During A. D. 300 and 900 Mayans flourished through much of Central America and In Yucatan In Southern Mexico. It is said that there could be many reasons for the disappearance, or the decline of the Ancient Amman Collection. There are many theories about the Amman civilization that some think was due to lack of food, frequent warfare, and over population. The decline started around A. D. 900, the Mays left their stone palaces and abandon their cities. That soon was barred by the Jungle but the so called “lost city” was not rediscovered until modern times.
No one really knows why or how the Mays declined or left their city. However the loss, the Amman culture has survived still to today, and with many people in Guatemala and southern Mexico descendents they speak the Amman languages. Lake Chicanery’s In Mexico, meaning “Little sea” has helped us to understand a bit about the environment In the region where the Mayans lived. David Hooded, Mark Brenner and Jason Curtis took core samples from Lake Callaghan. The data from the core samples Indicated significant meteorological changes during the same time that the Mama’s life took a dramatic turn for the worse.
Lake Chicagoan gets it’s name the “Little Sea” from its saltiness, which is saturated with gypsum. So when the lake water evaporates during dry periods the gypsum settles to the lakes bottom, memorizing that drought in the sediments. Having this record of gypsum helped the Land Use and Environmental Change Institute, determine how far apart these droughts were. The geologists of the university of Florida needed the climate conditions around Lake Chicagoan to help answer their questions about the Mays decline.
The May 2000 expedition to Callaghan. Was the second team that made It to the region. The 1993 samples helped the geologists determine that between 800 and 1000 A. D. Was their driest draught In 7,000 years. Since the 1993 samples, lacked detail in the technology study. With no clue to the earlier research on the draught causes resulted in further investigation. So with their funding from the National Science Foundation Paleolithic Program they returned to Laguna and Lake Chicagoan in 2000 for more samples.
With these samples they found a considerable amount of seeds and organic matter to date using radiocarbon techniques, the new technology and dates helped them to determine more accurately timed chronology of the droughts. With the new core and high-resolution density records they were able to detect the cycles In the record. They found a recurring cycle of the recurring droughts for every 208 years. But since it was close to the 206 year variations in the solar intensity it was civilization all but disappeared. Archaeologists and historians have debated the decline of the Mayans for centuries.
With a primary thought of social upheaval as the root cause. Only recently, have they related it to physical science like the IF researchers who entered the fray. Having the evidence of the fact that the Mayans could precisely measure the movements of the moon, sun and planets; they were unaware of any evidence about the bicentennial cycle that ultimately may have laded a role in their downfall. One of the geologists Hooded, said “It’s ironic that a culture so obsessed with keeping track of celestial movements may have met its demise because of a solar cycle. Another theory came from a Professor Amos Nor from San Francisco who came to the conclusion that the Amman decline could have been from killer earth quakes. Killer earth quakes have been the collapse of many civilizations in history, ranging from Troy to the Mayans of Central America. Scientists who thought that the science and archeology were contrasting seismic and human historical records in an effect eloped to shed light on some of the great mysteries from the past. The end of the Bronze Age where cities of Mycenae, Troy, and Knossos were literally wiped from the map around 1200 B. C.
Is where Nor gathered his theory. Other scientists briefing the GAG took the theory father, suggesting maybe death quakes of the past caused the collapse of these civilizations. Ranging from the Amman Classic Period in central America in the 9th century A. D. And the Harpoon of Indian’s Indus River valley in 1900 B. C. Nor and Parkas, looking at the regions seismic history found numerous catastrophic earth quakes have periodically struck the coastal region. But according to theory more seismic events could have moved enough earth to dam one of the major rivers, leading to floods which covered some of there cities in silt.
Kava’s research shows the both cities of Amman culture in the classic period could have been leveled by one earth quake on the Montague fault zones and chichi-polyphonic. Stanford geophysicist Robert Jehovah is applying the same theory to the Mayans that Nor has . Due to one phase that ended when the cities of Aquarium and Benevolent which were abandoned all off sudden in the late 9th century. With most of the cities of the central lowlands abandoned. Ecological depletion of replants, drought, and warfare are some factors that are usually suggested as reasons for the decline of the Amman civilization.
So in conclusion, whether the Mayans Just up and moved, or if they all died of drought, or perhaps they Just slowly collapsed due to earth quakes; the Amman civilization was very advanced for its time and is constantly being argued about. To be able to truly tell what happened has so far come to a fault as no one is quite sure. Perhaps one day we will know for certain and we shall learn from their experience but until then they are still one of the worlds greatest mysteries to this date.
