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t was subsequently occupied, like some an expanding population requires consist- overhunting of megafauna. Some scholars
I of the other centers, but new massive ently more food production. Soil erosion have recently theorized that an intense
structures were not built and the old tem- or drought would have greatly affected 200-year drought led to the collapse of
ples did not serve the same functions as
they had in the past. What factors caused the large settlements; but no conclusive Maya civilization.
the demise of the Mayan empire remains a
mystery. Destruction from earthquakes is evidence has been found to determine a N ewer research from 2011, with use of
evident in some Mayan centers, but not all, high-resolution climate models and
and earthquakes are not believed to have sudden, widespread catastrophe.
leveled any of the major centers. There is
no evidence of mass burials that would W hatever happened to the Mayans was new reconstructions of past landscapes,
indicate an epidemic, such as plague, small an event of such magnitude that it suggests that converting much of their for-
pox, or other infectious diseases that swept
through Europe during the same time as caused a fracture in the long-standing prac- est land into cropland may have led to re-
the Mayan’s golden era and downfall.
tices and social order of the entire culture. duced evapotranspiration and thus rainfall,
T he great success of the Mayan culture
may be a plausible reason for their The great cities continued to be occupied magnifying natural drought. A study pub-
downfall. As the population grew, the
stress on agriculture became greater, for for decades after the hieroglyphics stopped lished in Science in 2012 found that modest
reporting triumphs, and then the majestic rainfall reductions, amounting to only 25 to
temples, stately pyramids, and massive 40% in annual rainfall, may have been the
edifices were abandoned completely to the tipping point to the Maya collapse.
surrounding jungle. There is evidence that
the Maya population exceeded the carry-
ing capacity of the environment including
exhaustion of agricultural potential and
