It has been one of the most intriguing mystery story in archaeology : What caused the Maya civilization to collapse ? build massive ancient complexes that put up jillion of people , the Maya were the dominant force in Central America for C of years . But then disaster come across , and the bustling urban centers were abandoned to be reclaimed by the timberland .
It now seems that , at the Maya site of Ceibal in Guatemala at least , the civilisation may have suffer not one buttwo collapses . By using radiocarbon dating at the web site , the authors of a newfangled study published in theProceedings of the National Academy of Scienceshave oversee to renovate one of the most accurate chronology ’s of the civilization .
“ It ’s really , really interesting that these collapses both look very like , at very unlike sentence periods , ” says Melissa Burham , one of three University of Arizona scholarly person who co - authored the study , in astatement . “ We now have a ripe understanding of what the process looked like , that potentially can attend to as a template for other multitude to essay to see if they have a similar practice at their ( archaeological ) sites in the same field . ”
The archeologist unearth the site at Ceibal , Guatemala . Takeshi Inomata / University of Arizona
By using carbon 14 geological dating of pottery at a extremely check archeological barb at the site , they were able to precisely instal at what point in time populations and construction arise and fell during the occupation of the small town . They find that there were two flop in the civilization – one during the 2nd century CE , which preceded the more well - known event that occurred in the 9th century CE that spelled the destruction of the Maya .
inquisitively , both fall out alike shape . The society at the time start off with multiple waves of unbalance , which was then keep up by warfare , political crises , and eventual flop of the urban centers . While there are presently only two data point , the consistency of the timeline has led the researchers to think that this may be a common flight , and want other archaeologists to see if their sites also follow the same convention .
The workplace questions the universal supposal that the Maya civilisation experienced a gradual decline , something that the authors suggest is a result of less exact dating and chronologies , and therefore masks the low waves of collapse that preceded both major declines .
