The prior paleoclimate data, among other findings, pointed to the mere presence of gypsum in the sediment record as evidence of drought. But if the lake shrinks-because of, say, a drought-the gypsum reaches saturation and starts raining out as a solid onto the lake bed. Normally, gypsum is dissolved in the lake’s water. Within Lake Chichancanab, the authors looked at stable isotopes in gypsum, a soft sulfate mineral. To find out more, researchers examined the same lake as in the prior study: Lake Chichancanab, a salty body of water that lies in the northern Yucatán. Was it a mild shift toward less precipitation or an intense dry spell?
However, the magnitude of this drought remained unclear, the authors noted in their paper. Previously published paleoclimate data gleaned from proxies within lake cores on the Yucatán Peninsula revealed that a drought befell the area during 800–1000 CE.
Scholars believe that the Maya relied heavily on rain to fuel their maize fields and fill drinking reservoirs.īut past research indicated that the humid ecosystem of the northern rain forests, near population centers like Chichén Itzá and Uxmal, may have withered. The Maya people lived in the lush rain forests throughout what’s mostly now modern-day Guatemala, Belize, and southeastern Mexico. The archeological site lies on the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. The Pyramid of the Magician, in the ruins of the ancient Maya city of Uxmal, pokes through dense rain forest. Get the most fascinating science news stories of the week in your inbox every Friday. Given the finding, “our research provides another piece of the puzzle for understanding the Maya collapse,” he said. candidate at the University of Cambridge, told Eos. The jury is still out because none of the hypotheses can fully explain what caused a society advanced enough to conceptualize the number zero and potentially predict meteor showers to crumble.Ī study unveiled today in Science offers fodder for another answer: a severe drop in rainfall that coincided with the Maya downfall.Īt the end of the Classic period in the northern reaches of the Maya civilization, “rainfall decreased on average by about half and up to 70% during peak drought conditions,” lead author Nick Evans, a Ph.D.
Still more note that the whole idea of a collapse is too simplistic because not all Maya cities fell, and some were reinhabited. Some speculate that deforestation drove people away others believe that war and political strife tore cities apart. Scholars have many theories about what went wrong. “Rainfall decreased on average by about half and up to 70% during peak drought conditions.” By around 900 CE, a number of the grand cities had been abandoned. During this time, the Maya built cities with plazas and multistory temples, devised a complex calendar system, and housed an urban population density that rivals Los Angeles County today.īut then, sometime between the 8th and 9th centuries, many of the bustling Maya cities fell silent. But then, suddenly, the skies went dry.Īt least, that’s what the latest research suggests.įrom about 250 to 900 CE, the Maya thrived in what’s known as its Classic period. For centuries, the Maya people relied on rain to keep them alive.
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