Experts now agree on the most convincing explanation for the Classic Maya Collapse - Here’s the leading theory
The Classic Maya Collapse has baffled historians for years leading to a number of theories but thanks to new research one has become the most likely.
The Maya civilization began around 3,500 years ago originating in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. At its height between 600 and 800 AD, the Maya built incredible, skillfully decorated temple pyramids that stood as tall as 100 feet, and they had developed a sophisticated knowledge of astronomy and mathematics.
However, beginning in 800 AD, the Maya civilization began to falter over the course of 150 years. They didn’t leave a written record of what events had a hand in their decline, leaving researchers to develop numerous theories from climate change, deforestation, foreign invasion, overpopulation and soil erosion.
However, thanks to scientific investigations and the data, a smoking gun has been found that historians can agree was the most likely reason. The Classic Maya Collapse period coincided with the worst drought the area had seen in 2,000 years.
Various paleoclimate data point to severe drought
Scientists were able to reconstruct the climate at the time of the Maya civilization using two different sources, lake sediment cores and by measuring oxygen isotopes in the shells of gastropods and ostracods that lived in them. This gave them a picture of what the balance between precipitation and evaporation was at the time of the Classic Maya Collapse.
Both sets of data corroborated each other and showed that between 800 and 1000 AD the Yucatan Peninsula experienced a period of intense aridity. Furthermore, an analysis of rainfall proxies from cave deposits in the area the Maya occupied indicate there were several decades-long extreme droughts at that time.
Researchers don’t rule out that deforestation, disease, overpopulation, and soil erosion could have contributed to the decline of the Maya civilization, which didn’t completely end until the Spanish conquered the last city state in 1697. However, they were never able to fully recover from the devastating blow that the century-and-half-long drought inflicted upon them.
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