Discuss What Different Theories Suggest About the Disappearance of the Mayans.
Discuss what different theories suggest about the disappearance of the Mayans.
The Mayan civilization began during 2000 B.C. and by 200 A.D. they had reached their peak of development, with more people per square kilometer than modern day New York. They were located throughout northern Central America, and present day southern Mexico. They continued to develop with forms of mathematics and astrometry, with observatories being built to follow the stars and planets. But during the 8th and 9th century the Mayans abandoned their cities and slowly disappeared. The southern cities seemed to perish most with the northern cities surviving until the Spanish conquest. Lying buried beneath jungle the temples and ruined palaces of the ancient Mayan civilisation lay, some buildings reaching above the dense canopy of the jungle, we see the scatted rubble that was once family homes and elegant palaces of nobles. There are many theories to how the Mayans disappeared and because the lack of Mayan records we must rely on Spanish accounts, with the writings of bishop Diego de Landa being very important in the study of the ancient Mayan people, and basic archaeological and scientific evidence.
There are several theories to explain the Mayan collapse and the main being that of a huge drought. This drought was placed in the time period of 800 AD and 1000 AD, around the same time as the disappearance of the Mayans. The lack of water may have caused agricultural problems and no drinking water. Some scientific methods used to determine whether a flood occurred were undertaken by Richard Gill, who used dendrochronology, historical climate data and scientific climate modelling. Another method Gill uses was sampling mud from the bottom of a lake, at the Yucatan peninsula, and to analyse the oxygen content of the mud, a heavy content means the lake was evaporating at the time, and a light oxygen content means, that the lake was full, from the sample, of the ninth century, it showed a
The Mayan civilization began during 2000 B.C. and by 200 A.D. they had reached their peak of development, with more people per square kilometer than modern day New York. They were located throughout northern Central America, and present day southern Mexico. They continued to develop with forms of mathematics and astrometry, with observatories being built to follow the stars and planets. But during the 8th and 9th century the Mayans abandoned their cities and slowly disappeared. The southern cities seemed to perish most with the northern cities surviving until the Spanish conquest. Lying buried beneath jungle the temples and ruined palaces of the ancient Mayan civilisation lay, some buildings reaching above the dense canopy of the jungle, we see the scatted rubble that was once family homes and elegant palaces of nobles. There are many theories to how the Mayans disappeared and because the lack of Mayan records we must rely on Spanish accounts, with the writings of bishop Diego de Landa being very important in the study of the ancient Mayan people, and basic archaeological and scientific evidence.
There are several theories to explain the Mayan collapse and the main being that of a huge drought. This drought was placed in the time period of 800 AD and 1000 AD, around the same time as the disappearance of the Mayans. The lack of water may have caused agricultural problems and no drinking water. Some scientific methods used to determine whether a flood occurred were undertaken by Richard Gill, who used dendrochronology, historical climate data and scientific climate modelling. Another method Gill uses was sampling mud from the bottom of a lake, at the Yucatan peninsula, and to analyse the oxygen content of the mud, a heavy content means the lake was evaporating at the time, and a light oxygen content means, that the lake was full, from the sample, of the ninth century, it showed a