 426-427.
  2. ↑ Schele , Matthews 1999, p. 63.
  3. ↑ Drew 1999, p. 373.
  4. ^ Juan Francisco Molina Solís , Historia del Descubrimiento y Conquista de Yucatán. Reseña de la Historia Antigua de Yucatán . Mérida, Yucatan. 1896 (Reeditada en 1943 y prologada por Antonio Mediz Bolio )
  5. ↑ Diego López de Cogolludo "Conquista de Yucatán" Cap.XVI Foundation for the advancement of mesoamerican studies inc
  6. ^ Scott Atran, Ximena Lois, Edilberto Ucan Ek ': Plants of the Peten Itza Maya. Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, 2004, 38.
  7. ↑ XI Censo Nacional de Población y VI de Habitación (Censo 2002) - Pertenencia de grupo étnico . Instituto Nacional de Estadística. 2002. Archived from the original on February 22, 2011. Retrieved on December 22, 2009.
  8. ↑ XI Censo Nacional de Población y VI de Habitación (Censo 2002) - Idioma o lengua en que aprendió a hablar . Instituto Nacional de Estadística. 2002. Archived from the original on September 28, 2011. Retrieved on December 22, 2009.
  9. ^ A. Hofling: Ethnologue.com: Itza '- A language of Guatemala. 1991.

literature

  • Antonio Mediz Bolio: Libro de Chilam Balam de Chumayel. Traducción del maya al español., Ed. Dante, México 2005, ISBN 970-605-277-1 .
  • David Drew: The Lost Chronicles of the Maya Kings. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 1999, ISBN 0-297-81699-3 .
  • Diego López de Cogolludo: Historia de Yucatán 1688. (Reprint: ed.Linkgua, Madrid 2006, ISBN 84-9816-640-3 )
  • Linda Schele , Peter Matthews: The Code of Kings: The language of seven sacred Maya temples and tombs. Touchstone / Simon & Schuster, New York 1999, ISBN 0-684-85209-8 .
  • Robert J. Sharer: The Ancient Maya. Stanford University Press, 1994, ISBN 0-8047-2130-0 .
  • Marcia Trejo Silva: Fantasmario mexicano. Trillas, México 2009, ISBN 978-60717-0069-8 .
  • Alfonso Villa Rojas: Los elegidos de Dios. Etnografía de los Mayas de Quintana Roo. INI, México 1987. (Series de Antropología Social número 56)
  • Muriel Porter Weaver: The Aztecs, Maya, and Their Predecessors: Archeology of Mesoamerica. 3. Edition. Academic Press, San Diego 1993, ISBN 0-01-263999-0 .

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