MAYA TOTAL WAR
Dec 05, 2019
1 minute
—ERIC A.POWELL
cholars have long believed that, before a.d. 800, conflict between Maya centers was largely ritualized, limited to attacks on sacred sites and, a term previously thought to refer to a local fire ritual. The evidence from the lake sediments and the destroyed buildings at Witzna shows that puluuy instead likely referred to an act of total war that aimed to inflict great human cost on the enemy population. The Naranjo stela describes four other cities as having been subjected to puluuy as well, suggesting that early Maya military tacticians may have frequently waged total war against their enemies.
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