MAYA, AZTEC, INCA and INUIT before COLUMBUS

Maya, Aztec, Inca and Inuit before Columbus

Vanishing Civilization of the Maya

By the year 500, Mayan cities had been in existence for more than 300 years and the Maya had reached their peak in economic prosperity. It is estimated that two hundred years later the Mayan population peaked. Then, between the years 750 and 900, one Mayan city after another was abandoned and much of the Mayan population disappeared. The last of the hieroglyphic writing erected in the city of Copan (Copán) was dated for the year 800. The last hieroglyphic writing in the city of Piedra Negras is dated 810. The last writing on a stele in Tikal is dated as 869. Abandoned cities, where Maya had thought their gods dwelled, became overgrown with jungle and filled with the chatter of monkeys and birds.

The few Maya who remained were on the periphery of what had been Mayan civilization. Exactly why Mayan civilization disappeared is not known. One cause dismissed by scholars is that of invasion by outsiders. Another possible cause is a decline in food production. On the skeletal remains of Maya who lived during the period of decline, archaeologists have found signs of inadequate nutrition. These remains were shorter in stature, the bones thinner, with dental enamel problems (another sign of insufficient nutrition) and more signs of disease.

The Maya had had an inefficient slash and burn agriculture that required land to be left fallow for five to fifteen years after only two to five years of cultivation. Agriculture had spread with the growing population, and, with agricultural fields replacing natural forest, rains may have caused much soil erosion. The Maya may have had trouble with their water supply. In much of Maya country, water ponds had been used as a source of drinking water and for aquatic food such as frogs, and indications have been found that these ponds had become silted.

A diminishing food supply would have created social upheaval and war. Warfare had been a preoccupation of Mayan lords. But with wars victors remain, and the complete abandonment of lands suggests another cause of the end of Maya civilization. Wars may have helped in addition to an increase in mosquitoes and disease. But complete abandonment suggests that the heart of the problem was the unavailability of food.

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