Mystery of the Mayan people
Introduction
Among the most indigenous societies of Mesoamerica (Mexico and Central America) was the Mayan people. It is believed that the earliest Mayan settlement took place around 1800bc. They settled within the expansive Central American geographical blocks but in three separate areas. These included the Southern lowlands in Pete’s district of northern Guatemala, Western Honduras and the northern lowlands of the Yucatan Peninsula (Demarest, 2002). The Maya were majorly agriculturist who grew crops such as beans, squash, maize and cassava. In addition to farming, they displayed intriguing cultural traits. The Mayans are famous for their unique works of art, for instance, pyramid –buildings, big cities and inscribed stone monuments (Demarest, 2002). These structures have earned Maya the reputation as the greatest artists of Mesoamerica. It is important to note that the Maya people were highly advanced in mastering disciplines of architecture, engineering and urban planning at a time when the world was not fully civilized.
However towards the end of the nineteenth century, the Maya civilization began to collapse as the classic Mayan cities were abandoned one by one by its people. By 900 A.D, the Mayan civilization had mysteriously collapsed, and today what was once great cities of the Mayan civilization lie beneath dense South American forests (Webster, 2002). Historians and archeologists often question what happened to the more than two thousand people who occupied every square mile of the Mayan nation, a population considered to be among the highest in the world at the time (Demarest, 2002). It is agreeable that such an event did happen over a period of time and not abruptly. In an attempt to unearth such mysterious phenomena, various scholars and history experts have come up with theories to explain this mystery.
Some of the theories mentioned are; constant wars among competing cities, catastrophic environmental change such as extremely long and intense droughts, wiping up the entire classic Mayan civilization, the Pascal Sarcophagus theory and rituals ceremonies dissolving in chaos (Demarest, 2002).
However, the theory of war best explains this mysterious phenomenon. The history of war is traced back to the Mayan people as thorough examinations of their inscriptions on their temple walls show the less peaceful side of their culture. The rituals performed during the religious ceremony were utterly bloodletting as they involved human torture and killing (Webster, 2002). Long intensive drought that hit the region for close to two hundred years could have easily evoked civil wars as everyone competed for the available food (Webster, 2002).
Analysis of bones and tooth from graves dating back to late classic periods confirms evidence of nutritional deficiency. This is according to archeologist John Mc Namara. An occurrence of long drought has been supported by two scientists, Martine Medina-Elzadle and Eelco J. Rohling after carefully analyzing rock samples from the lake- bottom in the Yucatan area confirming possible long droughts (Webster, 2002). There are also hieroglyphs in the area which have revealed that two Mayan metropolitans, Tikal and Calakmul were rivals for centuries and during this prolonged drought, these two cities together with their allies were locked in huge battles and wars (Webster, 2002).
Even though some researchers are convinced by the theory of prolonged drought, it is insensible to say that the Mayans evacuated their region for this lone reason as there is great evidence showing that many ancient civilizations were exposed to drought and food shortage at one point and dealt with such problems successfully. Thus, a combination of the two factors of drought and war better explains this mystery (Webster, 2002). However, for one to unearth the mystery of the Mayan collapsed civilization, one needs to read the Mayan historical records comprehensively and understand its geographical extend, culture and religion and therefore come up with viable conclusions.
References:
Webster, D. L. (2002). The fall of the ancient Maya: Solving the mystery of the Maya collapse. New York: Thames & Hudson.
Demarest, A. (2004). Ancient Maya: The rise and fall of a rainforest civilization (Vol. 3). Cambridge University Press.
