After conducting a new study, the University of California scientists state that the destruction of the Maya Civilization could have been because of the extreme climatic changes.
A report on the study suggests that a drought between 800 AD and 1100 could be the reason why this civilization failed to exist as scientists found, through the course of their study, that the civilization flourished during the rainy seasons.
"Here you had an amazing state-level society that had created calendars, magnificent architecture, works of art, and was engaged in trade throughout Central America," said UC Davis anthropology professor and co-author Bruce Winterhalder. "They were incredible craftspersons, proficient in agriculture, statesmanship and warfare? And within about 80 years, it fell completely apart."
The study looked into the extensive Maya Hieroglyphic Database Project, run by linguist Martha Macri, a professor of Native American studies at UC.
"We lucked into very good material to work with, to develop a very detailed climate record that is anchored chronologically in a way that other records haven't been able to," Kennett, a professor of anthropology at Penn State in State College, Pennsylvania, said in a phone interview.
"The Maya, who originated around 2600 B.C. in current day Southeastern Mexico, grew to prominence and size during the next three millennia, building temple step-pyramids and developing highly accurate astronomical and calendar systems," said Douglas Kennett, the lead study author. "Why some of their larger cities were abandoned a thousand years ago is largely a mystery. Though weather shifts have been proposed previously, the stalagmite findings may offer the data that was lacking."
