These abandoned Mayan cities hold an alarming prophecy

today

By Sarah Kramer

businessinsider.com
June 27, 2016

At the height of the Mayan empire

the city of Tikal was a bustling
metropolis. But when the Spanish
arrived in Central America in 1517,
the Mayan people left Tikal and its
limestone towers were already in
ruins. Why did a sophisticated and
prosperous civilization abandon their
urban center for over the course of
two centuries?

Scientists have been gathering evidence that drought and deforestation

made life in the cities unsustainable, leading to the collapse of the southern
part of the empire. Droughts were common but an innovative reservoir
system allowed Tikal to develop. A 2012 study in the journal PNAS found that
when it was reaching its peak, the entire region ruled by the Maya began
suffering drought- at least eight in the century of Tikals decline.

During these dry periods rainfall was reduced by as much as half, even in the
wet season in the area. The intense droughts could last up to 18 years. There
is also evidence that Mayan approach to forestry and water management
could have added to the dry spells. Their methods may have worked while
cities were still growing, but when the population density reached 2,000
people per square mile- similar to that of Los Angeles- the Maya were
engaged in a massive clear-cutting of the surrounding forests, unintentionally
increasing the volume of the drought conditions.

When summer rains started falling, so did the crops. For a metropolis like
Tikal, the resulting food shortages spelled catastrophe. Reservoirs of water
started disappearing.

For centuries, the Mayan civilization practiced environmental management

successful enough to build a powerful, sophisticated and possibly most
advanced society of the pre-colonial Americas. But in the end unchecked
growth accelerated the end of the empire even before the conquistadors
landed.

What Doomed the Maya? Maybe Warfare Run Amok

By John Noble Wilford

Published: November 19, 1991
Nashville- The New York Times

The Mayas civilization was clearly the greatest to flourish in pre-Columbian

America. They studied the heavens to devise precise calendars, created a
true writing system and built imposing cities, with no evidence of any
fortifications. Hence the archaeologists assumed the Mayas were an
unusually gentle, peaceful people living in a relatively benign theocracy ruled
by sage priest-kings.

But the earlier archaeologists apparently got it wrong. In the last few years
scholars have made great strides in translating the Mayas previously
indecipherable writing system. From the emerging texts and from recent
excavations has emerged a new, at times, bewildering, picture of the Maya
civilization at its peak, from A.D. 250 to 900. Great as their cultural and
economic achievements manifestly were, they had anything but a peaceful
society.

Indeed the latest feeling among scholars is that the increasing militarism of
the Maya society may have undermined the ecological underpinnings of the
economy. Some of them speculate that siege warfare concentrated
population in urban centers, caused desperate farmers to abandon
previously successful practices of diversified agriculture and led to
overexploitation of the forest.

Dr. Arthur A. Demarest, an archeologist at Vanderbilt University here who

directs an ambitious Maya dig in Guatemala, said the evidence from stone
art and texts points to the surprising conclusion that "the Maya were one of
the most violent state-level societies in the New World, especially after A.D.
600."

Various writings and artifacts, Dr. Demarest said, indicate continual raiding
and warfare between elites of adjacent city-states and also the practice of
ritual bloodletting and human sacrifice. The prestige of ruling dynasties, and
hence their power, seemed to depend on their success in battle and the
sacrifice of prisoners of war.

Recent excavations by Dr. Demarests team at the ancient city of Dos Pilas,
in northern Guatemala, have revealed the remains of extensive fortifications
seemingly erected in haste and other evidence that the character and scope
of Maya warfare began to change in the seventh or eight century. These
signs of siege warfare, Dr. Demarest said, indicate an escalation of militarism
involving the general population in a desperate fight for survival.

As warfare became more widespread, Dr. Demarest and others have

concluded, food shortages forced the peasants into destructive farming
practices and drove others into overcrowded, impoverished cities for
protection behind stone walls. The balance between ecology and peace
through war had been fatally disrupted.
Collapse of the Maya Civilization

By San Diego Museum of Man

Archaeologists who believe that agricultural strains caused the collapse of
the Classic Maya think the Maya used unsustainable agricultural techniques
that led to an inability to grow enough crops to support their society. This,
they believe, led to increased deaths from malnutrition and disease.

Archaeologists who test this theory look at the human bones of the Classic
Maya population. These bones provide clues to diseases that affected the
people when they were alive. These researchers believe these bones show
that many Maya were increasingly plagued by disease and malnutrition at
the time of the collapse.

Some archaeologists believe the ancient Maya used poor agricultural

techniques including slash-and-burn farming, mono-cropping, and over-
expanded farming. In slash-and-burn farming, the ash from burned trees
covers the soil with nutrients. But these nutrients only last a few seasons, at
which point the soil is depleted and a new area of forest must be cleared.

The Maya also had a very small range of crops and grew mainly maize. This
is called mono-cropping. As an agricultural technique, mono- cropping is
vulnerable to pests and disease, and can quickly deplete key nutrients from
the soil. In addition, population growth led to an over-expansion of farming
into areas that could not support agriculture. This resulted in increased
deforestation, which led to faster nutrient depletion as well as soil erosion.
These factors combined to make it increasingly difficult for the Classic Maya
to successfully grow crops.