Where did the Maya civilization go?
The Maya Classic era stuttered to an end during the eighth and ninth centuries AD/CE. There are many theories as to the main cause of the Collapse prolonged drought, overpopulation, ecological destruction, epidemics, endemic warfare, et al. , but I think it was a combination of all these; the main disagreement among scholars concerns not which of them was the most critical, but what proportion of the blame one might assign to each. There were three severe droughts in this period, ca. 800, 850 and 900 AD/CE, each lasting five or ten years, and these must have devastated life in the cities whose existence depended on local agriculture. However, some cities had a reliable water source anyway. Many cities made vicious war on their neighbors, perhaps partly driven by hunger. And it is certain that the Maya just as stupidly raped their environment as we are doing. Just the production of their prodigious quantities of stucco and mortar burned up hundreds of square miles of forest. No doubt th
Related Questions
- If the Maya were so smart, why did their civilization crumble? Why were their descendents utterly defeated by a relative handful of Spaniards (and the illnesses they carried to the New World)?
- What were the roles of men and women in Ancient Maya Civilization?
- What are the three theories for the decline of maya civilization?
