MayaThe ancient Maya were a group of American Indian peoples living in southern Mexico, particularly in the present-day states of Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatan, and Quintana Roo, and in Belize, Guatemala, and adjacent Honduras. Their descendants, the modern Maya, live in the same regions today, both highland and lowland, from cool highland plains surrounded by volcanoes to deep tropical rainforests. Flowing through the region is a single major river system, the Apasion-Usumacinta and its numerous tributaries, and only a handful of smaller rivers, including the Motagua, Hondo, and Belize. The ancestors of the Maya, like those of other New World peoples, crossed the BERING LAND BRIDGE from Asia more than 20,000 years ago, during the last ice age. The Maya were the first people of the New World to preserve historical documents: their writing history begins in 50 BC, when they began to engrave texts on vases, jades, bones, stone monuments and palace walls. Mayan documents trace the history of the great kings and queens who ruled from 50 BC until the Spanish conquest in the 16th century. All inscriptions of the "long count" Mayan calendar fall between 292 AD and 909 AD, roughly defining the period called Classic. The preceding Mayan culture is called Formative or Preclassic (2000 BC-300 AD), and the subsequent civilization is known as Postclassic (900 AD-conquest). Protected by difficult terrain and dense vegetation, the ruins of few ancient Mayan cities were known before the 19th century. century, when explorers and archaeologists began to rediscover them. The age and proliferation of Maya writings have been recognized since around 1900, when the calendrical content of Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions was deciphered and the dates were correlated to the Christian calendar. For most of the 20th century, only the extensive calendar data of the Maya inscriptions could be read, and as a result, Maya scholars assumed that the inscriptions were pure calendar documents. Because little evidence of warfare had been recognized archaeologically, the Classic Maya were considered peaceful timekeepers and sky watchers. Their cities were thought to be ceremonial centers for ascetic priests and their works were anonymous, without regard for specific individuals. More recent studies radically change the picture. In 1958 Heinrich Berlin demonstrated that some Mayan hieroglyphs, which... in the middle of the paper... reach over the border into Mexico, where thousands of refugees remained. The Mexican government moved large numbers of them to a permanent settlement near Edzna, Campeche. In both the highlands and the lowlands, the Maya have maintained centuries-old traditions. Mayan rituals for naming children, cultivating the agricultural cycle, marriage, illness, death, and even foretelling the future have been widely preserved. In the northern plains, Chaac, the rain god, is worshiped, and in times of need a chachaac, or rain ceremony, is performed. Before the conquest, the uayeb, or the last five days of the year, was a dangerous time; most Mayans now identify uayeb with Holy Week, and this and Carnival are carefully observed. Particularly in the Mexican highland communities of Zinacantan and Chamula, the rotating civil office loading system is maintained. Although the Spanish quickly established their capitals after the conquest, Mayan rebellions were common well into the 20th century. In Yucatan, Mexico established (1902) a separate territory, Quintana Roo, on the eastern side of the peninsula, where many rebels fled. Having become a state in 1974, Quintana Roo is now home to Mexico's thriving Caribbean resorts.