The collapse of the Classic Maya civilization represents one of the
great archaeological mysteries of our time, and its cause has been
debated by scholars for nearly a century. Many hypotheses have been
put forth to explain the collapse of this ancient civilization,
but few have been rigorously tested. The proposed causes fall into
two broad categories: natural causes and sociopolitical causes.
The natural causes include factors such as:
- soil exhaustion due to slash-and-burn agriculture
- water loss and erosion of topsoil evident by increased sedimentation in lakes
- natural disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes
- climatic change
- disease
- insect infestations
- overpopulation
The sociopolitical causes include:
- peasant revolts resulting in the overthrowing of the elite class
- inter-site warfare between Maya city-states
- invasions by peoples from outside the Maya civilization
- failure of centralized political authority.
Photo Credits:
David A. Hodell
Department of Geology, University of Florida
|
Click on above image to enlarge.
Download a zip file
of a full resolution TIF image
|
