CAUSE OF MAYA CIVILIZATION COLLAPSE

CAUSE OF MAYA CIVILIZATION COLLAPSE

Introduction

The Maya people were highly skilled in the field of arts, astronomy, architecture, and mathematics. They also developed a language system which contained codices plus inscriptions that revealed a lot about their lifestyle including their religion system. The Maya empire constituted of several cities and states which covered southern Mexico all the way to northern Honduras. This paper provides analysis of the cause for Maya civilization collapse putting into consideration two vital aspects which include arguments for War and drought as the major reasons for the collapse. The essay argues that Maya people had advanced mechanisms for agriculture and they may have come with survival skills to combat drought. However, the evidence associated with war indicates the possibility of a lack of resources to participate in war and already used ones contributed to their defeat and eventual downfall.

Recent archaeological studies found out information that solves some of the riddles which are associated with Mayan civilization. The analysis of the archaeological excavations provides similarities in relation to patterns which contributed to the two collapses in the Mayan civilization. In each of the two collapse cases, the waves associated with the falls initiated with a small intensity which grew and eventually led to the Maya people abandoning their cities¹. Theoretical assumptions indicate there is a probability that the Maya people were defeated by their rivals and were overthrown by the ruling class. Other studies towards the subject led to explanations that then invasion from unidentified flying objects. In 2012, a study from Arizona state university after analysis of archaeological data found out that environmental conditions contributed towards the collapse. The evidence gathered through the research substantiated a theory which was explored by Jared Diamond and historian who in his book entitled “Collapse” written in 2005.

The book advocated that the Mayas had burnt and cut down a substantial part of their forest cover that affected the ability of their lands to take in solar radiation which assisted in creating of clouds and the rainfall eventually became scarce ². This reason contributed to and initiated the natural occurrence of droughts. The exposing of land made the surfaces to be vulnerable to soil erosion plus depletion of soil which led to failure in agricultural activities. The scarcity of food which resulted makes the Mayas and their workers evacuate the lowland cities to escape the wrath of starvation and eventually resulted in the collapse of civilization.

One of the most eminent debates that exist in history and archaeology concerns the major events and occurrences that led to the destruction of highly developed Maya civilization approximately 1,000 years ago ³. It is evident through a historical account that the Maya empire had a long collapse which led to leaving behind of chain of pyramids and other monumental structures that exist in Yucatan Jungles. One of the most believed theories is that a climate catastrophe made the Mayas quit their cities.

Environmental science research through two analysis evaluated samples of rocks and conducted examination on them which indicated that the water levels in the present lack and chemical traces show the absence of rainfall during the period of collapse. The evidence from the scientist’s research showed that the region had suffered several droughts during rainfall summers even though the drought ¹. The repeated occurrence of dry climate had ecological implications that the carrying capacity of the Peninsula was very sensitive to rainfall reductions. It did not encompass much drought to trigger the catastrophic losses of crops and other associated environmental problems.

Some evidence from archaeologists also indicates that the Maya people were involved in a war during the period of their collapse. Argumentatively, the Maya empire also was destructive to itself just like may European plus Asian mighty fell down due to indulgence in the war until most of their resources were exhausted and there were no more soldiers to participate in the battlefields. This notion projects that climatic conditions may have not been the only major reason for the downfall since they were having high-level agricultural techniques ². The studies from LiDAR concerning the regions where Maya was based indicated that the people were able to remold sea land to create farming spaces, residential homes, and roads amongst other infrastructure. Considering the fact that the Maya people had so many technological advancements and sophistication of the time, there is a strong possibility that Maya people might have endured the drought calamities if it would have not been spending of substantial resources in the war. In a clearer context, the empire of might has come about from a mixture of environmental and social reason which were more complex than lack of food from the drought.

Since the collapse of Maya civilization, scholars have been exploring the causes, one of the articles relating to the subject entitled ““Climate and the Collapse of Maya Civilization” which was written by Gerald Haug et al provides a proposal that extended drought period which occurred between 760 AD and 910 AD caused the collapse. On the other hand, scientists have also embarked on finding out the answer about what caused factors actually contributed to the collapse ³. The scientist through archeology has conducted experiments which resulted in the collection of geological evidence. The drought matched the records in Lake Chichancanab records which gave the researchers confident about the resultant causes associated with the fall of the Maya civilization. The scientists conducted their experiments for several depths of low Ti sediments on the residual cores that showed dates between 760 AD to 910 AD. The approximated intervals were between forty to forty-seven years which matched the lake sediment records¹. The lake records indicated that at the beginning of 760 AD and the preceding droughts took place within a time span of a period of 40 years until a major drought in 810 AD. The major drought took place in 860 AD based on the Ti result analysis followed by another one in 910 AD which lasted for 6 years. The scientific results analysis indicated that the Maya civilization collapsed majorly because of climatic factors where lack of rainfall was a major one. ”

Conclusion

The argumentative essay above pinpoints drought and war as the major causes of the collapse of the Maya civilization. There have been researching studies over the past that have affirmed some of the evidence which is associated with the collapse of the Maya civilization. Scientists have conducted research on the archaeological discoveries of artefacts associated with the Maya and also sediments from Lake Chichancanab also confirm the occurrence of the drought.

Notes

1. Beach, Tim, S. Luzzadder-Beach, N. Dunning, and D. Cook. “Climatic changes and collapses in Maya history.” Past Global Changes Magazine 24, no. 2 (2016): 66-67.
2. Douglas, Peter MJ, Mark Pagani, Marcello A. Canuto, Mark Brenner, David A. Hodell, Timothy I. Eglinton, and Jason H. Curtis. “Drought, agricultural adaptation, and sociopolitical collapse in the Maya Lowlands.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2015): 201419133.
3. Hunter, Nick. Mayan Mystery. Oxford University Press, 2015.

Bibliography

Evans, Nicholas P., Thomas K. Bauska, Fernando Gázquez-Sánchez, Mark Brenner, Jason H. Curtis, and David A. Hodell. “Quantification of drought during the collapse of the classic Maya civilization.” Science 361, no. 6401 (2018): 498-501.

Turner, B. L. “The ancient maya: Sustainability and collapse?.” In Routledge Handbook of the History of Sustainability, pp. 57-68. Routledge, 2017.