The Mayan Empire: Water, Water everywhere ...

What caused the fall of the Mayan civilization? Various environmental and human factors have been proposed to explain the unique decline of the Mayans, though some academics believe that the multiple causes for their decline can be explained through environmental change (Lucero 2002). So to fully understand why environmental change could have be the overall driver in the decline on the Mayans it is important to understand the civilizations geographic and social context.

A Map showing the location
and extent of the Mayan Empire
Source: Mayan Countdown

The ancient Mayan civilization is located on the Yucatán Peninsula and its climate is controlled in part by the Inter Tropical Convergent Zone (ITCZ) which result in seasonal monsoons (Haug et al 2003). In laymen terms it means that the Mayans experienced periods of intense rainfall and periods of intense droughts, some of which could last up to and beyond four months (Lucero 2002). For other civilizations such as the Mesopotamians and Ancient Egyptians, these dry periods are offset by being situated on and or located in the vicinity of, permanent water sources (deMenocal 2000;Butzer 1980c). The Mayans however were typically situated in the Yucatan’s jungle, away from any source of permanent water access such as lakes and rivers ( Linden 2006). In turn this led to the development of various technological advancements to: collect and impound water in artificial lakes and reservoirs, move and distribute the water to the masses, conserving it for periods of intense hardship (Lucero 2002, Linden 2006).

Iconography of Chac,
Mayan God of rain
Source: Project Maya

In turn water itself became a symbol of the elite’s power and led to the development of traditional social interactions which were underpinned by the ‘summoning’ of water from the heavens ( Linden 2006). Rituals were undertaken by the ruling elites to appease Chac, the Mayan God of rain, so that he might bring forth rain and supplement their people (Lucero 2002). These rituals reached a point where the populous believed that their ‘King’ or ruling elite were actually in direct contact with the gods, or were in fact reincarnations of the gods themselves, resulting in praise and tributes from their subjects (Lucero 2002). In turn this ritualistic practice underpinned the very fabric, structure and integrity of the whole Mayan civilization.

Iconography Showing a King
Seated upon a water lilly
Source: Pem.org

It was not just the notion of ‘deity’ which the ruling elite adopted; the notion and iconography of the Water Lilly became central symbol of the elite (Lucero 2002). Water Lilies themselves only grow in exceptionally clean bodies of water and are therefore an exceptional biological indicator of water quality. If a lake has no Water Lilies, then most likely the water is stagnant, polluted and just unhealthy to drink. Therefore the adoption of the Water Lily in the elite motif indicates that they were the ones creating the safe water resource for the people, it was they who were ensuring their survival, and it was them who had the dominance over such a precious scarce resource (Lucero 2002). 

Example of Mayan Aquaducts
Source: MNN.com

Water was so important for the Mayans, probably more so than other civilizations, what would happen if that access to water become more limited, what if the water became stagnant and rife with disease? It certainly would not be an easy ride for the ruling elite, in fact the Mayans experienced several drought events throughout the civilizations history, all of which will be explained in my next blog. 

Eqyptian Empire: A very quick overview

Unlike the Akkadian empire in my last few blogs, the Egyptian empire has been a lot more resilient in respect to the rise and fall of its civilizations in response to changing climate. This has been characterised in the different pottery assemblages on the Nile into 3 different kingdoms: Old, Middle and new which date from 2760-2225, 2035-1668 and 1570-1070BC respectively (Butzer 1980c).  This would indicate periods of settlement growth, accompanied by strong governmental leadership and control, followed by a factor, or combination which led to stagnation and eventual decline. 

The Egyptian economy heavily relied on agriculture, with episodic growth being in part a result of new irrigation technology which allowed settlements to buffer themselves against adverse climate change (Butzer 1980c). In essence the power of the elites came with the flooding of the Nile banks, providing water for its crops, which is especially important as the majority of flood water of the Nile actually fell within the borders of Ethiopia (Bard 1994). So it is not far of a stretch to assume that these cyclic rise and collapse of the empire might be related to the response of the Nile. Increased aridity would result in less flow, less flow in turn would mean increased deposition resulting in less agricultural land fed by the Nile, resulting in hardship (Bard Bard 1994).

So, what is the social-economic impacts of increasing aridity and reduced flood levels from the Nile? The most obvious is going to be hyper-inflation of the currency due to low stocks and high demand, this was observed during the end of the New Kingdom, whereby Grain prices rose 24 faster than the previous rate (Butzer 1980c). This in turn would cause social unrest and eventual abandonment of the flood plain for better land to cultivate. 

Though, in terms of Egypt, this assumption would neglect other prominent mechanisms which led to the downfall of the separate Kingdoms. The best example is Ramesses’s the II which, in the face of floods, civil unrest and wars managed to keep Egypt united and keep some control over his subjects and territories. Compare this to the collapse at the end of 6^th Dynasty, where by 31 Kings ruled Egypt in the space of 120 years (Bard 1994)! This highlights the importance of power and control of the monarch, those who were able to adapt grow and face the challenges managed to weather the course and prolong the settlement of their people, where as in the latter case, immense civil outcry and lack of control obviously played a huge part in the kingdoms downfall and fragmentation (Bard 1994). 

So is it Social political issues exacerbated by the climate, or the climate dictating the weakened stance of the monarchs? In my opinion, I believe the former is true. Why? Because of the 3 different assemblages in the archaeological record, shifts that seem to be to rapid to be explained by the improvement and worsening of climate. There must have been some form of catalyst which set everything in motion, which then became accentuated due to climatic pressures.

So, Why do you think the Egyptians didn’t stand the test of time?

The Akkadians: Curses, Curses to you all

Tablet documenting the
Curse of Akkad
Source: www.lessing-photo.com

Why was there a mass migration from the North towards the South at around 2200 BC? It seems fairly odd since the empire seemed to be flourishing with a boom in population for the 600 years before hand and managed to establish lucrative trade routes with other civilizations. An indication of a probable cause comes from a tablet excavated from Tell Lilan entitled ‘The Curst of Akkad’ which reads “Heavy Clouds did not rain, on its plains where grew fine plants, Lamaentatra now grows” (Weiss et al 1993). This eye witness account seems to indicate worsening conditions, even probably some form of prolonged drought which made agricultural activities unbearable. Yet, is there any other evidence to co-operate this eye witness account? 

An image From tell Leilan showing
soil profile with volcanic residue
Source: Weiss et al 1993

Cores taken from Tell Leilan, and other settlements within the affected region seem to show a layer of fine silt sized volcanic glass mixed with clay loams derived from the disintegration of clay bricks used in construction building (Weiss et al 1993). On top of this profile was a further layer of Aeolian dust, which is only transported and deposited under sever arid conditions, typically caused by strong hot winds from the North (Wiess et al1993; Linden 2006). In turn this would mean soil moisture would have been severely reduced, creating conditions not suited towards extensive cultivation, hence the migration to the flood plains which had a shallower water table and more favourable growing conditions (Linden 2006).

This is not the first time though that these conditions have been documented in the environmental record for this region. A similar climatic event occurred roughly at the end of the 3^rd Millennium BC, where by the Uruk colonies vanished (Ur 2013). DeMenocal (2001) notes that, as would happen with the Akkadian empire, the agricultural plains were abandoned, which coincided with a core from Gulf Oman indicating a thick layer of eolian dust commencing at roughly around 4025 BC, which infact coincides with cooling in the North Atlantic. Cullen etal (2004) noted a high concentration of calcite, quartz and dolomite dust at tell Lialin over an 800 year period, with dolomite dust increasing from 1.5% to 9%. Oxygen isotope 18 concentrations from cave deposits also seem to indicate a 20- 30% reduction in precipitation between 4200 and 4000 BC (Cullen et al 2004).

A graph from Cullen et al showing a spiked fall in Sea level which resulted in higher concentration of percipitants within the Dead Sea. This coincides with reductions in Isotope 18 Oxygen which is also an indicator of more arid conditons
Source : Cullen et al 2004

So there is pretext for these climatic events to occur and cause the breakdown of society, yet it is not that clear cut. Normally I would jump up and say, for certain it is climate, though the presence of volcanic glass at these sites raise an interesting prospect that it wasn’t a change in climate, but is in fact just a freak volcanic event which forced people south. This in turn would lead to the population exceeding the Carrying capacity, resulting in public disorder which in turn would start to erode away at the very fabric and basis in which the civilization built itself on. This would explain all the unfinished monuments and buildings as well.

Then again, one could argue that these “random events” have inherent climatic effects which would naturally degrade and alter environments, by reducing sunlight and precipitation. This in turn would be a localized ‘climatic event’ unique to the local environmental record. And on that merit, it could be argued that it was in fact local climatic change which drove the human factors and causes leading to the civilizations collapse.