THE MAYA COLLAPSES Overview Why Maya Maya Environment

THE MAYA COLLAPSES

Overview • Why Maya? • Maya Environment • Maya Agriculture • Maya History • Mayan Collapse

The City was desolate…. Here were the remains of a cultivated, polished, and peculiar people, who had passed through all stages incident to the rise and fall of nations, reached their golden age, and perished…In the romance of the world’s history nothing ever impressed me more forcibly than the spectacle of this once great and lovely city, overturned, desolate, and lost, …. overgrown with trees for miles around, and without even a name to distinguish it. -John Stephens

What about Maya? • Mayan Writings - still being use to reconstruct Mayan History • Mayan Art & Architecture - Archeologists • Climate & Environmental changes - Contribute to Collapse • Remaining Mayan Culture - Some culture survived collapse

Maya Art

Maya Pottery

Mayan Architecture

Maya Environment

Maya Environment • Seasonal Tropical Forest - May <-> October -Unpredictable Rain Fall • Seasonal Desert - January <-> April - Maya located 1000 miles from of equator • Yucatan Peninsula - Karst terrain - South is HIGH above water table

Maya Agriculture • Slash and Burn farming style - Corn was 70% of Maya Diet • Limitations -Farm animals - Drought and Humid Climate - farm style made for fallow ground - little protein yield • Increased Production - terracing of hill slopes -canals - Irrigation

Maya History • Pre-Classic Period 2000 B. C. - 250 A. D. - Villages and Pottery -1000 B. C. - Substantial Buildings - 500 B. C. - Writings – 400 B. C. • Classic Period 250 A. D. – 900 A. D. -Kings and Dynasties - most advanced Native American civilization - Culturally most advanced society with extensive preserved writings. • Post Classic 900 A. D. – 1500 A. D. - Collapse of Classic Maya - Re-focus of Population - Depopulation

COLLAPSE Deforestation and Erosion Civil Hostilities Climate Change Political and Cultural

Collapse • Deforestation and Erosion - Agricultural farming style - Cause for Depopulation • Climate Change -Unpredictable Rainfall - Humidity • Civil Hostilities - Competition for food

Collapse • Political - Kings Competition for Land - Wars - Spaniards bring diseases • Cultural - Starvation - Thirst - lower Birthrates - High Death Rates

THE END Lest one be misled into thinking that crashes are a risk only for small peripheral societies in fragile areas, the Maya warn us that crashes can also befall the most advanced and creative societies.