The Maya Collapse

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the Maya collapse increasingly appears far more complex than most early scholars who sought single-factor framework. Another interesting hypothesis was put forth showing the correlation between drought and demographic collapse. This still remains difficult to assess because there`s no written record and no clear association has been presented (at least not in the classic period texts) between drought and declines in agricultural productivity or direct evidence for widespread mortality or migration.
Ever since these droughts were first identified, researchers have noticed a striking correlation between their timing and that of the Maya collapse: most of the Classic Maya cities fell between AD850 and 925 – largely coincident with the century …show more content…
By bringing in some of the historical accounts from northern Yucatán, as these records feature some of the most detailed texts for the Maya lowlands during the Colonial Period that survived, we can align those with the result of Yok Balum records and imagine what the impacts must`ve been earlier. In the research, three extended dry intervals can be identified during the Colonial Period, from 1525 to 1560, 1610 to 1670, and 1720 to 1800 CE (fig 2b) with carbon isotopes (δ13C) ranging between −5.5 and −9.0 (‰ Vienna Pee Dee belemnite) from 1500 to 1900 CE, showing a large amount of …show more content…
Classic Period populations were larger and denser than those of the Colonial Period (Culbert and Rice 1990; Farriss 1984) and the strong reliance on rainfall-dependent maize agriculture would have made the more populous Classic Maya more vulnerable to climatic instability.
Also, the persistence of northern centers after the Classic Period collapse of those to the south has posed a paradox to archaeologists for decades (Dahlin 2002). The paradox lies in the earlier collapse of southern lowland polities and the persistence of northern centers into the tenth century despite the lower annual rainfall. While the south began to disintegrate, the north enjoyed relative prosperity, with the rise of a number of cultural centers. One being the most famous Chichen Itza. Scholars have argued that if south was permanently crippled by the climate shift, then why wasn’t the north?
Last year, scholars were able to comprise about 200 dates from sites across the Yucatan peninsula, half obtained from stone calendar inscriptions and half from radiocarbon dating. The researchers could then construct a broad picture of what times the northern Maya cities had been active, and the times when they each might have fallen into decline. What the team found significantly changes our understanding of when, and perhaps even how the Maya civilisation met its
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