| B.C. | MAYA CHRONOLOGY | |
| 200 | (?) | Approximate earliest date. |
| A.D. | ||
| 50 | Period of sculpture. | |
| 600 | Last of dated sculptures. | |
| 960 | Chankanputun destroyed by fire. | |
| 1000 | Triple Alliance of Chichen Itza, Uxmal, and Mayapan—the period of architectural development. | |
| 1200 | Triple alliance broken by the ruler of Chichen Itza who was overcome by the ruler of Mayapan, aided by the Nahua. | |
| This is the period of Nahua influence. | ||
| 1450 | Mayapan overthrown and destroyed and collapse of Maya culture. | |
| 1517 | First Spanish expedition to Yucatan. |
Thus we see that fully two thousand years ago Maya art had already reached a high level of development, implying far more remote beginnings. No such series can be found in Peruvian antiquities, but they may be the older for all that. The history of the rise of the Inca is fairly well known, the succession of rulers being as follows:—
- Rocca—about 1200 A.D.
- Lloque Yupanqui
- Mayta Capac
- Capac Yupanqui
- Sinchi Rocca
- Yahuar Huacac Mayta Yupanqui
- Huira Cocha-Tupac Yupanqui
- Tupac Yupanqui
- Huaina Capac (Inti Cusi Hualpa)
- Huascar Inti (Cusi Hualpa Yupanqui)[1]
The unfortunate Huascar was made an end of in civil war just as the Spaniards came upon the scene in 1532. But Markham produces records of a much longer list of ninety-two kings, which, if authentic, carries us back to about 1300 B.C. While the specific correctness of these early lists is improbable, we must bear in mind that such an antiquity is in keeping with archæological data and closely parallels the projected Maya chronology.
- ↑ Markham, 1910. I, pp. 309–310.
