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This isn't about Mayans. I don't need to know more than the fact that historians and Wikipedia editors found it more appropriate to call it 'Maya civilization' instead of 'city states around Mayapan'. If the experts decide it wasn't a shared civilization after all, I'll go with what they call the people that built Chichen Itza.

Or maybe we should just call them collectively by the same name we call their descendants as they are inextricably linked to the point that you can say they're as close to someone from Tikal as someone from Tulum was at the same time.

Civilizations can have multiple descendants that claim its legacy, why call it anything other than 'built by humans' at that point? But that's not useful right? Perhaps it's best to make an effort to get as specific as possible?

No I don't mean specific to the point of counting people's names. Specific enough to encompass only the people who would've thought the structure to be an achievement of their people.