Page 40 - 201311 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - November 2012

The Rise and Fall of the Maya Empire The Rise and Fall of the also held other treasures for the Maya, including author Benjamin Cook, a climate modeler at Maya Empire jade, quetzal feathers (used to decorate the Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the NASA Goddard Institute elaborate costumes of Maya nobility) and Continued from Page 37 marine shells, which were used as trumpets in for Space Studies, in a statement. [Dry and ceremonies and warfare. Dying: Images of Drought] Using climate-model simulations, he The Maya were deeply religious, and Mysterious Decline of the Maya and his colleagues examined how much the worshiped various gods related to nature, switch from forest to crops, such as corn, would including the gods of the sun, the moon, rain From the late eighth through the end of the ninth alter climate. Their results, detailed online in the and corn. At the top of Maya society were the kings, or "kuhul ajaw" (holy lords), who century, something unknown happened to shake journal Geophysical Research Letters, the Maya civilization to its foundations. One by suggested that when deforestation was at its claimed to be related to gods and followed a one, the Classic cities in the southern lowlands maximum, it could account for up to 60 percent hereditary succession. They were thought to were abandoned, and by A.D. 900, Maya of the drying. (The switch from trees to corn serve as mediators between the gods and people civilization in that region had collapsed. The reduces the amount of water transferred from on earth, and performed the elaborate religious ceremonies and rituals so important to the Maya reason for this mysterious decline is unknown, the soil to the atmosphere, which reduces rainfall.) though scholars have developed several culture. competing theories. Other recent research takes a more The Classic Maya built many of their Some believe that by the ninth century temples and palaces in a stepped pyramid shape, the Maya had exhausted the environment holistic view. "The ninth-century collapse and decorating them with elaborate reliefs and around them to the point that it could no longer abandonment of the Central Maya Lowlands in inscriptions. These structures have earned the sustain a very large population. Other Maya the Yucatán peninsular region were the result of Maya their reputation as the great artists of scholars argue that constant warfare among complex human–environment interactions," Mesoamerica. Guided by their religious ritual, the Maya also made significant advances in competing city-states led the complicated writes this team in a study published Monday military, family (by marriage) and trade (Aug 20) in the journal Proceedings of the mathematics and astronomy, including the use alliances between them to break down, along National Academy of Sciences. of the zero and the development of a complex The team, led by B.L. Turner, a social calendar system based on 365 days. Though with the traditional system of dynastic power. scientist at Arizona State University, concurs As the stature of the holy lords diminished, their early researchers concluded that the Maya were complex traditions of rituals and ceremonies that by clearing the forest, the Mayans may have a peaceful society of priests and scribes, later dissolved into chaos. Finally, some catastrophic aggravated a natural drought, which spiked evidence--including a thorough examination of environmental change--like an extremely long, about the time the empire came to an end and the artwork and inscriptions on their temple walls--showed the less peaceful side of Maya intense period of drought--may have wiped out population declined dramatically. the Classic Maya civilization. Drought would But this is just one contributing factor to culture, including the war between rival Mayan have hit cities like Tikal--where rainwater was their demise, Turner and colleagues write, city-states and the importance of torture and necessary for drinking as well as for crop pointing out that the reconfiguration of the human sacrifice to their religious ritual. irrigation--especially hard. landscape may also have led to soil degradation. Serious exploration of Classic Maya All three of these factors-- Other archaeological evidence points to a sites began in the 1830s. By the early to mid- overpopulation and overuse of the land, landscape under stress, for instance, the wood of 20th century, a small portion of their system of endemic warfare and drought--may have played the sapodilla tree, favored as construction hieroglyph writing had been deciphered, and more about their history and culture became a part in the downfall of the Maya in the beams, was no longer used at the Tikal and southern lowlands. In the highlands of the Calakmul sites beginning in A.D. 741. Larger known. Most of what historians know about the Yucatan, a few Maya cities--such as Chichén mammals, such as white-tailed deer, appear to Maya comes from what remains of their Itzá, Uxmal and Mayapán--continued to have declined at the end of empire. architecture and art, including stone carvings flourish in the Post-Classic Period (A.D. 900- Social and economic dynamics also and inscriptions on their buildings and monuments. The Maya also made paper from 1500). By the time the Spanish invaders arrived, contributed. Trade routes shifted from land transit across the Yucatán Peninsula to sea-born however, most Maya were living in agricultural tree bark and wrote in books made from this villages, their great cities buried under a layer of ships. This change may have weakened the city paper, known as codices; four of these codices rainforest green. [] states, which were contending with are known to have survived. environmental changes. Faced with mounting Life in the Rainforest What Was Behind Mysterious challenges, the ruling elites, a very small portion of the population, were no longer Collapse of the Mayan capable of delivering what was expected of One of the many intriguing things about the Maya was their ability to build a great Empire? them, and conflict increased. "The old political and economic civilization in a tropical rainforest climate. structure dominated by semidivine rulers Traditionally, ancient peoples had flourished in The city states of the ancient Mayan empire decayed," the team writes. "Peasants, artisan – drier climates, where the centralized flourished in southern Mexico and northern craftsmen, and others apparently abandoned management of water resources (through Central America for about six centuries. Then, irrigation and other techniques) formed the around A.D. 900 Mayan civilization their homes and cities to find better economic opportunities elsewhere in the Maya area." [] basis of society. (This was the case for the disintegrated. Teotihuacan of highland Mexico, Two new studies examine the reasons contemporaries of the Classic Maya.) In the for the collapse of the Mayan culture, finding southern Maya lowlands, however, there were the Mayans themselves contributed to the few navigable rivers for trade and transport, as downfall of the empire. well as no obvious need for an irrigation Scientists have found that drought system. played a key role, but the Mayans appear to By the late 20th century, researchers had have exacerbated the problem by cutting down concluded that the climate of the lowlands was the jungle canopy to make way for cities and in fact quite environmentally diverse. Though crops, according to researchers who used foreign invaders were disappointed by the climate-model simulations to see how much region's relative lack of silver and gold, the deforestation aggravated the drought. Maya took advantage of the area’s many natural "We're not saying deforestation explains resources, including limestone (for the entire drought, but it does explain a construction), the volcanic rock obsidian (for substantial portion of the overall drying that is tools and weapons) and salt. The environment thought to have occurred," said the study's lead