Seafloor Sediments Mayan Mysteries the Mystery What Essay

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Seafloor Sediments

Mayan Mysteries

the Mystery

What caused the collapse of the Mayan Civilization? In 800 A.D. The Mayan Civilization was thriving in a region from southern Mexico to northern Honduras. These indigenous people (numbering over two million) were competent astronomers, they were successful farmers -- they converted hillsides into fertile fields for crops like maize (corn) and squash -- they built impressive facilities, created an accurate calendar and discussed philosophy. And they were sophisticated enough to have established trade with other peoples in distant places around the globe. But around 900 A.D. The Mayan Civilization appears to have died, vanished, disappeared, and as to what happened to this seemingly advanced civilization remains a mystery. This paper reviews several theories as to why the Mayan Civilization mysteriously vanished, and will use one theory that has the most plausible and scientifically valid narrative.

Several theories as to why the Mayan culture disappeared

Among the many theories about the demise of the Mayans -- none of which has yet been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt -- is the theory that some "…catastrophic event" like an earthquake, a volcanic eruption, or "a sudden epidemic disease" may have caused their doom (Minster, 2008).

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Writing in The New York Times-owned About.com website, Minster also lists the "Warfare Theory" as a possible answer to this mystery. That is, Mayan researchers know that the various city-states in the Mayan civilization (Dos Pilas; Tikal; Copan and Quirigua) went to war with each other; they know this because the most recent discoveries of stonecarvings have been deciphered and the history of those wars is clear. So that is another theory that can't be proved.

Other theories that Minster mentions include the "Famine Theory" (the cities grew larger than there were crops to feed the people; and perhaps an "agricultural calamity" occurred); the "Civil Strife" theory (the working class may have rebelled against the elite when food became scarce); and the "Environmental Change Theory" (perhaps climate change caused a drought or a flood or otherwise interrupted their "food supply" (Minster, p. 2).

The most believable, acceptable theory to date

There are more than eighty existing theories as to what happened to the Maya people, but research conducted by author Bonnie Bley leans toward the "drought theory," which has become "…the most accepted" over the past few decades (Bley, 2011). The periods during which the Maya region was very….....

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"Seafloor Sediments Mayan Mysteries The Mystery What" (2014, January 12) Retrieved May 21, 2025, from
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"Seafloor Sediments Mayan Mysteries The Mystery What", 12 January 2014, Accessed.21 May. 2025,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/seafloor-sediments-mayan-mysteries-mystery-180775
   

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