Itza
Encyclopedia
The Itza are a Guatemalan ethnic group of Maya
affiliation speaking the Itza' language
. They inhabit the Petén
department of Guatemala
in and around the city of Flores on the Lake Petén Itzá
.
n people who dominated the Yucatán peninsula in the Post-classic period
. The Itza may have originated from the Classic Period
city of Motul de San José
near lake Peten Itza in Guatemala
, migrating to Yucatán during the Maya collapse at the end of the Classic Period. From their capital at Chichén Itzá
, Mexico they established a trade empire reaching as far south as Naco
in Honduras
. Chichen Itza means 'at the mouth of the well of the Itza' in the Itza' language.
The books of Chilam Balam
recount the history of the Itza and the demise of their empire at the hands of a band of Mexicanized Putún Maya
led by the mercenary king Hunac Ceel
, founder of the Cocom dynasty of Mayapan
. Hunac Ceel fought the Itzas but was taken captive and was to be sacrificed by being thrown into the cenote
of Chichén Itzá. However, he survived the attempted sacrifice, and having spent a night in the water he was able to relate a prophecy of the rain god Chac
about the year's coming harvest. Once lord of Mayapan, he orchestrated, aided by sorcery, the destruction of Chichén Itzá.
While part of the story of Hunac Ceel seem to be more mythical than historical, it is generally accepted that the Itza of Chichén Itzá were the eventual losers in a power struggle between the three Yucatecan lineages of the Cocom
, the Xiu
and the Itzá, all claiming heritage from the Toltec
s. And around 1331 archeological remains attest that Chichén Itzá and other Itza dominated sites, for example Isla Cerritos, were abandoned. The fall of these sites was contemporary with a gradual incursion of mexicanized Putún Maya
from Tabasco and central Mexico, and it seems that these were indeed the ones that caused the fall of the original Itza state.
region and returned south to the Petén Basin
region to build the city later known as Tayasal
as their capital. They called it Noh Petén ('city island'). It was also called Tah Itzá ('place of the Itzá').
Hernán Cortés
visited Tayasal with an army of Spaniards and 600 Chontal Maya on his way to Honduras in 1523 and he celebrated mass
with an Itza ruler named Canek
.
The island city of Tayasal was the last independent Mayan kingdom, and some Spanish priests peacefully visited and preached to the last Itza king, also called Canek, as late as 1696. On March 13, 1697, the Itza kingdom finally submitted to Spanish rule, represented by a force led by Martín de Ursua
, governor of Yucatán. The northern lowland Petén region includes families that can be traced back to pre-colonial Itza. Although the Itza language is near extinction, Itza agro-forestry practices, including use of dietary and medicinal plants, may still tell us much about how pre-colonial Itza managed the Maya lowlands.
Maya peoples
The Maya people constitute a diverse range of the Native American people of southern Mexico and northern Central America. The overarching term "Maya" is a collective designation to include the peoples of the region who share some degree of cultural and linguistic heritage; however, the term...
affiliation speaking the Itza' language
Itza' language
Itza is one of the Yucatecan branch of the Mayan languages. The other languages in the Yucatecan branch are Yucatec, Lakantun, and Mopan....
. They inhabit the Petén
Petén (department)
Petén is a department of the nation of Guatemala. It is geographically the northernmost department of Guatemala, as well as the largest in size — at it accounts for about one third of Guatemala's area. The capital is Flores...
department of Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
in and around the city of Flores on the Lake Petén Itzá
Lake Petén Itzá
Lake Petén Itzá is a lake in the northern department Petén in Guatemala. It is the second largest lake in Guatemala, the Izabal lake being the largest. It is located around . It has an area of 99 km² some 32 km. long and 5 km wide. Its maximum depth is 160 m...
.
Numbers of ethnic group members and Itza speakers
According to the census of 2002, there are 1,983 ethnic Itza, who retain some aspects of their indigenous culture. However, the Itza language is now almost extinct. Data taken from the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) suggest there were only twelve fluent Itza speakers left in 1986 and 60 non-fluent speakers in 1991. According to the census of 2002, however, there are still 1094 speakers. The Mayan word itza means 'enchanted waters' and may have been adopted from the name of the lake itself.In Yucatán
Historically the Itza, descended from a Yucatecan Maya lineage, the Ah Itzá, were an important MesoamericaMesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and...
n people who dominated the Yucatán peninsula in the Post-classic period
Mesoamerican chronology
Mesoamerican chronology divides the history of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica into several periods: the Paleo-Indian , the Archaic , the Preclassic , the Classic , and the Postclassic...
. The Itza may have originated from the Classic Period
Mesoamerican chronology
Mesoamerican chronology divides the history of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica into several periods: the Paleo-Indian , the Archaic , the Preclassic , the Classic , and the Postclassic...
city of Motul de San José
Motul de San José
Motul de San José is an ancient Maya site located just north of Lake Petén Itzá in the Petén Basin region of the southern Maya lowlands. It is located a few kilometres from the modern village of San José, in Guatemala's northern department of Petén...
near lake Peten Itza in Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
, migrating to Yucatán during the Maya collapse at the end of the Classic Period. From their capital at Chichén Itzá
Chichen Itza
Chichen Itza is a large pre-Columbian archaeological site built by the Maya civilization located in the northern center of the Yucatán Peninsula, in the Municipality of Tinúm, Yucatán state, present-day Mexico....
, Mexico they established a trade empire reaching as far south as Naco
Naco
Naco may refer to:* Naco , a pejorative slang term in Mexican Spanish* NaCo., a Mexican clothing company, the name of which is based on the previous slang term* Naco, Arizona, USA, a small town in southeastern Arizona...
in Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
. Chichen Itza means 'at the mouth of the well of the Itza' in the Itza' language.
The books of Chilam Balam
Chilam Balam
The so-called Books of Chilam Balam are handwritten, chiefly 18th-century Mayan miscellanies, named after the small Yucatec towns where they were originally kept, and preserving important traditional knowledge in which indigenous Mayan and early Spanish traditions have coalesced...
recount the history of the Itza and the demise of their empire at the hands of a band of Mexicanized Putún Maya
Putún Maya
Putún or Chontal Maya is a collective name for several groups of Maya that displaced much of the older leadership of the Maya Lowlands during the Late Classic and Postclassic. The Putún, who came from the Gulf coast in the northwest region of the Maya area, are generally held to have been more...
led by the mercenary king Hunac Ceel
Hunac Ceel
Hunac Ceel Cauich was a Mayan general from Telchaquillo who conquered Chichen Itzá and founded the Cocom dynasty...
, founder of the Cocom dynasty of Mayapan
Mayapan
Mayapan , is a Pre-Columbian Maya site a couple of kilometers south of the town of Telchaquillo in Municipality of Tecoh, approximately 40 km south-east of Mérida and 100 km west of Chichen Itza; in the state of Yucatán, Mexico...
. Hunac Ceel fought the Itzas but was taken captive and was to be sacrificed by being thrown into the cenote
Cenote
A cenote is a deep natural pit, or sinkhole, characteristic of Mexico and Central America, resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater underneath...
of Chichén Itzá. However, he survived the attempted sacrifice, and having spent a night in the water he was able to relate a prophecy of the rain god Chac
Chac
Chac can refer to:* Chaac the Maya civilization rain god* Chac: Dios de la lluvia, a 1975 film in the Maya language* Chac * Red in the Yucatec Maya language* Clonliffe Harriers* CHAC, Chicago Housing Choice Voucher program...
about the year's coming harvest. Once lord of Mayapan, he orchestrated, aided by sorcery, the destruction of Chichén Itzá.
While part of the story of Hunac Ceel seem to be more mythical than historical, it is generally accepted that the Itza of Chichén Itzá were the eventual losers in a power struggle between the three Yucatecan lineages of the Cocom
Cocom
COCOM A/S was a cable modem company founded by Henrik Hvidtfeldt. It was based in Copenhagen, Denmark, prior to its acquisition by Cisco Systems on September 15, 1999. It is currently organized as Cisco Cable Products and Solutions A/S.-References:...
, the Xiu
Xiu
Xiu is a Chinese language web site for online shopping, operated in the People's Republic of China.Founded by Mr. Ji Wenhong and Mr. Jin Huang in March 2008, it's a vertical e-commerce company, offering middle to luxury brand name fashion products - clothing, shoes, bags, ornaments, cosmetics and...
and the Itzá, all claiming heritage from the Toltec
Toltec
The Toltec culture is an archaeological Mesoamerican culture that dominated a state centered in Tula, Hidalgo in the early post-classic period of Mesoamerican chronology...
s. And around 1331 archeological remains attest that Chichén Itzá and other Itza dominated sites, for example Isla Cerritos, were abandoned. The fall of these sites was contemporary with a gradual incursion of mexicanized Putún Maya
Putún Maya
Putún or Chontal Maya is a collective name for several groups of Maya that displaced much of the older leadership of the Maya Lowlands during the Late Classic and Postclassic. The Putún, who came from the Gulf coast in the northwest region of the Maya area, are generally held to have been more...
from Tabasco and central Mexico, and it seems that these were indeed the ones that caused the fall of the original Itza state.
In the Petén
The Itza then left or were expelled from the YucatánYucatán
Yucatán officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Yucatán is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 106 municipalities and its capital city is Mérida....
region and returned south to the Petén Basin
Petén Basin
The Petén Basin is a geographical subregion of Mesoamerica, located in the northern portion of the modern-day nation of Guatemala, and essentially contained within the department of El Petén...
region to build the city later known as Tayasal
Tayasal
Tayasal is a pre-Columbian Maya archaeological site that dates to the Postclassic period. The site is located in the southern Maya lowlands on a small island in Lake Petén Itzá, now part of the Department of Petén in northern Guatemala...
as their capital. They called it Noh Petén ('city island'). It was also called Tah Itzá ('place of the Itzá').
Hernán Cortés
Hernán Cortés
Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca was a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century...
visited Tayasal with an army of Spaniards and 600 Chontal Maya on his way to Honduras in 1523 and he celebrated mass
Mass (liturgy)
"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...
with an Itza ruler named Canek
Canek
Canek is the name of two different historical rulers of the Itza Maya of Petén, Guatemala. The first Canek met Hernán Cortés, who passed by the Itza capital Tayasal on his journey to Honduras in 1524...
.
The island city of Tayasal was the last independent Mayan kingdom, and some Spanish priests peacefully visited and preached to the last Itza king, also called Canek, as late as 1696. On March 13, 1697, the Itza kingdom finally submitted to Spanish rule, represented by a force led by Martín de Ursua
Martín de Ursua
Martin de Ursua was a Spanish Basque conquistador from Baztan, Navarre during the early colonial period of New Spain in Central America. He is noted for leading the 1696–97 expeditionary force which resulted in the fall of the last significant independent Maya stronghold, Tayasal, located on an...
, governor of Yucatán. The northern lowland Petén region includes families that can be traced back to pre-colonial Itza. Although the Itza language is near extinction, Itza agro-forestry practices, including use of dietary and medicinal plants, may still tell us much about how pre-colonial Itza managed the Maya lowlands.
See also
- KukulkanKukulkanKukulkan is the name of a Maya snake deity that also serves to designate historical persons. The depiction of the feathered serpent deity is present in other cultures of Mesoamerica. Kukulkan is closely related to the god Q'uq'umatz of the K'iche' Maya and to Quetzalcoatl of the Aztecs...