The Mayan Empire: … but not a drop to drink

As eluded to in my previous blog, water was the most important resource in relation to the survival and growth of the Ancient Mayan empire, not only in terms of technologies to collect and store water, but it also underpinned the civilizations social structure, social traditions and iconography (Lucero 2002). So it stands to reason that the fall of the Mayans might in fact be somehow connected to the collection and access of clean safe water. Immediately people might jump to the conclusion, ‘oh the Mayans experienced a prolong drought like the Mesopotamians or Ancient Egyptians before them’, at which point I will turn around and say that your wrong. 

In fact, during the period of dramatic demographic, social and ruling decline the Mayans experienced in total up to 5 different drought events between 750AD – 950AD, known to archaeologists as the Terminal Classic Period (Haug et al 2003). What evidence is there to support this period punctuated with severe droughts? 

A Temperature Time Series for the Yutucan Peninsula, the darken bands highlight periods of droughts, which also conincides with periods of hardships for the mayan Civilization
Source: Haug et al 2003

A composite graph showing proxy temperature data graphs
from differen research papers. Note all the findings seem
to indicate a period of worsening conditions between 800
and 1000 AD.
Source: Medina-Elizalde et al 2010

Medina-Elizalde et al (2010) interpreted oxygen isotope data with stalagmites located within the Yutacan Peninsula. The isotope in question, Oxygen 18, is more abundant within the climatic record during periods of increased aridity, and it was noted that in this case, the isotope 18 levels peaked on 8 different occasions between 806 -935, with the longest peak occurring for around 17 years (Medina-Elizalde et al (2010). 

Other climatic records seem to collaborate this idea of multiple arid events, such as the lake core records of the Carico Basin (Hauget al 2003). The amount of titanium within a cross section of a lake core is in part controlled by the amount of precipitation running into the lake, with low precipitation characterised by a reduction in the amount of titanium with in the core (Haug et al 2003). These minima within the core sequence indicate peaks of aridity occurring at: 760, 810, 860 and 900 AD, which falls within the range of (Medina-Elizalde et al 2010) results (Haug et al 2003).

A graph showing the luminesence Readings for stalagmites
in caves within the Bel;ize region. Minima of Luminesence seems to
coincide with increasing Sea Surface temperature and Sulfur
Concentration
Source: Webster et al 2003

To further add to the confusion, this is not the first time the Mayans had faced severe droughts, in fact during the life span of the civilization it experienced several severe drought events, such as the Pre-Classic Abandonment (534-593 AD), which was characterised by a huge reduction in monument building (Webster et al 2000). Even when these arid events occurred, the civilization never truly broke down, as the arid events seem only affect settlements on the Southern Peninsula, in these centres of power, far detached from sources of water (Medina-Elizalde et al 2010). Conversely during these periods the demographics of the Northern peninsula rapidly increased, maybe in part with the water table being a lot shallower than in the south or due to the ITCZ (Medina-Elizalde et al 2010; Haug et al 2003).

This raises many issues for the argument of climate being the main driver behind the Ancient Mayan collapse. It is evident that by itself climate could not have been sufficient, so, as pointed out by Haug et al(2003), other factors must be at play in which climate could have been a lead orchestrator.