It is wide retrieve that the Maya citizenry were comparatively peaceful compare to other refinement such as the Aztecs , and that the war that lead to their collapse only kick in when climate change - related drouth thin food supplies and step up tensions existing in the land .
Warfare did exist , but it was think ritualistic and on a small musical scale – raids to snatch a high - profile prisoner for ransom money , forfeit or to keep rival dynasties in demarcation , for case – rather than careful decimation .
A new study put out inNature Human Behaviour , however , has revealed grounds that total war among the Maya occur more often and much earlier than thought . The grounds suggests that they used deliberate “ scorch - earthly concern ” military campaigns – designed to demolish croplands and other vital resources – even during the acme of Maya successfulness and sophistication .
" These data really challenge one of the predominant theories of the collapse of the Maya , " said confidential information author David Wahl , of UC Berkeley and the USGS , in astatement . " The findings overturn this idea that war really got acute only very latterly in the biz . "
During the civilisation ’s Classic period , which ran from 250 to 950 CE , the Maya expand . This period is considered the meridian of Maya urbanization and construction , where cities that house up to 120,000 people sprang up , and city - states and kingdoms flourish .
At its height , the conglomerate stretched from the Yucatan peninsula of southerly Mexico to the Sierra Madre stack , taking in Guatemala , Belize , and western Honduras and El Salvador . During the ninth and 10thcenturies CE , however , the empire started to collapse . Known as the Terminal Classic period , cities were abandon , kingdoms decline , and big swathes of the cardinal Maya regions became empty .
We know that grounds of droughts severely bear on agriculture , reducing food supply and exacerbating difference , leading to the violent warfare that at least contributed to the socio - economic flop of the civilisation . Before then , it was think , large - scale violence and civilian casualty were fairly rare .
But an inch - thick-skulled level of fusain retrieve in deposit at the bottom of a lake in northerly Guatemala suggests otherwise .
The charcoal layer has been date to 690 - 700 CE and there is no evidence of drouth and instinctive fire during this time register in the lake ’s sediment , Wahlsaid .
However , the layer co-occur with the dated evidence of burning , intentional hurt and destruction revealed in the remains of the nearby ancient city of Witzna that was being excavated for the first prison term by another radical of researchers . A city seal was break that revealed Witzna was once the ancient Maya urban center of Bahlam Jol .
The ancient Maya used an intricate hieroglyphical book , carve on monuments or painted on clayware , and is the only Mesoamerican writing arrangement that has been substantially decrypt . Public Domain
A acknowledgment search for this name discombobulate up the discovery of a war statement on Harlan Fisk Stone stela found in the nearby rival urban center of Naranjo describing the burn movement of Bahlam Jol .
The statement translates as : " .. 3 Ben , 16 Kasew ( ' Sek ' ) , Bahlam Jol ' burned ' for the 2d time . " The date on the Mayan calendar is May 21 , 697 , matching the date of the wood coal level .
To the researchers ' surprise , at least three other cities were proudly describe as " burned " on the Naranjo repository , matching up with archaeological records of large - scale leaf fire , followed by a dramatic declination in human activity in the orbit , bespeak significant negative impacts on the local populations . This , they concluded , indicate that magnanimous - scale war with the design to extinguish civilian life did n’t only fall out during the Terminal Classic full stop , but materialise at least 100 years originally than idea .
“ Burning cities down appears to have been a common tactic much earlier than previously thought , ” Wahl toldNational Geographic , “ so I think the idea that the emergence of fierce war towards the end caused the Maya ’s dying really needs afterthought . ”
