Why The Maya Disappeared When They Did - 2124 Words

Known for its complex writing system, the Maya had existed from the Neolithic Era to the Classical Period. Composed of city states that ran through Central and South America, even after its collapse parts of it culture continues on today. Descendants of the Maya speak some of the original languages, and continue to live in Mexico and Belize; yet none of them live in the ruins of its previous society. Its original civilization was abandoned around early 900 CE, and what caused them to abandon their empire has been a mystery for a long time. As more clues are found possible causes start to be seen. As of today, there are many theories from scientists and historians on what could have caused the fall of the Maya at 900 CE, and that some of†¦show more content†¦This comes from what is thought to be a climate change that started around 660 CE, where rain began to happen less and less frequently, and the region started to get drier and drier. People still aren’t sure whet her or not the climate change was natural or mainly caused by the people, though it’s mostly like a mixture of both, since it was so rapid. The fact that droughts got worse fits in as a factor to the abandonment of its cities due to the fact that it made more problems for the people, like getting food. The fact that droughts were happening more often meant it was harder for the Maya to farm. It’s not known for sure what Mayans did for crops, since there are no noticeable artifacts left to show it, but corn made up 70% of their diet and the low amount of animal bones found in archaeological sites show that that there wasn’t a lot of animals being eaten, either due to lack or because they were only meant for certain people, like the priests and kings. What does this mean for the people? If they weren’t eating a lot of meat, then they were relying on crops, and if there were droughts going on each year more and more, it’d be harder to get enough crops for everyone in the civilization. From 800 to 1000 CE, there just wasn’t enough water to keep a steadily farm, which