Classic Maya collapse in the southern lowlands
Between about 800 and 950 the Classic Maya kingdoms of the southern lowlands fell apart: kings stopped raising dated monuments, the royal courts disappeared and cities such as Copán, Tikal and Calakmul were largely abandoned. The last Long Count date, at Toniná, falls in January 909. Drought, warfare between kingdoms and the crisis of divine kingship are among the causes discussed; northern Yucatán, by contrast, flourished.
- Date
- c. 800 – c. 950year known, approximate · duration: ≈ 150 years
- Place
- Southern Maya lowlands (Tikal)approximate locationtoday: Petén, Guatemala · Latin America
- Participants
- Maya civilization, Tikal, Copán, Caracol, Palenque (kingdom of Baakal), Kaanul (Snake) kingdom, Quiriguá
- Threads
- Mesoamerica and South America in the 1st–10th centuries
- Also known as
- Classic Maya collapse; Terminal Classic; Maya collapse; Toniná Monument 101; 10.4.0.0.0; Коллапс классических майя; Терминальная классика; Кризис классической культуры майя; Монумент 101 Тонины
Dated monuments in the Maya lowlands were most numerous around 750; by 800 their number had fallen sharply and by 900 almost none were being raised, as one dynasty after another came to an end. At Palenque no new elite buildings were raised after about 800. At Copán the last known king, Ukit Took’, came to the throne in 822, and his Altar L was left unfinished. Caracol’s last dated monument is of 859; at Tikal Jasaw Chan Kʼawiil II raised Stela 11, the city’s last monument, in 869, and its former satellites Jimbal and Uaxactun set up their last ones in 889. The last Long Count date of all is on Monument 101 at Toniná in Chiapas: the katun ending 10.4.0.0.0 12 Ajaw 3 Woʼ, which corresponds to 13 or 15 January 909 in the Julian calendar (18 or 20 January in the proleptic Gregorian), depending on the correlation constant. By the middle of the 10th century stone buildings were no longer being raised, and most of the people of the southern lowlands had left the old cities.
More than eighty explanations have been put forward. Lake and cave records show severe droughts in the 9th century: Hodell, Curtis and Brenner identified one in the sediments of Lake Chichancanab in 1995, and in 2018 Evans and colleagues estimated that annual rainfall fell by 41–54 per cent. Drought has become the leading explanation, although critics such as David Webster noted that much of the early evidence came from the north of the peninsula, which suffered least; newer records from farther south have strengthened the case. Other scholars stress warfare between kingdoms, deforestation, the breakdown of trade or invasion from the Gulf coast. Many, like David Stuart, prefer to speak of a rupture rather than a collapse: what disappeared was the system of rule by divine kings (ajawlel), not the Maya.
The crisis struck the southern lowlands — the Petén, the Usumacinta basin, Copán — far harder than other regions. In northern Yucatán Uxmal and the rising power of Chichén Itzá flourished, and Maya kingdoms survived in the highlands until the Spanish conquest.
Connections
Related events
- Preclassic Maya collapse: El Mirador is abandonedc. 100 – c. 250 · Latin AmericaAn earlier abandonment of lowland cities, among them El Mirador, had ended the Preclassic period
- Tikal defeats Calakmulbetween 3 August and 5 August 695 · Latin AmericaTikal and Calakmul, the great rivals of the Late Classic, both declined in the 9th century
- Quiriguá captures and beheads the king of Copánbetween 21 April and 29 April 738 · Latin AmericaCopán, whose king Quiriguá had beheaded in 738, saw its last king crowned in 822; his Altar L was never finished
- The murals of Bonampakbetween 790 and 792 · Latin AmericaThe Bonampak murals of about 790–792 were the last known work of a kingdom that disappeared at the turn of the 9th century
- Rise of Chichén Itzá in northern Yucatánc. 800 – between 900 and 1000 · Latin AmericaThe rise of Chichén Itzá roughly coincided with the decline of the southern lowland cities
Same participants
- Tikal is defeated in the ‘star war’ of 562between 27 April and 29 April 562 · Latin Americavia Caracol
- Kʼinich Janaab Pakal rules Palenquebetween 24 July and 26 July 615 – between 26 August and 28 August 683 · Latin Americavia Palenque (kingdom of Baakal)
Same place
- Tikal Stela 29: the earliest known Long Count date in the Maya lowlandsbetween 6 July and 8 July 292 · Latin America
- The Leiden Plaque: a Maya jade records a royal accession in 320between 14 September and 16 September 320 · Latin America
- Siyaj Kʼakʼ “arrives” at Tikal: Teotihuacan intervenes in the Maya lowlandsbetween 13 January and 15 January 378 · Latin America
Adjacent events in the thread
- Tiwanaku culture at its height by Lake Titicacac. 600 – c. 1000 · Latin America
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Other regions, within a year of this event
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Southeast Asia and Oceania
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North America
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Classic Maya collapse
- Wikipedia (English): Toniná
- Wikipedia (English): Copán
- Wikipedia (English): Tikal
- Wikipedia (Russian): Майя (цивилизация)
- Wikipedia (Russian): Тонина
- Demarest A. A., Rice P. M., Rice D. S. (eds.) The Terminal Classic in the Maya Lowlands: Collapse, Transition, and Transformation. — Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2004.
- Martin S., Grube N. Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens: Deciphering the Dynasties of the Ancient Maya. — 2nd ed. — London: Thames & Hudson, 2008.
- Hodell D. A., Curtis J. H., Brenner M. Possible role of climate in the collapse of Classic Maya civilization // Nature. — 1995. — Vol. 375. — P. 391–394.
- Evans N. P., Bauska T. K., Gázquez-Sánchez F., Brenner M., Curtis J. H., Hodell D. A. Quantification of drought during the collapse of the classic Maya civilization // Science. — 2018. — Vol. 361, № 6401. — P. 498–501.
- Wikidata: Q2736642