Michael McCue
HUM111 World Cultures I
Dr. Andrew N Allphin
16 October 2012
•No one can say for certain what happened to the Mayan people, but theories abound and include varied possible alternatives to explain the abrupt and mysterious disappearance of the Mayan civilization. Many historians have questioned “how” or “why” the Mayan civilization disappeared after the 10th century; however there is no definitive answer to this question. One possible theory is the Mayan’s civilization grew to such an extent that they deforested so much of the region that it had significant climate changes, thereby forcing the Mayan people to immigrate to other regions (Server, 2004), this theory has some scientific background, and scientists have used satellites to study the topsoil of Central America. They found that right before the civilization collapse, the sediment had changed from tree pollen to weed pollen, suggesting there were no more trees in the area. The result of a treeless environment is the erosion of fertile topsoil, warmer climate, and a possible reduction of precipitation. Since the Mayans depended on water reservoirs from precipitation, this would have had a detrimental effect. Another theory surrounding the disappearance of the Mayan people is consistent droughts that took place preceding the tenth century and the reduction of civilization through various wars caused the Mayan civilization to dwindle down to virtual extinction. While both theories sound relevant, scientific data is also consistent to what is happening the region of Central and South American and the deforestation of the rain forest. Perhaps history is only repeating itself. References Medina-Elizalde, M. & Rohling, E. J. (2012). Collapse of Classic Maya Civilization Related to Modest Reduction in Precipitation. Science 24 February 2012, Vol. 335 no. 6071 pp. 956-959. DOI:10.1126/science.1216629
Sever, T. (2004). The Rise and Fall of the Mayan Empire. Science@NASA Headline News. Retrieved from http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2004/15nov_maya/[pic][pic]
References: Medina-Elizalde, M. & Rohling, E. J. (2012). Collapse of Classic Maya Civilization Related to Modest Reduction in Precipitation. Science 24 February 2012, Vol. 335 no. 6071 pp. 956-959. DOI:10.1126/science.1216629 Sever, T. (2004). The Rise and Fall of the Mayan Empire. Science@NASA Headline News. Retrieved from http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2004/15nov_maya/[pic][pic]
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
I initially started off with only internet research on the different civilizations I could do, homing the precise topic down to the Maya. Once I’d done this, I abandoned the use of internet resources and borrowed books from the city library. Books are a much more reliable source of information in comparison to internet websites and they provided me with much valued information. I used the books ‘The Fall of the Ancient Maya’ by David Webster, ‘The Ancient Maya’ by Barbara L. Beck, ‘Colliers Encyclopedia’, ‘The Mayan Prophecies’ by Adrian G. Gilbert and Maurice M. Cottereli and ‘Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes’ by Carl Waldman. From these, I took the liberty of photocopying pages of information relevant to my research. I also happened to find two documentaries which I borrowed also. These were ‘Dawn of the Maya’ from the National Geographic and ‘Mystery of the Maya’ from the IMAX theatre in Sydney. From these, I took extensive notes and found my first theory on why the ancient Maya civilization may have collapsed from archaeologist, Richard Hanson. This discovery actually cemented my topic question for me – I was definitely going to follow this path of research once I’d found this.…
- 688 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
4.-What happened with the Mayan writing system after the arrival of the Spanish? It disappeared because the Diego de Landa believed that the Mayan writing system was the tools of the devil.…
- 969 Words
- 4 Pages
Powerful Essays -
The main cause for the fall of past civilizations is lack of food supply. The Mayans and Sumerians met their fate from this issue. The Sumerians due to elevated salt levels in the soil due to defective irrigation systems. The issues from this resulted in killing of all their crops and food sources. The Mayans were impacted by drought and soil erosion. It is hard for any civilization to flourish when they do not have a steady supply of food.…
- 659 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
The Mayans had two different types of weather. Therefore there were two different types of climates/ settings. In one part of the Mayan civilization they had a place that was known as the high lands .This was mainly on southern Guatemala .So that the Mayans could make crops here and live they would make terraces. Another place the Mayans civilization were the low lands this was on some parts of Guatemala as well as Beliz, and mexico. Th last place the Mayans lived on were the rainforests these had very dry and humid weather and were found in the lowlands.…
- 621 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
The theory that an entire civilization was wiped out or forced to leave because of a severe drought is a possible connection. During 1100 A.D. there where many severe droughts that might cause the people to migrate to a new region, but without even taking there tools or even food? For no trace of them to be found after that they would have had to change there entire way of living. Appearance, religion, their culture, because no further traces of their civilization was found. "Current research suggests that the great drought was no where near as severe as scientists believed ten years ago, certainly not severe enough to drive a nation of people to abandon their homes." (Leigh).…
- 802 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
The purpose of this investigation is to find the real reason why and how Copan collapsed. Copan was placed where Honduras is today; Copan showed they were great civilization of the cultural Mayan life. People wondered what happened to the once great civilization. Copan civilization had a rapid fall do to diseases, natural disasters, overpopulation, economic disruption, and many more. All those things that can happen to a civilization bring a collapse. But people around wanted evidence, from information that I read it was said there was no follow period and land was being overused. This was also happing leading into another fact that the population was getting to large more than what civilization can hold. The evidence that kind of gave you…
- 425 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
The climate in the lowlands that the Mayas resided in were known to be unstable. Rainfall quantities could have varied, allowing droughts to be common, and making rains violent when occurring. In pollen records from Yucatán, there was an indication of a dryness between 750 and 850 B.C.E. It is also possible that many of these environmental problems were the effects of deforestation and environmental changes. A drought such as indicated, would have been catastrophically to the Mayas, who had never faced such a problem…
- 830 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
The Maya people developed an advanced civilization that lasted from 300 to 900 CE. They built impressive pyramids, created a calendar that is still accurate today, and used learned astronomy (Ghose). After just six hundred years, the powerful empire that Maya had built up fell apart. The Maya people then abandoned their incredible civilization with no explanation (Hammond). The world was left confused and searched for answers to this mysterious disappearance. The Mayas abandoned their empire because they had a decline that was reinforced by a drought. The Maya kings began to lose battles and wars to invaders and, therefore, the Maya people lost resources as well as faith in their rulers (Video/Newitz).…
- 415 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Most of the history of the Mayan speaks to how it took approximately 20 trees to melt one square meter of lime plaster in order to construct their extravagant temples, reservoirs, and monuments (2009). The loss of trees caused a 3-5 degree rise in temperature while dropping the climate’s rainfall amount by 20-30%. The Mayans stripped their land of trees at such a fast rate the land could not replenish the trees and other vegetation quick enough to preserve the land in which the Mayans needed to survive. The drought from the lack of rainfall made it difficult for the Mayans to reserve water during the dryer seasons and with the lack of water, there was little chance of being able to grow food on the desecrated land. While there is no soul reason for the sudden disappearance of the Mayan people, NASA funded researcher believe the greatest contributor in the extinction of the Mayan was because they stripped their natural habitat and…
- 466 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
In 2005, scholars presented a theory that exacerbated ill-advised deforestation; prolonged drought made the people of Mayan abandon it. This has been put to test with archaeological evidence and data on the environment. The catastrophic event theory focuses on more than one natural disaster such as volcanic eruptions, hurricanes and earthquakes as the cause of the fall of Mayan. Nevertheless, the insufficient archaeological evidence makes unfeasible that just a sole natural disaster would have a result in the collapse. Meanwhile, the many successive disasters where each had a less catastrophic proportion might in a way have led to the collapse (Santoso, 2007).…
- 439 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
deterioration was found in more than one area shows a pattern that spread all across the maya…
- 513 Words
- 3 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
During A.D. 300 and 900 mayans flourished through much of Central America and in Yacatan in Southeren Mexico. It is said that there could be many reasons for the dissappearance, or the decline of the Ancient Mayan Civiliztion. There are many theories about the mayan civilization that some think was due to lack of food, frequent warfare, and over population. The decline started around A.D. 900, the Mayas left thier stone palaces and abandond their cities. That soon was barred by the jungle but the so called "lost city" was not rediscovered until modern times. No one really knows why or how the Mayas declined or left their city. However the loss, the Mayan culture has survived still to today, and with many people in Guatemala and southern Mexico descendents they speak the Mayan languages.…
- 958 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Recent studies have also shown that severe droughts could be the reason for the downfall of the Mayan civilization. In a study conducted by Dr. David Hodell and Dr. Jason Curtis, geologists at the University of Florida, evidence of a serious drought during the time when the Mayans began to fall was found. By analyzing sediments beneath Lake Chichancanab on the Yucatan Peninsula, they were able to call it “"the first unambiguous evidence" for a period of extreme aridity between the years 800 and 1000”(World History in Context). These long lasting droughts would lead to dry soil, which prevented agricultural products from being able to be grown. The Mayans depended solely on rainfall to supply all of their water. So when rainfall became minimal,…
- 353 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
From climate change, he draws in that the collapse of the Mayan civilization was due to overpopulation, which lead to deforestation and erosion. Archaeologists, like Diamond are able to distinguish causation from correlation by laying out different theories, then using their own research and data to determine which theory best fit the society at the time. Just because something occurred at a period in time that just so happens to be around the time a society collapse does not justify the notion that social collapse was due to a sole…
- 522 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
“The Mayan Calendar and the Return of the Extraterrestrials” Tsoukalos, Giorgio A. (Oct. 8, 2010)…
- 1679 Words
- 7 Pages
Good Essays