Discuss What Different Theories Suggest About the...

Discuss what different theories suggest about the disappearance of the Mayans. The Mayan civilization began during 2000 B.C. and by 200 A.D. they had reached their peak of development, with more people per square kilometer than modern day New York. They were located throughout northern Central America, and present day southern Mexico. They continued to develop with forms of mathematics and astrometry, with observatories being built to follow the stars and planets. But during the 8th and 9th century the Mayans abandoned their cities and slowly disappeared. The southern cities seemed to perish most with the northern cities surviving until the Spanish conquest. Lying buried beneath jungle the temples and ruined palaces of the ancient Mayan†¦show more content†¦A theory that links with both drought and famine is environmental change. As the inland cities experienced the drought, they relied on the few crops that could grow in the dry condition, hunting the few animals that survived and the sea food from the coastal villages. But some researchers found th at coastal waters rose during the 9th century, and this could have flooded the villages that were situated on the coast causing the people that lived there to move inland to the bigger cities and villages putting strain on the food sources there and as a result the cities had no fresh seafood coming from the coast and then heavily relied on the few crops and animals to support their growing population. Although some theories have great backing evidence others don’t. This theory was ruled out due to lack of evidence. The theory was Natural disaster, a volcanic eruption, hurricane or earthquake. This theory can explain why some cities and temples had seemed to be destroyed but not why only some villages and cities were affected. This theory, unlike many others was disproven. There could have been a collapse in the Mayan political system where there high priests were taken less seriously due the lack of food, and the assumption that the human sacrifice and torture was having no advantage against the gods ‘anger’. Another theory is one of the peasants revolt, as in Eric Thompson book, The Rise and Fall of MayanShow MoreRelatedOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 Pages†¢ Gabrielle Hecht and Paul N. Edwards 271 8 A Century of Environmental Transitions †¢ Richard P. Tucker 315 About the Contributors †¢ 343 _ IN TR OD UC TIO N Michael Adas B y any of the customary measures we deploy to demarcate historical epochs, the twentieth century does not appear to be a very coherent unit. The beginnings and ends of what we choose to call centuries are almost invariably years of little significance. But there is little agreement over when