The
ancient Mayan civilization, which developed a sophisticated culture in the
Central American rainforests, vanished mysteriously a thousand years ago. Now, an international team of
anthropologists, archeologists, chemists and climatologists says it has
identified the cause of the Mayan collapse: climate change.
To
create a weather record for the past 2,000 years, the scientists analyzed a
natural mineral formation called a stalagmite from a cave in Belize
Mayan
rulers commissioned stone monuments to record important events such as their
rise to power, major battles, civic unrest and strategic alliances. Pennsylvania State University Anthropology
professor Douglas Kennett, the study's co-author, says the team was able to
compare changes in the society documented on those monuments with their new
climate timeline.
On a podcast for the journal Science, he said
the team saw a relationship between rainfall levels and political stability.
"The
growth of Maya civilization and increases in population and levels of
sophistication actually correlate with a very wet interval that spans several
hundred years and the decline of the Maya actually appeared to correlate with a
downturn generally in climate and climate drying," he said.
Abundant
rainfall led to bumper crops and a population boom, but a climate reversal and
drought triggered famine, political competition, increased warfare and
eventually, the society's collapse.
Scientists
have long suspected that climate change played a role in the fall of the Mayan
civilization, but the precise timeline - published in Science - provides them with new confidence in that
connection. Kennett suggests their
methodology could be used to increase understanding of the influence of climate
on other ancient cultures that also have nearby cave systems. ---VOA News
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