Causes of the disappearance of the ancient Mayan civilization

Mayan Civilization

The disappearance of the Mayan Civilization: socio-cultural or climatic collapse?

The Maya Civilization was considered as one of the most advanced societies and civilization in the West, prior to the colonization of Europeans to societies located in southern and eastern Americas. Maya civilization emerged and developed between 2000 BC and 300 AD, and this period gave birth to numerous cultural progresses such as the establishment of a writing system (through the Mayan hieroglyphics), an organized political council through a ruling council, and organized religion including its tradition and practices. Indeed, Mayan civilization was at par with the great Nile and Mesopotamian civilizations that had emerged and later served as catalysts that improved human cultures all over the world.

However, at around 800 AD, it was purported that the Mayan civilization suddenly "collapsed," wherein no trace of human existence can be found in its established territories. There had been a profusion of theories based from archaeological and anthropological evidence that attempted to explain the collapse of the Mayan civilization. Among these theories, two emerged as most influential and plausible to scientists and researchers alike: the fall of the Mayan civilization was based on climatic changes or socio-cultural collapse through the peoples' expansion.

This paper presents two facets of explanations or theories extant that brought into light the collapse of the Mayan civilization. On one hand, Mayan civilization collapsed due to sudden and extreme changes in the climate that led to the destruction of the civilization. On the other hand, a socio-cultural collapse theory posited that there occurred a mass expansion of Mayan people that led to the abandonment of its civilization and their assimilation to other cultures instead.

The theory that argued that a climatic collapse led to the disappearance of the Mayan civilization was based from scientific findings that were caused by a severe drought. As reported by History Today (2003), "[d]rilling samples from the Cariaco Basin off the Venezuelan Coast show there were intensely dry periods between AD 810 and AD 910 ... " From this finding, it was found that because there had been scarce supply of the people's basic needs, such as water and food supply, Mayan society disappeared, supposedly due to deaths caused by these series of drought.

A more specific version of this theory was presented in Kerr's (2001) journal article on the scientific evidence pointing at climate changes as the catalyst towards the disappearance of the civilization. In this article, he posited that what occurred in the Mayan civilization was a "megadrought," one that happens after every 208 years. This drought was explicated as a "[s]olar activity -- including varying sunspot numbers and the brightness of the sun -- is recorded in the abundance of cosmic ray -- produced radioactive carbon-14 preserved in tree rings. Solar activity also varies in a "bicentennial oscillation" with a period variously reported to be between 206 and 208 years." This extraordinary occurrence also led to extreme ramifications, such as the sudden scarcity of the basic needs, particular food and water supply, of the people. Without these essential needs, Mayan civilization ceased to thrive and survive, eventually resulting to its end as its people died due to the "megadrought."

Another perspective offered about the sudden disappearance of the Mayan civilization was that instead of a drought, a probable cause to the vanishing of the civilization was due to the occurrence of a great diaspora, an internal collapse of Mayan culture and society due to an ever-expanding population within a limited territory. Thus, Mayans went over other territories, expanded, and later assimilated the Mayan culture with that of other cultures they had integrated with. This event was considered by DeMallie (1996) a "process of divergence," wherein each Mayan member had brought with him/her aspects of their great culture and had integrated with other cultures, perpetuating a hybrid kind of Mayan culture (402). This theory, like the climate change theory, was plausible in that it described a natural occurrence among civilizations, wherein rapid population growth is almost always associated with territorial expansion. However, in the case of Mayan society, a territorial expansion meant assimilating themselves with other cultures as well, losing the uniqueness of the Mayan culture in the process.