Scientists find trigger for Mayan collapse

David Nield, HUMANS, ScienceAlert, 2/4/24; Xochitl, Crystal Q. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Once abundant freshwater went underground, into sinkholes (cenotes), making farming difficult.

Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico: The temples of central Mayapan today (Bradley Russell).

.

Scientists say they've found the trigger for ancient Maya's collapse, and it reads like a warning

Mexico, once Mesoamerica, is in North America

Researchers peering back through 800 years of history have concluded that Mayapan – the capital of culture and politics for the Maya people of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula (across the Gulf from the USA) in the 13th and 14th century CE – may well have been undone by drought.

That drought would have led to civil conflict, which would, in turn, have brought about political collapse, according to the researchers.

People would then have retreated to smaller and safer settlements. As well as giving us a useful insight into the history of this ancient people, the 2022 study served as a warning as well: about how shifts in climate can quickly put pressures on even the most well-established and prosperous civilizations. 

"Multiple data sources indicate that civil conflict increased significantly, and generalized linear modeling correlates strife in the city with drought conditions between 1400 and 1450 CE," wrote the researchers in their paper, published in July 2022.

"We argue that prolonged drought escalated rival factional tensions, but subsequent adaptations reveal region-scale resiliency, ensuring that Maya political and economic structures endured until European contact in the early 16th century CE."

The team already had a lot of historical records to work with, covering population change, contemporary diets, and climate conditions.

These records were augmented with a new analysis of human remains for signs of traumatic injury (pointing to conflict). More