Disappearance of the Mayan civilization

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Disappearance of the Mayan civilization

In 880 A.D., the Maya territory consisted of many powerful cities spreading from northern Honduras to southern Mexico. These city states were homes to large populations and ruled by dominant elites who were able to command mighty armies. The elites claimed to have descended from the planets and stars. Maya culture was operating at its peak and the mighty temples got lined up to celebrate the accomplishments of the great leaders. However one hundred years later, the cities got ruined and abandoned for the jungle to reclaim. The question that has always remained a misery is that what really happened to Maya? Before its collapse, Maya civilization was very advanced and powerful states struggled for supremacy. Around 600-800 A.D., close ties with the city of Teoithuacan helped Maya reach its peak. The Maya were established astronomers and could predict a number of phenomena such as eclipses (Steitz & Steitz, 2008). They had a divine pantheon and a well developed religion. Trade, where prestige items such as jade and obsidian were purchased also flourished. The Maya were on a path of becoming a very powerful empire when the civilization collapsed abruptly and the mighty city states were abandoned.

The fall of Maya is one of the greatest mysteries of history since within a very short time, a mighty civilization in the Ancient Americas like Maya simply collapsed into ruin. Mighty cities such as Tikal got abandoned and Maya stopped making stelae and temples (Alderson, 2007). Presently, several sites have deciphered glyphs indicating that there was a thriving culture in Maya civilization in the ninth century A.D. However, there are several theories formulated by researchers trying to explain what really happened to Maya as discussed below:

The Disaster theory

Early Maya researchers have a belief that some catastrophic occurrence may have struck and doomed Maya. Volcanic eruption, rapid epidemic disease, or an earthquake may have destroyed the cities and displaced or killed thousands of people, making the Maya civilization to collapse (Alderson, 2007). However, this theory as been discarded presently because the Maya decline took approximately 200 years and some cities thrived while others collapsed. This implies that if the decline was due to a disease, earthquake, or any other calamity, then the destruction should have occurred simultaneously.

The welfare theory

The Maya were thought to be a pacific, peaceful culture. This peaceful image has however been shattered by the records from its history as the newly deciphered stone carvings and discoveries clearly showing that Maya cities viciously and frequently warred among themselves. Cities such as Tikal, Copan, Quirigua, and Dos Pilas went to war quite often with one another (Gardner & Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2010).The discoveries indicate that Dos Pilas was attacked and destroyed around 760 A.D. The question is whether they warred with one another to the extent of causing the collapse of the whole empire. It could however be possible given the fact that war brings about economic disasters and collateral damages that could bring about the collapse of the Maya civilization.

Famine theory

Preclassic Maya practiced subsistence agriculture on their small family plots where they mostly planted beans, corn, and squash. There was also some basic fishing on the lakes and at the coast. As the Maya civilization grew, the cities also advanced thereby making the population to grow at a faster rate than could be supported by the local production (Gardner & Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2010). Improved agricultural techniques like terracing hills and draining wetlands during planting brought some improvements and support for the growing population. Such an improvement also promoted trade but the uncontrolled increase in population in the city states put great strain on the production of food. Agricultural calamities and famines affecting the basic crops could have certainly brought about the downfall of the Maya civilization.

Civil strife theory

As the population boomed in the large cities, great pressure was put on the working class to build temples, clear rainforest, produce food, mine jade and obsidian, and so on. During that period, food was fast becoming more scarce (Gardner & Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2010). The idea of an overworked and hungry working class may have overthrown the ruling elite, especially if War between the States was endemic.

Environmental change theory

This theory attributes the fall of the empire to climatic changes. Given that the Maya majorly depended on a handful of crops and basic agriculture, and often supplemented it with fishing and hunting, they were very vulnerable to floods, droughts, or any other environmental change that may have affected food production and supply. Certain researchers have sought to identify certain climatic changes that took place during that period. For example, the levels of water at the coast rose during the Classic period. The coastal villages then became flooded thereby forcing people to move to the inland cities (Witherington & Witherington, 2011). This put pressure on the resources and at the same time making people lose food from fishing and farming.

The theory that appears quite convincing to have been the cause of the collapse of Maya civilization is that of the warfare theory. This is because war has all over the world been the major reason for collapse of powerful states and economies because a nation that goes through wars will have unstable political, economic, and social systems, which are the main determinants of the success of a nation. Discoveries by researchers discovered that the states in Maya underwent through wars and even led to the decline of certain states (Witherington & Witherington, 2011). The wars may have gone on for a long time thereby causing the states to collapse one after the other and eventually collapsing the whole Maya empire. War normally bring with it collateral damages and economic disasters that brings about very limited development in any state.

However, experts in the field do not have evidence or enough information to clearly state how the Maya civilization collapsed. The downfall may have been caused by some of the factors or a combination of two or more factors discussed above. The question remains which factors were more likely to cause the collapse of Maya civilization than the others and how the factors are linked. For example, one can argue that famine may have led to starvation, which in turn may have led to civil strife and eventually leading to wars among the neighboring states. The researchers have not given up in finding what exactly led to the collapse of the empire since archeological digs are going on in many sites and new technologies are being used to examine the excavated sites. For example, a recent research using chemical analysis on soil samples showed that a certain area in Yucatan was used as a food market, just as it had long been suspected.

References

Alderson, D. (2007). The ghost orchid ghost and other tales from the swamp. Sarasota, Fla: Pineapple Press.

Gardner, J., & Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. (2010). Grendel. New York: Knopf Doubleday Pub. Group.

Steitz, G. C., & Steitz, G. C. (2008). Haunted lighthouses and how to find them. Sarasota, Fla: Pineapple Press.

Witherington, B. E., & Witherington, D. (2011). Seashells of Georgia and the Carolinas: A beachcomber’s guide. Sarasota, Fla: Pineapple Press.