Deep in the caves of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, Staragumite suggests that multiple droughts, including one that lasts for 13 years, may have contributed to the decline of Mayan civilization in the region.
By studying mineral formation, researchers were able to draw detailed pictures of rainfall seasonally, and scientists were able to closely compare climate records with archaeological evidence of instability, according to a study published Wednesday (August 13) in the journal Science Advances.
Although the cause or cause of the Mayan decline in the Yucatan Peninsula is still uncertain, many scientists believe that drought played a major role. Previous studies suggested that a long-standing drought occurred in southern Mexico in the 9th to 10th centuries, known as the Terminal Classic Era. Mayan populations in the area have declined during that time, while others thrived northwards than the arid climate, the study reported.
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“This period in Mayan history has been fascinated for centuries,” said Daniel H. James, co-author of the study, who conducted the research while a doctoral student at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences, in a statement. “Based on the archaeological evidence left by the Mayans, there have been multiple theories about the causes of collapse, such as changes in trade routes, wars, or severe droughts. However, in the past decades, we have begun to learn a lot from what happened to the Mayans and why by combining archaeological data with quantifiable climate evidence.”
To better understand the rainfall patterns during the Terminal Classic, James and his colleagues studied the annual growth layer of Staragmite from a cave near Teko, a municipality in Yucatan. Like a wooden ring, these layers record information about the amount of water received from the water dripping from the cave ceiling in a particular year. Due to variations in the chemical composition of each layer, scientists provided information on rainy season rainfall, which takes place every year from May to October.
“Knowing the average annual rainfall amount is not as good as knowing what the individual rainy season looks like,” said James, now an archaeologist at the University of London. “The ability to isolate the rainy season allows us to accurately track the period of drought during the rainy season.
Related: Why did the Mayan civilization collapse?
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The team found evidence of eight wet season droughts that lasted more than three years between AD 871 and 1021. These extended drying periods could have threatened Mayan agriculture and caused hunger, researchers said.
The Mayans in the area carefully managed water in reservoirs and tanks, but the drought was likely to have been severe enough to destabilise the local capital of Uksmar, the researchers wrote. The Mayans constructed monuments during these droughts and stopped dates that carved out that date, and the political system at the site collapsed after years of the most severe drought.
However, other sites like Chichin Itza nearby have survived the drought. The inscription on the date of the monument was still halted during the drought, but perhaps they recovered due to their reliance on a wider trade network for crops in central Mexico, researchers noted.
The findings help shape a clear situation of Mayan decline in Yucatan during the Terminal Classic, allowing scientists to compare more detailed climate records with archaeological evidence of social change.
“We could not directly compare the history of individual Mayan sites with what we had previously known about the climate record,” James said in a statement. “Starragmit allows us to access the finer details we lack.”
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