This lady came to town and the cities were abandoned in a panic.
Posted on 08/11/2006 2:44:01 PM PDT by blam
Climate and the Collapse of Maya Civilization
A series of multi-year droughts helped to doom an ancient culture
Larry C. Peterson, Gerald H. Haug
With their magnificent architecture and sophisticated knowledge of astronomy and mathematics, the Maya boasted one of the great cultures of the ancient world. Although they had not discovered the wheel and were without metal tools, the Maya constructed massive pyramids, temples and monuments of hewn stone both in large cities and in smaller ceremonial centers throughout the lowlands of the Yucatán Peninsula, which covers parts of what are now southern Mexico and Guatemala and essentially all of Belize. From celestial observatories, such as the one at Chichén Itzá, they tracked the progress of Venus and developed a calendar based on a solar year of 365 days. They created their own system of mathematics, using a base number of 20 with a concept of zero. And they developed a hieroglyphic scheme for writing, one that used hundreds of elaborate signs.
During its Classic period (250–950 A.D.), Maya civilization reached a zenith. At its peak, around 750 A.D., the population may have topped 13 million. Then, between about 750 and 950 A.D., their society imploded. The Maya abandoned what had been densely populated urban centers, leaving their impressive stone edifices to fall into ruin. The demise of Maya civilization (which archaeologists call "the terminal Classic collapse") has been one of the great anthropological mysteries of modern times. What could have happened?
Scholars have advanced a variety of theories over the years, pinning the fault on everything from internal warfare to foreign intrusion, from widespread outbreaks of disease to a dangerous dependence on monocropping, from environmental degradation to climate change. Some combination of these and other factors may well be where the truth lies.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanscientist.org ...
GGG Ping.
This lady came to town and the cities were abandoned in a panic.
Ah yes...the dreaded Mayan Anjelou.
trl
ping
Although actually I find her poetry to be quite def.
If, by 'def' you mean sophomoric and obtuse, then I agree.
I think Classical Maya would have been a horrible place to live. Scary, fearsome god-idols, tossing girls into the well depths (young girls, not ex-wives), huge pointless piles of stone, etc., do not look like a happy place to me.
This isn't a thread about physics and black holes.
I know why the caged bird fled.
Indeed I do.
Climactic change happens. . .with or without us.
'Global warming' did them in.
No centralized heating system and too many open fires.
Almost made it through the first three pages, then ... um, water good.
Thanks
Those guys were pretty good with "hewn stone". If they were so smart, why didn't they build a few dams?
We know why they left. Easier to cut and run. Why didn't they overcome their adversity?
yitbos
Sounds more advanced than today's 21st century Islam.
Can we get a time machine and make a trade???
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"Figure 1. As this 19th-century engraving depicts, Victorian-era explorations of the Yucatán revealed many ancient Maya ruins enveloped by jungle—an observation that might lead one to believe that the onset of steamy tropical conditions contributed to the collapse of Maya civilization. In fact, drought appears to have been the culprit. The authors describe how they were able to gauge the climate for Classic Maya times during the first millennium A.D. Their record shows a series of severe droughts that coincide remarkably well with the abandonment of Classic Maya sites." Engraving by Frederick Catherwood
"Almost made it through the first three pages, then ... um, water good."
um, Beer better.
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