Periods of Drought May Be Linked to Fall of Maya Capital
Monday, August 22, 2022
Periods of Drought May Be Linked to Fall of Maya Capital
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Monday, August 22, 2022
Mexico Mayapan(Marilyn Masson)ALBANY, NEW YORK—According to a statement released by the University of Albany, prolonged drought may have contributed to the collapse of Mayapan, a Maya capital city located on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula that was inhabited by some 20,000 people from the thirteenth through the mid-fifteenth centuries. The city was abandoned after a rival political faction killed the ruling family. Marilyn Masson of the Proyecto Económico de Mayapan and an international team of researchers led by Douglas Kent of the University of California, Santa Barbara, found evidence of a massacre in mass graves, including bodies that had been buried with knives still in the wounds and remains that had been chopped up and burned. But dating of the bones with accelerator mass spectrometry revealed that these people had been slaughtered some 50 to 100 years before the city fell, as recorded in historical documents. Analysis of calcite deposits in nearby caves detected a period of drought that corresponds to a decline in population at Mayapan between 1350 and 1430. The rivals may have timed their attacks to take advantage of possible social unrest and food insecurity, Masson explained. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Nature Communications. To read about the rise and fall of the ancient city of Kaminaljuyú, go to "Letter from Guatemala: Maya Metropolis."
https://www.archaeology.org/news/10744-220822-mexico-mayapan-drought
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Prolonged Drought Caused Civil Conflict and Political Collapse of Mayan Civilization’s Capital City
By Louise Franco Aug 22, 2022 12:05 PM EDT
The Maya civilization during a pre-Columbia Mesoamerica was known as a beacon of advanced and sophisticated society of its time. It is known for excelling in the areas of art, architecture, mathematics, astronomical system, writing system, and the famously known Maya calendar, which is still being used in modern communities in Mexico and Guatemala.
For centuries, the downfall of the Mayans has been a subject of academic contestations involving archaeologists, historians, and even laymen; with the center of the heated debate pointing out the main cause of their collapse. In modern times, scholars have reportedly provided a variety of potential reasons, including environmental degradation, drought, famine, overpopulation, and warfare.
(Photo : Photo by DANIEL SLIM/AFP via Getty Images)
While anthropogenic or human-caused factors have been the main element causing the Maya civilization collapse, there is growing evidence which suggests that these factors are only triggered by environmental causes. Now, a new archaeological study reveals that a prolonged drought was responsible for initial downfall of Mayapa, the capital city of the Mesoamerican civilization.
The new study used an advanced form of carbon dating technology, revealing details not mentioned or written in history. In light of the new discovery, authors of the new research highlight the impact of climate change not only to ancient civilizations but also to modern societies.
Mayapa Collapse
Details of the about the collapse of the ancient Mayan capital was published in the journal Nature Communications on July 19, where researchers from the United States and the United Kingdom revisited the collapse of Mayapa, which was long thought to be caused by civil conflict and political disintegration.
With the help of Marilyn Masson, an archaeologist from the University of Albany in New York, the research team was able to find that an extensive drought struck the capital 50 to 100 earlier than the historically-projected mid-15th century collapse.
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More:
https://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/52682/20220822/prolonged-drought-caused-civil-conflict-political-collapse-mayan-civilization-s.htm
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