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More than 80 different theories or variations of theories attempting to explain the Classic Maya collapse have been identified. [10] From climate change to deforestation to lack of action by Maya kings, there is no universally accepted collapse theory, although drought has gained momentum in the first quarter of the 21st century as the leading explanation, as more scientific studies are conducted.
[46] [63] No universally accepted theory explains this collapse, but it likely had a combination of causes, including endemic internecine warfare, overpopulation resulting in severe environmental degradation, and drought. [64] During this period, known as the Terminal Classic, the northern cities of Chichen Itza and Uxmal showed increased ...
The "Preclassic collapse" refers to the systematic decline and abandoning of the major Preclassic cities such as El Mirador around 100 AD. [6] A number of theories have been proposed to explain this collapse, but there is as little consensus here as there is for the causes of the more famous collapse leading to the Postclassic period.
Researchers studying sediment in Belize's Blue Hole have found that the weather may actually have been what caused the collapse of the Mayan civilization. Theories as to why a civilization as ...
The ancient metropolis was the capital of the Maya’s K’anwitznal kingdom, and during Ucanal’s peak, from roughly 630 to 1000, city settlements covered about 10 square miles (26 square ...
Relatively rapid collapse affected portions of the southern Maya area that included the southern Yucatán Peninsula, northern Chiapas and Guatemala, and the area around Copán in Honduras. The largest cities had populations numbering 50,000 to 120,000 and were linked to networks of subsidiary sites.
The sudden destruction of Teotihuacan was common for Mesoamerican city-states of the Classic and Epi-Classic period. Many Maya states suffered similar fates in subsequent centuries, a series of events often referred to as the Classic Maya collapse. Nearby, in the Morelos valley, Xochicalco was sacked and burned in 900, and Tula met a similar ...
Tainter has written and edited many articles and monographs. His best-known work, The Collapse of Complex Societies (1988), examines the collapse of Maya and Chacoan civilizations, [2] and of the Western Roman Empire, in terms of network theory, energy economics and complexity theory. [3]