Scientists Unravel Mystery Behind The Mayan Civilization's?Disappearance After Millennia

Throughout history, many civilizations have risen and fallen, and the end is typically swift. Whether via invasion, collapse, calamity, or devastation, the number of civilizations that have vanished is amazing.?

The Mayans, famed for terrifying us all with the thought of the world ending in 2012 due to their calendars, are one of those whose fall has piqued our interest. They ended up almost disappearing from history books, with a civilisation of millions of people gradually dwindling away until they were all gone, so what happened??

What happened to the Mayan Civilization??

The Mayans, famed for terrifying us all with the thought of the world ending in 2012 | Image: Unsplash

The urbanized lowlands of the Yucatan peninsula, including Tikal, deteriorated from thriving towns to ruins over a century, but no one knew why.?

From informed ideas about what happened, such as war and pandemics, to others who believe alien invasion or supernatural powers were at work, we believe the answer has now arrived.?

Which studies revealed the reason for their disappearance??

In 2012, researchers confirmed that the collapse of a whole culture might be attributed to a self-created environmental disaster | Image: Unsplash

In his 2005 book Collapse, American geologist, historian, ornithologist, and popular science author Jared Diamond proposed the hypothesis that a lengthy drought was the final straw that caused a brilliant civilization to disintegrate - and it was a calamity of their own creation.?

The theory was tested using archeological and environmental data. In 2012, researchers confirmed that the collapse of a whole culture might be attributed to a self-created environmental disaster.?

How did deforestation factor into for the Mayans??

One study discovered that cutting down too many trees to make place for farming and fuel to boil the lime plaster for their spectacular structures (it took 20 trees to produce just one square meter of cityscape), impaired the land's ability to absorb solar radiation. This means less water evaporated, resulting in fewer clouds and 5-15 percent less rain over a century.?

According to B.L. Turner, the lead author of one of the study, they knew all about how to survive in their environment and still continued the deforestation until their society was ruined. Sound familiar?

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