Archaeological Interpretations : Archaeology Eastern Mesoamerica

Ever since the collapse of the once powerful Maya civilization, people have been trying to find out what caused it. Authors of the article, "“Climate and the Collapse of Maya Civilization”", which include Gerald Haug, Detlef Günther, Larry Peterson, Daniel Sigman, Konrad Hughen, and Beat Aeschlimann propose a theory that the Mayans collapsed because of an extended dry period between 760 and 910 A.D.

As a result of this, the Maya stopped construction work in their cities and halted the erection of stelae. After a short period of time, the Maya civilization recovered and continued to grow for another 300 years. Today people are still trying to discover the reasons for the collapse of the Teotihuacan. They believe it may be due or caused by disease, crop failure, and the movement of other groups into the Maya area.

The Mayans were a unique civilization with the most sophistication in mesoamerica (1800 BC-250 AD). In this civilization, the major cities include Tikal and Chichen Itza, however independent city-states are run by, kings. Mayans had a polytheistic religion where they believed in afterlife. In addition, Mayans built temples, pyramids for sacrifices, and bloodletting. Yet, they were excellent astronomers. Here priests charted movements of planets, moon, and sun. Also, these distinctive people created calendars, developed a number system, and glyphic writing. Withal their economy was based on agriculture and trade. Nevertheless, what caused this great civilization to collapse? While analyzing the theories, I believe this civilization collapsed, due to: warfare, disease, famine, and disaster/ environmental change.

A few things you might have to know: The Mayan were natives who lived in Mexico and central Asia. The rise of the Mayan empire was from around 1800 B.C. to 250 A.D.. “first major complex civilization to develop in the America’s” (study.com). “They had a complex understanding of astronomy” (history.com). They thrived due to their intelligences.

The Mayan had a very interesting History. The Mayan civilization was in Mesoamerica. The Mayan population in its height was around 2 million people. The post classic period took place from 915 until 1524. Also, most Mayan cities were abandoned in the post classic period. The battle of Utatlan marked the end of the Mayan civilization in 1524.

“The Maya (MAY yuh) were an American Indian people who developed a magnificent civilization in Mesoamerica, a region of Mexico and Central America.”, (Early Peoples The Maya 4) Compared to other civilizations like the Olmecs, Incas, Toltec, Mixtec, Zapotec and Aztecs, the Mayans time period was the longest, it started around 1800 B.C and ended around A.D 900. There is no definite answer as is in why their civilization collapsed but there is theories and along those theories scientist believe it could have been very serious droughts. Since the only way the mayans can grow food was through farming the droughts made growing food a problem and since the mayans did have a enormous population eventually they starting to die off. Soon enough they migrated but the little population that started to grow the spanish conqueror

“As the populations in the large cities boomed, great strain was placed on the working class to produce food, build temples, clear rainforest, mine obsidian and jade and do other labor intensive tasks. At the same time, food was becoming more and more scarce” (Minster, 2015). As a result, the non-ruling class rebelled against the ruling class since they could no longer serve as guardians of society and arbitrators with the gods (Cartwright, 2015). Thus, the possibility that social disorder caused the collapse is not a farfetched idea. Moreover, climate change may also have impacted the collapse. “Since the Mayan’s were dependent on the most basic agriculture and a handful of crops, supplemented by hunting and fishing, they were extremely vulnerable to droughts, floods, or any change in the conditions that affected their food supply” (Minster, 2015). Therefore, the most reasonable explanation for the Ancient Mayan civilization’s collapse is a combination of inter-connected factors. In summation, the collapse can be best represented by the deck of cards/house of cards metaphor. Warfare, social disorder, over-population, and unfavourable climatic conditions combined to cause instability within the society, eliminating the established order/balance,

Other theories suggest that the Mayans were killed off by a great war. War is a great suggestion but doesn’t have enough supporting evidence for this claim. Source 9 states that the Mayan civilisation fell apart is a short 100 Years. As meso-america was a wore torn area of Earth and during 700AD The Mayans could have been in a great war with the Toltec’s as between 760 and 830AD many of the palaces and temple structures had been reduced to rubble (source 3) and

The life of men and women who inhabited the prehispanic Mesoamerica was ruled by what happened in the sky. To decipher the dance of the heavenly gods was to know the meaning of life, their past, their present, and their future.

What Cause The Disappearance Of Maya Civilization? The Maya civilization was an extremely mysterious and glorious ancient civilization. Most of the Mayans were distributed throughout Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala. Mayans made a brilliant civilization with the simple implement of production in the Neolithic Age, and they did not have any metal tools or transportation.

The Mayan civilization or the Maya Empire, centered in the tropical lowlands of what is now Guatemala, reached the peak of its power and influence around the sixth century A.D. The Maya excelled at agriculture, pottery, hieroglyph writing, calendar-making and mathematics, and left behind an astonishing amount of impressive architecture and symbolic artwork. Most of the great stone cities of the Maya were abandoned by A.D. 900. The Maya civilization was one of the most dominant indigenous societies of Mesoamerica. Unlike other scattered indigenous populations of Mesoamerica, the Maya were centered in one geographical block covering all of the Yucatan Peninsula and modern-day Guatemala; Belize and parts of the Mexican states of Tabasco and Chiapas; and the western part of Honduras and El Salvador. This concentration showed that the Maya remained relatively secure from invasion by other Mesoamerican peoples.

There was also evidence that the decline came from a combination of theories. George Cowgill theorized that the Mayan decline happened because of famine, death in warfare and slavery, and later, invasion, from a group of non-Mayans, whose homelands was suggested to be on the Gulf Coast, that invaded, gained

Mesoamerica is the area in which the ancient Maya had lived, and is the area where modern Mayans are still reside. According to Coe, the Mayan geographic can range from Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Yucatan Peninsula, and the Mexican States of Chiapas and Tabasco (1966:17). Yet these areas are not limited to just Mayan. Many structural architecture remains today has proven the complexity of the Mayan culture in Mesoamerica.

There were multiple reasons for the collapse of the Mayan civilization. Some of these reasons are environmental damages/overpopulation, natural disasters, and warfare.(The) Out of these the most likely reason for their collapse was war. (Cartwright) Within this war there were also the battles that were going on within its civilization, the offerings that they made to their gods, and the campaigns to resist the Spanish conquest.

The Mayans were a civilization in Central America. Mayans started out with small villages but over time would start developing larger cities. Most Mayan city-states include at least one plaza, a ball court, and one temple. The Mayans were very sophisticated people. And you used picture like symbols for communicating. The Mayans main activity was farming. So, on a normal day you will find lots of people working on the fields farming. But, the Mayan culture started to slowly die, and eventually it completely disappeared. Mayan astronomers studied the moon, earth, & sun and then came up with a 365 day calendar which we use today on Earth. They invented chocolate, herbal medicine, & basketball.