Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 2016
Paleoclimatologists have discovered abundant evidence that droughts coincided with collapse of th... more Paleoclimatologists have discovered abundant evidence that droughts coincided with collapse of the Lowland Classic Maya civilization, and some argue that climate change contributed to societal disintegration. Many archaeologists, however, maintain that drought cannot explain the timing or complex nature of societal changes at the end of the Classic Period, between the eighth and eleventh centuries ce. This review presents a compilation of climate proxy data indicating that droughts in the ninth to eleventh century were the most severe and frequent in Maya prehistory. Comparison with recent archaeological evidence, however, indicates an earlier beginning for complex economic and political processes that led to the disintegration of states in the southern region of the Maya lowlands that precedes major droughts. Nonetheless, drought clearly contributed to the unusual severity of the Classic Maya collapse, and helped to inhibit the type of recovery seen in earlier periods of Maya prehi...
Page 1. Ancient Maya The Rise and Fall of a Rainforest Civilization In this new archaeological st... more Page 1. Ancient Maya The Rise and Fall of a Rainforest Civilization In this new archaeological study, Arthur Demarest brings the lost pre-Columbian civilization of Maya to life. ... Page 3. AncientMaya The Rise and Fall of a Rainforest Civilization Arthur Demarest ...
Catastrophism returns as a theoretical school not only in this provocative text by Richardson Gil... more Catastrophism returns as a theoretical school not only in this provocative text by Richardson Gill, but also in a number of recent related publications in archaeology, paleoecology, and paleoclimatology by Joel Gunn, David Hoddel, Jason Curtis, Mark Brenner, William Folan, and others. Most of these studies have been presented in scholarly journals, theses, and in a forthcoming edited volume. Summaries of their conclusions have also appeared in more general publications, including popular magazines. The Great Maya Droughts is the most extensive nonspecialist publication of these hypotheses to date. As such it highlights both the potential and the dangers of this climatological approach to the long-standing issue of the causes of the decline of civilization.
... Harrison 1993; Lucero 1999; Lucero and Fash 2006; Scarborough 1993), and architecture or bui... more ... Harrison 1993; Lucero 1999; Lucero and Fash 2006; Scarborough 1993), and architecture or built environments (Christie 2003; Christie and Sarro ... areas of heavy highland-lowland or Classic period Maya-periphery inter-actions like the far southwestern Peten (Barrientos et al ...
PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE The Pitt Building, Trumpington St... more PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY ...
PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE The Pitt Building, Trumpington St... more PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY ...
... A recent, exhaustive study of south-east Mesoamerican post-Olmec sculpture by Lee Parsons (19... more ... A recent, exhaustive study of south-east Mesoamerican post-Olmec sculpture by Lee Parsons (1979, personal communication 1980) has ... We also have benefited from suggestions and data provided by Robert Sharer, Edwin Shook, Howard Ernest, John Graham, and Lee ...
... For 50 years (see Lothrop [1927] and Vaillant [1930] ) Mesoamerican ar-chaeologists have seen... more ... For 50 years (see Lothrop [1927] and Vaillant [1930] ) Mesoamerican ar-chaeologists have seen Usulutan as an indicator ... from western El Salvador, we have proposed answers to the questions of the geographical origin and chronology of development of Usulutan ...
... Kansas City: Westport Publish-ers ... El Chayal became the dominant sup-plier of obsidian to ... more ... Kansas City: Westport Publish-ers ... El Chayal became the dominant sup-plier of obsidian to the Maya Lowlands during the Late Preclassic ... 1979) have suggested, the emergence of the Kamin-aljuyu chiefdom in the highlands, which came to control the El Chayal source dur-ing ...
Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 2016
Paleoclimatologists have discovered abundant evidence that droughts coincided with collapse of th... more Paleoclimatologists have discovered abundant evidence that droughts coincided with collapse of the Lowland Classic Maya civilization, and some argue that climate change contributed to societal disintegration. Many archaeologists, however, maintain that drought cannot explain the timing or complex nature of societal changes at the end of the Classic Period, between the eighth and eleventh centuries ce. This review presents a compilation of climate proxy data indicating that droughts in the ninth to eleventh century were the most severe and frequent in Maya prehistory. Comparison with recent archaeological evidence, however, indicates an earlier beginning for complex economic and political processes that led to the disintegration of states in the southern region of the Maya lowlands that precedes major droughts. Nonetheless, drought clearly contributed to the unusual severity of the Classic Maya collapse, and helped to inhibit the type of recovery seen in earlier periods of Maya prehi...
Page 1. Ancient Maya The Rise and Fall of a Rainforest Civilization In this new archaeological st... more Page 1. Ancient Maya The Rise and Fall of a Rainforest Civilization In this new archaeological study, Arthur Demarest brings the lost pre-Columbian civilization of Maya to life. ... Page 3. AncientMaya The Rise and Fall of a Rainforest Civilization Arthur Demarest ...
Catastrophism returns as a theoretical school not only in this provocative text by Richardson Gil... more Catastrophism returns as a theoretical school not only in this provocative text by Richardson Gill, but also in a number of recent related publications in archaeology, paleoecology, and paleoclimatology by Joel Gunn, David Hoddel, Jason Curtis, Mark Brenner, William Folan, and others. Most of these studies have been presented in scholarly journals, theses, and in a forthcoming edited volume. Summaries of their conclusions have also appeared in more general publications, including popular magazines. The Great Maya Droughts is the most extensive nonspecialist publication of these hypotheses to date. As such it highlights both the potential and the dangers of this climatological approach to the long-standing issue of the causes of the decline of civilization.
... Harrison 1993; Lucero 1999; Lucero and Fash 2006; Scarborough 1993), and architecture or bui... more ... Harrison 1993; Lucero 1999; Lucero and Fash 2006; Scarborough 1993), and architecture or built environments (Christie 2003; Christie and Sarro ... areas of heavy highland-lowland or Classic period Maya-periphery inter-actions like the far southwestern Peten (Barrientos et al ...
PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE The Pitt Building, Trumpington St... more PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY ...
PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE The Pitt Building, Trumpington St... more PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY ...
... A recent, exhaustive study of south-east Mesoamerican post-Olmec sculpture by Lee Parsons (19... more ... A recent, exhaustive study of south-east Mesoamerican post-Olmec sculpture by Lee Parsons (1979, personal communication 1980) has ... We also have benefited from suggestions and data provided by Robert Sharer, Edwin Shook, Howard Ernest, John Graham, and Lee ...
... For 50 years (see Lothrop [1927] and Vaillant [1930] ) Mesoamerican ar-chaeologists have seen... more ... For 50 years (see Lothrop [1927] and Vaillant [1930] ) Mesoamerican ar-chaeologists have seen Usulutan as an indicator ... from western El Salvador, we have proposed answers to the questions of the geographical origin and chronology of development of Usulutan ...
... Kansas City: Westport Publish-ers ... El Chayal became the dominant sup-plier of obsidian to ... more ... Kansas City: Westport Publish-ers ... El Chayal became the dominant sup-plier of obsidian to the Maya Lowlands during the Late Preclassic ... 1979) have suggested, the emergence of the Kamin-aljuyu chiefdom in the highlands, which came to control the El Chayal source dur-ing ...
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