{"id":477140,"date":"2022-07-23T20:20:01","date_gmt":"2022-07-23T17:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/how-drought-destabilized-the-last-major-precolonial-mayan-city\/"},"modified":"2022-07-23T20:20:01","modified_gmt":"2022-07-23T17:20:01","slug":"how-drought-destabilized-the-last-major-precolonial-mayan-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-drought-destabilized-the-last-major-precolonial-mayan-city\/","title":{"rendered":"#How drought destabilized the last major precolonial Mayan city"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_89 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6af26560a7d1e\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6af26560a7d1e\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-drought-destabilized-the-last-major-precolonial-mayan-city\/#%E2%80%9CHow_drought_destabilized_the_last_major_precolonial_Mayan_city%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;How drought destabilized the last major precolonial Mayan city&#8221;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CHow_drought_destabilized_the_last_major_precolonial_Mayan_city%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;How drought destabilized the last major precolonial Mayan city&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-gallery lightGallery\">\n<div data-thumb=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/tmb\/2022\/climate-conflict-colla-1.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/2022\/climate-conflict-colla-1.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Archaeologists have been investigating the site of Mayap\u00e1n since the 1950s. Credit: Bradley Russell, Author provided\">\n<figure class=\"article-img\">\n            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/800a\/2022\/climate-conflict-colla-1.jpg\" alt=\"Climate, conflict, collapse: how drought destabilised the last major precolonial Mayan city\" title=\"Archaeologists have been investigating the site of Mayap\u00e1n since the 1950s. Credit: Bradley Russell, Author provided\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\"\/><figcaption class=\"text-darken text-low-up text-truncate-js text-truncate mt-3\">\n                Archaeologists have been investigating the site of Mayap\u00e1n since the 1950s. Credit: Bradley Russell, Author provided<br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The city of Mayap\u00e1n was the largest Mayan city from <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>roximately 1200 to 1450 AD. It was an important political, economic and religious center, and the capital of a large state that controlled much of northwestern Yucatan in present day Mexico.<\/p>\n<section class=\"article-banner first-banner ads-336x280\">\n         <!-- \/4988204\/Phys_Story_InText_Box --><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p>When the Spanish arrived in the early 1500s, Mayap\u00e1n was fondly remembered and Mayans proudly claimed descent from its former citizens. But inherent instability meant that it was doomed to fail. <\/p>\n<p>Or so the story went. This narrative has influenced views of this important city, and this period of Mayan civilization more broadly, for some time. <\/p>\n<p>In <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-022-31522-x\">a new study<\/a>, my collaborators and I show that warfare, collapse and abandonment at Mayap\u00e1n were not inevitable. Instead, they were exacerbated by drought.<\/p>\n<p><b>Traces of a massacre<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Experts from a wide range of fields worked together to piece together this story. The team included included archaeologists, biological anthropologists, geologists and paleoclimatologists. <\/p>\n<p>Archaeologists led by Carlos Peraza Lope of the Instituto Nacional de Antropolog\u00eda e Historia of Mexico and Marilyn Masson of the University at Albany\u2014State University of New York have been investigating the ruins of Mayap\u00e1n intensively since 1996 and 1999, respectively. Intermittent work has been going on at the site since the 1950s. <\/p>\n<p>Researchers have long suspected that Mayap\u00e1n collapsed violently, based on early colonial documents. These records describe a revolt led by the noble Xiu family that resulted in the massacre of the ruling Cocom family. <\/p>\n<p>When archaeologists from the Carnegie Institute of Washington started to investigate the site in the 1950s, they were not surprised to find buried bodies that had not been given the usual respectful funerary treatment.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-gallery lightGallery\">\n<div data-thumb=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/tmb\/2022\/climate-conflict-colla.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/hires\/2022\/climate-conflict-colla.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Credit: Bradley Russell, Author provided\">\n<figure class=\"article-img text-center\">\n            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/800a\/2022\/climate-conflict-colla.jpg\" alt=\"Climate, conflict, collapse: how drought destabilised the last major precolonial Mayan city\" title=\"Credit: Bradley Russell, Author provided\"\/><figcaption class=\"text-left text-darken text-truncate text-low-up mt-3\">\n                Credit: Bradley Russell, Author provided<br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>Desecration and destruction<\/b><\/p>\n<p>I am a bioarchaeologist, which means my job was to look for evidence of trauma in the skeletons that may have contributed to the deaths of these individuals. This evidence would support the idea of a violent collapse of the city. <\/p>\n<p>Most burials lacked evidence of violence. However, some exhibited injuries such as an embedded arrowheads, stabbing wounds or blunt force trauma to the skull. <\/p>\n<p>The signs of violence were concentrated in important contexts at the site and found in association with evidence of desecration and deliberate destruction. It seems some of the site&#8217;s own elite inhabitants had been the targets of violence.<\/p>\n<p><b>Rising violence<\/b><\/p>\n<p>To find out when this conflict occurred, and how it related to changes in climate, required a large number of high-precision radiocarbon dates and paleoclimate data from the vicinity of Mayap\u00e1n. <\/p>\n<p>These analyses were carried out in the labs of Douglas Kennett of the University of California, Santa Barbara, David Hodell at the University of Cambridge, and colleagues. <\/p>\n<p>As a result, we now have more radiocarbon dating information for Mayap\u00e1n than for any other Mayan site. <\/p>\n<div class=\"article-gallery lightGallery\">\n<div data-thumb=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/tmb\/2022\/climate-conflict-colla-2.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/2022\/climate-conflict-colla-2.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"The temple of Kukulkan, dedicated to the feathered serpent deity, was at the heart of Mayap\u00e1n\u2019s most sacred precinct. Credit: Susan Milbrath, Author provided\">\n<figure class=\"article-img text-center\">\n            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/800a\/2022\/climate-conflict-colla-2.jpg\" alt=\"Climate, conflict, collapse: how drought destabilised the last major precolonial Mayan city\" title=\"The temple of Kukulkan, dedicated to the feathered serpent deity, was at the heart of Mayap\u00e1n\u2019s most sacred precinct. Credit: Susan Milbrath, Author provided\"\/><figcaption class=\"text-left text-darken text-truncate text-low-up mt-3\">\n                The temple of Kukulkan, dedicated to the feathered serpent deity, was at the heart of Mayap\u00e1n\u2019s most sacred precinct. Credit: Susan Milbrath, Author provided<br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Paleoclimate data, meanwhile, was obtained from a stalagmite recovered from a cave directly beneath the site&#8217;s principal temple pyramid, which was dedicated to the feathered serpent deity Kukulkan. <\/p>\n<p>These analyses revealed that episodes of violence became more common later in the site&#8217;s history, corresponding with evidence of drought that began in the late 1300s and continued into the 1400s. <\/p>\n<p>One mass grave in particular, recovered in Mayap\u00e1n&#8217;s most sacred precinct at the foot of the temple of Kukulkan, appeared to date to around the time of the city&#8217;s purported collapse in the mid-1400s. Remarkably, this was confirmed through radiocarbon analyses, corroborating historical accounts of the site&#8217;s violent overthrow at this time. <\/p>\n<p><b>Drought and decline<\/b><\/p>\n<p>But the story does not end there. <\/p>\n<p>Radiocarbon dating also provided the surprising result that Mayap\u00e1n&#8217;s population started falling after approximately 1350 AD. Indeed, the city was already largely abandoned by the time of its famous collapse in the mid 1400s. <\/p>\n<p>It may be that as drought continued through the late 1300s, the residents of Mayap\u00e1n started voting with their feet.<\/p>\n<p>After Mayap\u00e1n&#8217;s fall, the city&#8217;s former inhabitants returned to their ancestral homelands in different parts of the Yucatan Peninsula. By the time of Spanish contact in the early 1500s, the peninsula was divided into a number of independent provinces, some of which were thriving. <\/p>\n<p><b>Climate migration<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Although from a vastly different time and place, our study contributes to current efforts to combat global climate change. <\/p>\n<p>When environmental conditions were favorable, populations expanded. But when conditions deteriorated, this put pressure on <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social<\/a> and political institutions. <\/p>\n<p>Mayap\u00e1n&#8217;s people migrated away from the city to cope with the change in climate. While migration may be less of a solution in the face of today&#8217;s climate change, due to global population levels, climate refugees are expected to rapidly grow in number without significant action by governments and citizenry alike.<\/p>\n<p><b>Big questions, big collaboration<\/b><\/p>\n<p>To address big questions such as this requires a level of multidisciplinary collaboration that is difficult to achieve but essential. <\/p>\n<p>Importantly, local Yucatecan Mayan communities have been integral to this process. Inhabitants of the equally ancient town of Telchaquillo, located just outside Mayap\u00e1n, have contributed to this work in innumerable ways, including excavation, artifact cleaning, processing and analysis.<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<div class=\"article-main__explore my-4 d-print-none\">\n<p>                                            New research demonstrates connections between climate change and civil unrest among the ancient Maya\n                                        <\/p><\/div>\n<hr class=\"mb-4\"\/>\n<div class=\"d-inline-block text-medium my-4\">\n                                                Provided by<br \/>\n                                                                                                    The Conversation<br \/>\n                                                                                                        <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"icon_open\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\"><br \/>\n                                                        <svg>\n                                                            <use href=\"https:\/\/phys.b-cdn.net\/tmpl\/v6\/img\/svg\/sprite.svg#icon_open\" x=\"0\" y=\"0\"\/>\n                                                        <\/svg><br \/>\n                                                    <\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"article-main__note mt-4\">\n                                                This article is republished from <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\">The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/climate-conflict-collapse-how-drought-destabilised-the-last-major-precolonial-mayan-city-187165\">original article<\/a>.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/counter.theconversation.com\/content\/187165\/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced\" alt=\"The Conversation\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                                        <!-- print only --><\/p>\n<div class=\"d-none d-print-block\">\n<p>                                                 <strong>Citation<\/strong>:<br \/>\n                                                 Climate, conflict, collapse: How drought destabilized the last major precolonial Mayan city (2022, July 23)<br \/>\n                                                 retrieved 23 July 2022<br \/>\n                                                 from https:\/\/phys.org\/<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a>\/2022-07-climate-conflict-collapse-drought-destabilized.html<\/p>\n<p>                                            This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no<br \/>\n                                            part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script id=\"facebook-jssdk\" async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/science\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Science category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2022-07-climate-conflict-collapse-drought-destabilized.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;How drought destabilized the last major precolonial Mayan city&#8221; Archaeologists have been investigating the site of Mayap\u00e1n since the 1950s. Credit: Bradley Russell, Author provided The city of Mayap\u00e1n was the largest Mayan city from approximately 1200 to 1450 AD. It was an important political, economic and religious center, and the capital of a large&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":477141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/2022\/climate-conflict-colla-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-477140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sciencee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}