Why did the classical maya collapse?

Why is the x-axis backwards

>fluorescence
I do not think it means what you think it means

cunt

That's a question that's fucking flabbergasted generations of scholars.

These don't really explain the totality of collapse when compared to other similar case studies in the Americas. NOT saying these concerns weren't a factor, I'm simply saying "yes, and".

Text? I can but that it prevented resurgence but don't really account for contemporary soil studies ( ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2824285/ ) and some of our sites are weird (as in RAPIDLY vacated) and not in an Ancient Aliums sorta way.

Sea peoples

Well, yes.

Come up an argument next time

The taino?
What did they have to do with it?

Yeah but that is not slash and burn.
Something similar to stick farming was used by Natives in North America.
They simply used fires to control and shape environment. It was pretty effective.
Stick farming is on other hand rather primitive version of it.

Mexicans were aztecs back then, they even called themselves >mexicas
Mayans lived in Yucatan (well, nowadays Mexico) and what is today Guatemala

Also at the time when the Spanish arrived, Moctezuma was about to attack and conquer the (remaining) small Mayan states

>Moctezuma was about to attack and conquer the (remaining) small Mayan states
Thats being a bit presumptuous.
You have no idea if moctezuma would have been able to conquer the mayans.

Why were abos so primitive?

>stick farming

No, Australia, the Yucatan and N.America are radically different environments with radically different cultures.

The Mayans had a full-on agricultural society, N.American Indians had intensive gardening coupled with hunting & gathering, while the Abos were barely cavemen.

Its pretty well established that drought and agricultural expansion wasn't the only reason for the collapse. The Maya became progressively more and more stratified before the drought that helped their downfall.
They were highly centralized and the varied farming practices needed for the Yucatan lowlands didn't lend itself to the standardized agricultural practices that were implemented. As the population increased the slash and burn agriculture didn't replenish fast enough as larger swathes of land were being deforested. This also increased soil erosion turning large portions of the lowland shrub jungle into heavily eroded almost desert-like areas. The drought put even more stress on this system and made agriculture less productive. Before their crises they were importing food from hundreds of miles away and were involved in numerous wars.

except they actually used slash and burn agriculture.
they didn't need to cut the jungle down to burn it
also is was't dense jungle, it was semi-arid shrubland/lowland jungle

>As the population increased the slash and burn agriculture didn't replenish fast enough as larger swathes of land were being deforested. This also increased soil erosion turning large portions of the lowland shrub jungle into heavily eroded almost desert-like areas.
The article here directly challenges this assumption:

It was more deforested but there wasn't a drought in 400AD. I specifically mentioned drought. Not to mention that the Maya population wasn't even close in 400 AD as it was 900 AD and they were importing food, not just from neighboring areas, but from hundreds of miles away, so there was a overpopulation crisis. It does seem that they have good evidence showing the flaws in the line of thought but there was certainly an agricultural crisis. I wonder why they recognize the drought but still show elevated herb pollen levels? Why don't they address that?
Also, this article sorta shows something I've learned doing research on these types of things, there is shockingly little evidence/support given to many hypotheses that are widely accepted. While that article only uses one sample from a single pond near Copan (not enough of a sample to get the pollen from the Yucatan as a whole) they also point out other studies basically do the same. The amount of work done on the Bronze Age collapse was also tiny, however there was a lot better sampling than just one fucking pond in Copan.

What the fuck is with that hat?

I know right? Can you imagine being a tired Spaniard in the jungle and that motherfucker and his friends comes swinging his macuahuitl at your face out of nowhere? Better yet can you imagine being anybody during this period in the New World?

>be Spaniard
>be in some shitty jungle with the most ungodly bugs and animals you've ever seen
>heat is unbearable, your mail and morion aren't helping
>see short, crazy brown people swinging a club with sharp as fuck rocks on them
>get hit with some dart with a funny liquid and ohshitwhatshappeningtome
>see pyramids with mass sacrifices going on, blood literally pouring down the steps

>Be Aztec/Maya
>see tall men with pale skin with shining armor and weapons
>see a fucking horse for the first time in your life
>they have brown, red and blonde hair on their heads and face
>they had loud weapons that leave horrible wounds
>everyone is getting sick and dying, these painful sores start to cover your body
>you're world is literally ending

He's one of their sacred clowns.

They were also in Belize, but this is correct.

True, but the time that the Maya were at their height of power was centuries before. The Aztecs were much more powerful at that time.

Yeah and the mayans were hundreds of miles away from the aztecs core territory while the aztecs still had very powerful enemies much closer to home.
Seems like a recipe for disaster if you ask me.
Especially if you take into account OTL how easy it was for the spanish to create a coalition against the aztcs and how simple it would be for anyone else to take up the role of the spanish.

>tfw no one mentions the water lilies
casual historians get out.

Old Tom Bombadil water-lilies bringing
Comes hopping home again. Can you hear him singing?
Hey! Come merry dol! derry dol! and merry-o!

>Mayans worship water lilies as a symbol of divine power
>strongest being in LOTRs sings about carrying water lilies
What did Tolkien mean by this?

>Divine spirits in Tolkien works are called Maya

No, the Sardinians. If they had the tech level to get off of Sardinia by boat they could obviously get to the Americas as well

>Tolkien confirmed for ancient Mayan immortal

Tom Bombadil! Tom Bombadil! Over Rock and Hill! Tom Bombadil!

It's actually easier to get to Americas by boat than Sardinia as Bering straight isn't that wide.

>Slash and burn become only possible because of steel axes that come with Europeans.
Slash and burn was practised in Europe long before steel

It was practiced lots of places before steel.