The Northern Maya Collapse and Its Aftermath

Abstract

Recent adjustments to the chronology of the northern Maya Lowlands have brought about a closer alignment of the decline of Terminal Classic/Early Postclassic Yucatecan polities with the collapse of the southern Maya states. The collapse of the entire Classic-period societal structure throughout the lowlands can now be compressed into a 200- or 250-year period and seen as a progressive chain of events that began in the south and culminated with the fall of Chichen Itza in the eleventh century. This new reconstruction has led us to propose eliminating the Early Postclassic period, the existence of which was based largely on a purportedly late occupation of Chichen Itza. We assign this final occupation of the Itza capital to the Terminal Classic period, which ended sometime in the eleventh century in the northern Maya Lowlands.

Kax and kol: Collapse and resilience in lowland Maya civilization

“…On the adjacent low-lying plains, where groundwater is often easily accessible but soils are often poor, the Terminal Preclassic is also not well-understood (72). Although there was certainly a pattern of widespread site abandonment, the region as a whole remained largely populated.…”

Climate and cultural history of the Northeastern Yucatan Peninsula, Quintana Roo, Mexico

“…Asterisks denote the time of drought events inferred from the Cariaco Basin (Haug et al 2003 . With recent archaeological advances in the chronology of the northern Maya lowlands, the 'collapse' is now viewed as a progressive chain of events that began in the south in the late eighth century A.D. and culminated with the fall of Chichén-Itzá in the eleventh century A.D. (Andrews et al 2003).…”

Maya collapse cycles

“…Even in the Petén, smaller populations lingered at aquatic hubs such as the lakes region to the south of Tikal until long after Spanish arrival (12). The field of Mesoamerican archaeology is still processing recent chronological information that reveals that the great northern polity of Chichen Itza arose by the eighth century A.D. and had its apogee during the ninth and tenth centuries A.D., precisely when the southern metropolises fell (13). The rise of a northern empire coincidental with the fall of the southern Maya heartland attests to the importance of political and economic factors.…”

“…However, Chichen Itza and its Puuc region peers fell from power by the 11th century A.D., when the full process of Terminal Classic Maya collapse may have ultimately been realized (13). Environmental factors can be identified for this interval as well (7), and the Maya area was without a prominent political capital until the middle of the 12th century when Mayapan rose to fill in the void.…”