Mesoamerica - a lovely place to live?

Now let’s move to Mesoamerica and look at the example of the Maya civilization.

In this post I’ll introduce the Mayans and in my next post I’ll start exploring causes that effected their collapse.

Mesoamerica relates to an area starting in central Mexcio, roughly at the Tropic of Cancer, reaching southwards almost to Costa Rica.

Source: Wikipedia

This area was home to many of the early civilizations and has seen great cultural and social changes over time. This region has enabled the development of many culturally complex civilizations, from the Omec during the Pre-classic or Formative Era (1000BC – 200AD), through to the Maya and Teotihuacan during the Classic period (200AD - 900AD) and Aztecs in the Post Classic phase (900AD - 1519AD). (Wikipedia)

Source: Maya Religion

The Mayan period stretched from 300AD - 900AD. It was a complex society with multi-ethnicity and several regional languages, religious beliefs and rituals, clothing for different activities and the technological ability to build pyramids and maintain agriculture.

Despite the complexity of this civilization, it collapsed dramatically during a period known as the Terminal Classic at 800AD - 900AD. This collapse poses one of the greatest mysteries in archaeology. Today archaeologists are still uncovering stone structures and learning about their  culture. Take a look at Mott, 2013 for National geographic for some background on the Mayans!

Source: Ancient Civilizations: The Maya

There are four primary theories for the collapse of the Maya: 

1. Collapse of trade routes 
2. Foreign invasion
3. Epidemic disease
4. Drought

Over my next few posts I'll look into each of these theories to discuss and assess their validity.

Till next time!