Once Petén was a center of the Old Empire of the Maya and had a dense agricultural population. It is noted chiefly today as the scene of large-scale excavations of great archaeological ruins, notably Tikal and Uaxactún. Although the Spanish nominally conquered the area and Cortés passed through it on his march to Honduras (1524–25), efforts at subjugation were sporadic until the Itzá tribe was driven out (1697) from their stronghold at Lake Petén Itzá.
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- Itzá
Itzá, Maya of Yucatán (Mexico) and Petén (Guatemala). Probable founders of Chichén Itzá, which they occupied at various times from c.514 to 1194, they moved (1450?) S from Campeche to Lake Pet...
- Flores, town, Guatemala
Flores, town (1990 est. pop. 2,200), capital of Petén department, N Guatemala. Flores was built on an island in the southern part of Lake Petén Itzá and on the site of the Itzá Mayan city of T...
- Piedras Negras, ancient city, Guatemala
Piedras Negras [Span.,=black stones], ruined city of the Classic era of the Maya, NW Petén, Guatemala, in the Usumacinta valley. Reaching a peak of sculptural achievement (according to one dat...
- Tikal
Tikal, ruined city of the Classic Period of the Maya, N central Petén, Guatemala. The largest and possibly the oldest of the Maya cities, Tikal consists of nine groups of courts and plazas bui...
- Yucatán, peninsula, North America
Yucatán, peninsula, c.70,000 sq mi (181,300 sq km), mostly in SE Mexico, separating the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico. It comprises the states of Yucatán, Campeche, and Quintana Roo, M...
- Morley, Sylvanus Griswold
Morley, Sylvanus Griswold, 1883–1948, American archaeologist, b. Chester, Pa., grad. Harvard, 1908. A specialist in Middle American archaeology and Mayan heiroglyphs, Morley did fieldwork (190...
- Guatemala, country, Central America
Guatemala, officially Republic of Guatemala, republic (2005 est. pop. 14,655,000), 42,042 sq mi (108,889 sq km), Central America. The country is bounded on the north and west by Mexico, on the...
- Maya, indigenous people of Mexico and Central America
Maya, indigenous people of S Mexico and Central America, occupying an area comprising the Yucatán peninsula and much of the present state of Chiapas, Mexico; Guatemala and Belize; parts of El ...
- pre-Columbian art and architecture
Pre-Columbian art and architecture, works of art and structures created in Central and South America before the arrival of Europeans in the Western Hemisphere. For many years the regions that ...
