| PALEOLIMNOLOGY |
Possible role of climate in the collapse of the Classic Maya Civilization
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Hodell, D.A.. 1995. Possible role of climate in the collapse of the Classic Maya Civilization. Nature Vol. 375, pp. 391-394
| Data Coverage |
North: 19.83333 * South: 19.83333 |
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West: -88.75 * East: -88.75 |
Start Year: 10920 cal yr BP * End Year: -26 cal yr BP
Data: Please Cite Data Contributors!
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Summary: THE Maya civilization developed around 3,000 years ago in Mesoamerica, and after flourishing during the so-called Classic
period, it collapsed around 750-900 AD. It has been speculated that climate change may have played a part in this collapse.
But efforts to reconstruct the last three millennia of Mesoamerican climate using palynological methods have met with equivocal
success, because human-mediated deforestation has altered regional vegetation in ways that mimic climate shifts, making it
difficult to discriminate between natural and anthropogenic changes. Here we use temporal variations in oxygen isotope and
sediment composition in a 4.9-m sediment core from Lake Chichancanab, Mexico, to reconstruct a continuous record of Holocene
climate change for the central Yucatan peninsula. The interval between 1,300 and 1,100 yr BP (AD 800-1,000) was the driest
of the middle to late Holocene epoch, and coincided with the collapse of Classic Maya civilization. This continuous climate
proxy record thus provides evidence of climate deterioration in the Maya region during the terminal Classic period.
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