Mayan Civilization Destroyed by 100 Year Drought (1 Viewer)

[cstu]

Belize’s Blue Hole reveals Mayan extinct due to 100 years long drought (+video)

Summary: Belize's ‘Blue Hole’ revealed clues regarding the real reasons behind the disappearance of the Mayan population.

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By Alexander | On December 29, 2014

Belize’s ‘Blue Hole’ has been at the center of scientific debate for years. In fact, in recent years – scientists have begun wondering what the sediment trap could tell us about years past – with regards to how the climate has evolved throughout history. Now, scientists believe that they have been able to identify the chief reason why the Mayans’ actually disappeared from the Earth.

The results showed that an extreme dry spell was the root cause of the issue. In fact, the scientists found through the sentiment samples that they took that there was a major shift for roughly 100 years. Between 800 and 900 A.D. scientists have pointed to an extreme dry spell that caused the population to part ways and ultimately fall apart.

Even though the population did live on, after they migrated north temporarily and then returned south when the temperatures and rain returned to what they had experienced as normal – they again disappeared just a few hundred years later. For roughly 400 years the Mayans’ did very well in the Yucatan peninsula. However, even though the civilization only lasted for a few hundred years – they were collectively one of the most-advanced civilizations of all-time.

They developed massive structures, had a calendar and writing system that could rival almost any advanced system – and even dabbled in, and mastered astronomy. This though just reinforces the role that climate change can play in the overall survival of a civilization. At the end of the day, massive climate change – like an extended draught – can destroy any civilization unless extreme planning and development is involved.

This was a population that didn’t see this coming, and at the end of the day – they were ended because of that. Their original homes were made uninhabitable and once that happened the entire structure fell apart that held their civilization together. This though isn’t the first time that drought has been tied to the end of the Mayan civilization. The Blue Hole though provides new insights into how the entire world at that end might have looked and functioned at that time. While the civilization flourished initially, they saw their demise come from an extreme and long-term drought.

 

[Tick]

Jared Diamond wrote about this in Collapse in 2005. It had already been shown with lake sediment analysis. He dated the drought as 760-910, reaching its height in 800.

He goes into further detail, saying it was two dry years around 760, then a really dry decade 810-820, three dry years around 860, and 6 dry years around 910.

 

[Officer Pete Malloy]

Ha ha

 

[Scoresman]

Damn Mayans and their carbon emissions.

 

[cstu]

Jared Diamond wrote about this in Collapse in 2005. It had already been shown with lake sediment analysis. He dated the drought as 760-910, reaching its height in 800.

He goes into further detail, saying it was two dry years around 760, then a really dry decade 810-820, three dry years around 860, and 6 dry years around 910.

National Geographic reported it long before Diamond.

3. Climate Change


The droughts sparked a chain of events that led to the demise of the Maya. "Sunny days, in and of themselves, don't kill people. But when people run out of food and water, they die."

— Richardson B. Gill,
The Great Maya Droughts: Water, Life, and Death

Mounting evidence supports the theory that climate change played a crucial role in the demise of the classic Maya. Research in 2001 by University of Florida peleoclimatologists, consisting of sediment core analysis from Lake Punta Laguna (near the site of Cobah in the southern Yucatan) has shown that the region's generally wet conditions were intersperse with periods of dryness. These occurred around 250, 585, and 800 — the latter event enduring especially long, into the eleventh century. These dates correspond to period where little Maya development is observed in surviving arts and architecture. (Specifically the dates relate to the end of the Late Preclassic, the "hiatus" between the Early and Late Classic, and the Great Collapse.)

A 2003 report in Science magazine confirmed and extended these results. Researchers from the University of Potsdam, Germany, found that there were three large droughts occurring between 810 and 910. "While the Maya had learned to live with shorter droughts, the study indicates that a more subtle, long-term drying trend was ongoing during the collapse. The three specific droughts may have been what pushed the Mayan society over the edge."

 

[Tick]

Diamond wasn't reporting it, he was using it to support a theory.

The questions is, why is it being treated as a new discovery today?

 

[Binky The Doormat]

Jared Diamond wrote about this in Collapse in 2005. It had already been shown with lake sediment analysis. He dated the drought as 760-910, reaching its height in 800.

He goes into further detail, saying it was two dry years around 760, then a really dry decade 810-820, three dry years around 860, and 6 dry years around 910.

That "Screech" guy gets around. I didn't know he was an archaeologist and professional foosball hustler.

 

[cstu]

Diamond wasn't reporting it, he was using it to support a theory.

The questions is, why is it being treated as a new discovery today?

I believe it's because the Blue Hole is considered an untouched sediment trap.

 

[Tick]

Jared Diamond wrote about this in Collapse in 2005. It had already been shown with lake sediment analysis. He dated the drought as 760-910, reaching its height in 800.

He goes into further detail, saying it was two dry years around 760, then a really dry decade 810-820, three dry years around 860, and 6 dry years around 910.

That "Screech" guy gets around. I didn't know he was an archaeologist and professional foosball hustler.

Also fought Horshack.

 

[jon_mx]

Damn Mayans and their carbon emissions.

Yep. That is the real story.

 

[msommer]

Diamond wasn't reporting it, he was using it to support a theory.

The questions is, why is it being treated as a new discovery today?

I believe it's because the Blue Hole is considered an untouched sediment trap.

That you get sentiment samples from? How does that make you feel?

 

[Brony]

Now imagine the hole is black

 

[Ditkaless Wonders]

Diamond wasn't reporting it, he was using it to support a theory.

The questions is, why is it being treated as a new discovery today?

I believe it's because the Blue Hole is considered an untouched sediment trap.

The article went on to say that scientist were able to take sentiment samples. That's amazing. Evidence of past emotions trapped in sediments, who knew.

 

[JetMaxx]

Mayans greatest accomplishment, writing, astronomy, or an extended draught?

 

[Gawain]

Can't blame Pacal II though. Financial and Expansive are a couple of power traits.

 

[Sabertooth]

Man that's gotta be a harsh way to go out. Watching the mayhem and trying to protect your kids. Starvation setting in all around you. I always wonder what it would be like to live in a time and place like that. Must have been brutal.

 

[Gary Coal Man]

"Blue Hole" is the title of my favorite Avatar themed porn.

 

[Sinn Fein]

Now imagine the hole is black

They're all pink on the inside

 

[JaxBill]

Mayans greatest accomplishment, writing, astronomy, or an extended draught?

Introduction of phrase "do or die" to sports

 

[MaxThreshold]

So..what was the cause of the drought? Was it the Mayan's dependence on fossil fuels?

 

[joffer]

jon and Max right on cue