With more than 160 exceptional items, most of which have never left their country of origin, this exhibition offers the opportunity to discover the Guatemalan Maya, one of the major civilizations that shaped the history of pre-Columbian America.
In an attempt to promote the protection of the Guatemalan national heritage, the exhibition highlights the latest significant archaeological discoveries on several recently studied sites – such as El Mirador, which heads the list of the five sites selected to be nominated for UNESCO World Heritage site status.
This latest research enables the presentation of a broader and more complex concept of Maya civilization; one which describes the great variety and the development of its social organization, architectural forms and artistic styles.
Painted ceramics, stelae, finely carved stones, funerary elements, architectural remains and ornaments, all presented in chronological order, provide a complete view of the Maya culture of Guatemala: its origins and development, cultural climaxes and declines.
The exhibition also provides a portrait of the current state of this civilization by presenting photographs and a multimedia presentation on contemporary Maya culture.
The Maya civilization appeared at the end of the 3rd millennium B.C. and had had two periods of cultural peaks: between the 3rd century B.C. and the time of Christ, and again between the 6th and 9th centuries A.D. There is ample record of a major demographic decline by about A.D. 150 and again by about A.D.900, leaving behind the ruins of many ancient cities filled with palaces and temple-pyramids. By the time the Spanish arrived in the early 16th century, the Maya were residing primarily along the coasts of Yucatan and in the Highlands of Guatemala. The Maya culture also developed a unique, integrated writing system found only in this region of the world long before the arrival of the Europeans, and are noted as one of the five "founding civilizations" of the world.
