Maya in Yucatan: That’s why there was the collapse

There was a lot of turbulence in the city of Mayapan in the time of the ancients Maya. Today is Mayapan Yucatan in Mexico. There are many reasons for the collapse of the Mayan Empire, including demographic collapse, political and social clashes. In addition, a long Drought at the time of the conflict that existed at that time. Researchers at the University of Santa Barbara in California led by anthropologist Douglas Kennett have uncovered such causes to explain the fall of the great Maya empire.

In fact, the drought may have fueled the civil conflict that sparked violence, which in turn led to the institutional instability that accelerated Mayapan’s collapse. We found complex relationships between climate change and regional stability/society instability. The drought-induced civil conflict has had a devastating local impact on the integrity of Mayapan’s state institutions designed to maintain social order. Our research shows that the convergence of information from multiple scientific disciplines helps us to investigate large and highly relevant issues, such as the potential impact of climate change on society and other issues with huge societal implications. Archaeological and historical records offer lessons from the past, and we also have much more information about Earth’s climate and potential vulnerabilities in our socio-political systems.

Douglas Kennett, anthropologist

To confirm this, the scholars analyzed historical and archaeological data from Mayapan. Later, they also used regional climate sources and compared them to a new local drought record. The discovered cause is linked to the Mayan dependence on agriculture based on the production of maize, which needs rain. Other causes are a lack of long-term maize storage, minimal investment in irrigation and a society with competing political families.