Maya — Lords of Time

Astronomers and mathematicians who charted the stars, invented zero, and left the only true written language of the ancient Americas.

Origin

The Maya raised one of the most brilliant civilizations of the ancient world across the Yucatán, Guatemala, and Belize, flourishing for more than two thousand years. Never a single empire but a constellation of mighty city-states — Tikal, Calakmul, Palenque, Copán, and Chichén Itzá — they mastered mathematics, astronomy, and the only fully written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, and raised stone pyramids into the jungle canopy.

The Heroes

• Pakal the Great — the legendary king of Palenque, laid to rest beneath the Temple of the Inscriptions.
• Jasaw Chan K'awiil I — the ruler who restored the glory of Tikal.
• Yax K'uk' Mo' — founder of the Copán dynasty.
• The Hero Twins — Hunahpu and Xbalanque of the Popol Vuh, who outwitted the lords of the underworld.

Symbols of the Lineage

The step-pyramid, crowned by its temple. The intricate glyphs of Maya writing. The Long Count calendar. The feathered serpent Kukulkan. The jaguar, jade, and the great ceiba, the world tree.

Beliefs & Worldview

The Maya saw the cosmos as three worlds joined by the ceiba tree — the heavens, the earth, and Xibalba, the underworld. They honored the gods of sun, maize, and rain — Chaac of the storms — and kept two sacred calendars at once, reading in the turning of the days the will of the gods. Their kings stood as the bridge between the human and the divine.

Timeline — Major Events

• c. 2000 BCE — The first Maya settlements take root.
• 250–900 CE — The Classic period: the great cities, the stelae, the astronomy.
• 9th c. — The southern cities are mysteriously abandoned.
• Postclassic — Chichén Itzá and the northern cities rise.
• 16th c. — The Spanish conquest.

Cultural Artifacts

The carved stelae and inscriptions that record the deeds of kings. The Dresden Codex, its pages tracking the planets. The temple-pyramids of Tikal and Palenque rising from the forest. Jade masks, and the Popol Vuh, the sacred book of creation.

The Living Lineage

More than six million Maya live today across Mexico and Central America, still speaking their languages, still keeping the old ways. The ruins draw the world, the calendar endures, and the glyphs, once silent, now speak again. To claim Maya heritage is to claim the lords of time and the keepers of the stars.

Recommended Reading

The Popol Vuh; Michael Coe, The Maya.

Lords of Time

Astronomers who charted the heavens and gave the world zero deserve an heirloom worthy of them. Each piece in the Maya Collection renders the step-pyramid, the sacred glyphs, and Kukulkan in black and gold — the genius of the lords of time, fixed for the wall. Explore the collection →