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Human japanese pyramid collapse4/19/2023 ![]() The magnitude and duration of the climate impacts in the northern Yucatán Peninsula (Mayapan) may have transcended established mechanisms to overcome modest inter-annual rainfall fluctuations 23, given the limitations of cumbersome transport and the long-term storage of maize, the primary staple grain 2, 24. These subsistence and related economic foundations are well-known from the archeological record and from memories of descendant peoples in early Colonial period European accounts 12. We focus on the latter, specifically the initiation and consequences of societal conflicts that coincided with climate impacts on the agrarian food base and regional political economy. ![]() ![]() Such effects in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica may have included migration, demographic decline, geographic shifts in centers of political power, and warfare. Archeological and historical records are well-suited for examining past societal effects of climate crises over long-term cycles. Furthermore, current and future anthropogenic influences are projected to amplify the severity of extreme events in the water cycle and lead to more intense and prolonged droughts than those that impacted agricultural productivity in the recent past 21, 22. ![]() Long-term climate reconstructions reveal that some climate variations in the past were of significantly greater magnitude than those experienced in the last 100 years. We examine climate stresses to Mayapan’s local and regional subsistence and economic systems, and the behaviors of human actors that included political violence within these dynamic social and political transformations.Ĭlimate assessment reports of the intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) evaluate risk and model vulnerability during the last century at regional and global scales 20. CE preserved complex organizational institutions and fostered a resilient, peninsular-wide market economy observed at European contact in the early 16 th century CE. A period of political balkanization after 1450 cal. This occurred in the context of drought, civil conflict, and the collapse of the regional state. We report a singular case study of the complexities of the natural and social systems at the Postclassic Maya capital of Mayapan (1200–1450 calendar year CE) throughout its history and its ultimate demise. Longer-term climatic, archeological, and historical records can contribute to these contemporary debates, but demand a rigorous transdisciplinary framework that bridges natural and social systems 8, 18. The influence of climate change on civil conflict in the last century has also been the focus of compelling statistical studies 11, 12, and an important nexus for debate, revealing the importance of human agency and unexpected, non-linear relationships between climate and human behavior 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. Nature Communications volume 13, Article number: 3911 ( 2022)Īrcheological and historical studies have proposed linkages among global climate change, societal instability, violent conflict, and sociopolitical collapse 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, but also instances of resilience, transformation and sustainability in the face of climate pressures 8, 9, 10. Drought-Induced Civil Conflict Among the Ancient Maya
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