The Mayan Apocalypse: Assessing the Mystery
The Maya are an ancient civilization that have long captured the attention of popular media. Like the ancient Egyptians, the mysteries surrounding their rites, rituals, and everyday life are compelling. Both civilizations built pyramids in inhospitable places, created writing systems, and were ahead of their times in the realms of art, mathematics, linguistics, trade, and so on. The Maya have been particularly heavily featured in the media recently, as the end of the Mayan calendar was slated to be in December of 2012, causing some speculation about the end of the world. But the interest in the Maya is nothing new. Many individuals have spent entire lifetimes researching the Maya. One thing that has long mystified scientists, historians, and archaeologists alike is the seemingly sudden, unexplained disappearance of the Maya from many of their large temple sites in the Yucatan Peninsula. Sites like Tikal and Chichen Itza took years to complete, and suddenly, they were emptied. Theories range from drought to alien abduction and cover everything in between. What is known for certain is that by the time the Spanish arrived, the Mayan civilization was significantly in decline.
One of the most widely-accepted theories of the Classic Maya collapse is the drought theory. This theory, popularized by scientists, states that relatively low temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere are associated with drought in the region of Mesoamerica (University of Southampton, 2012). During the time that the Maya civilization was in serious decline, Northern Europe was facing uncharacteristically low temperatures. Studies done later by scientists showed that the Mesoamerican region faced a severe 200-year drought during the time that the Maya civilization was in decline. Many people believe that the Maya were a jungle people, but in reality, the climate in the area of the Yucatan that the Maya populated is what is known as a “seasonal desert” (University of Southampton, 2012). This means that for much of the year, the Maya did not have significant access to water; they had to rely upon the water collected in reservoirs. The drought theory is an extremely persuasive theory for the disappearance of the Maya civilization, especially if the entire climate changed (and average rainfall decreased dramatically). If drought occurred in conjunction with other social or societal changes, then the theory is even more persuasive.
Another theory regarding the disappearance of the Maya is a social turmoil theory. In this theory, archaeologists suggest that the ever-increasing amount of metropolitan building projects may have caused peasant uprising and unrest (Parsons, 2012). On its face, this theory is less persuasive than the drought theory; if peasants did revolt, which seems unlikely in such a religiously-driven society, it seems unlikely that they would just disappear into the jungle. However, when combined with the theory of drought and all the socio-economic factors that come along with drought-- food shortages, epidemic diseases, collapse of trade, etc-- this theory becomes much more plausible. Most sources seem to suggest that the elite of Mayan society were very well-off, and it seems likely that as workload increased, food production and water supply decreased, and the future became uncertain, revolts could have erupted in the peasant class of society.
The theory of drought, however, seems to be the most likely theory for the collapse of the Mayan civilization. The Maya expanded at a breakneck speed, and then suddenly went into decline. Drought did happen in Mesoamerica during the time the Maya were in decline-- the question is whether or not drought could cause the collapse of the Maya. It seems likely that the scientific reality that is the 200-year drought in Mesoamerica was responsible for the downfall of Mayan civilization.
Bibliography
Explaining the Mystery of the Vanished Maya. - Neatorama. (n.d.). Neatorama. Retrieved January 31, 2013, from http://www.neatorama.com/2007/06/19/explaining-the-mystery-of-the-vanished-maya/
Parsons, C. (2012, February 23). How a modest drop in rainfall 'led to the collapse' of Maya civilisation 1,100 years ago | Mail Online. Daily Mail Online. Retrieved January 31, 2013, from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2105515/How-modest-drop-rainfall-led-collapse-Maya-civilisation-1-100-years-ago.html
