The Maya Collapse: Causes and Consequences Explained

[00:00:00]at the beginning of the 9th century at the end  of the classic period the Maya World entered a period of profound disruption and crisis  cities across the Maya world were abandoned and those long traditions of Royal kingship and  elite culture ended. demographics would change dramatically as city populations declined  sharply and by 1,000 CE the Maya world and mesoamerica for that matter, would be changed  forever. this event is typically referred to as the Maya collapse and sensationalized media  typically portrays this as a cataclysmic event that did the Maya In and snuffed Out The Shining  Light of Maya civilization. As we'll see in this episode, the truth is far more complex the last  several decades of archaeology have produced a very nuanced picture so most archaeologists  today believe that the collapse was brought on by many factors in different places. that puts  us in a difficult spot on one hand we want to have a comprehensive overview of the collapse  but on the other hand we don't want to reduce a very complex topic to generalizations, striking  that balance has made this video very challenging and it's why it took over a year to complete.  that said I am thrilled to discuss this topic and I hope that you are thrilled to watch it!  in this episode we are going to look at the changes that were occurring in the Maya World  during the 9th century how these precipitated the collapse and how those changes played  out and influenced the postclassic order to come what we'll see is that this was not a  catastrophic cultural Extinction but an incredible transformation of Maya culture we got a lot to  cover, so, so much to cover so let's get started!

[00:02:04]before we start a few housekeeping items first I  want to note that this is technically part of a larger series of the history of the Maya classic  period if you haven't seen the earlier episodes I'd recommend giving those a watch before you  continue because we are going to be referencing things from those episodes I've even made a lovely  little playlist that you can use don't worry I'll still be here when you get back but if you like to  live dangerously I can't stop you from continuing second a quick word about sources when  we've discussed the classic Maya up to this point we've been blessed with a large body  of inscriptions across the Mya lowlands which have been invaluable in piecing people places  and events together after 800 CE those sources really dropped off both in number and quality so  we need to keep in mind that we are working with a comparatively poultry record what's even more  frustrating is that the records after 800 CE never discuss the decline itself the there were no Maya  Kings or queens that eulogized the disintegration of their own dynasties for posterity shocking  I know instead they commemorated diminishing achievements with increasingly crude and sparse  monuments these are still very useful but it forces us to rely more and more on archaeology and  this is going to produce a more vague picture of the time period than we've been accustomed to  thankfully there is a lot of archaeology that has been done in the Maya area so we do have a  lot of archaeological data to draw off from so much archaeological data that the Maya collapse  is practically an academic cottage industry among mayanists and archaeologists third some people may  take issue with the term collapse I realize that the term is pretty loaded and it's often used in  Sensational literature but we are not using it to refer to some cultural Extinction event as I said  earlier a good definition comes from archaeologist and Anthropologist Arthur demerest and we quote  in the case of the classic Maya the term collapse really refers to The Disappearance between AD 750  and 1050 of the specific system of complex States and alliances in the Maya lowlands of Eastern  mesoamerica taking with it the spectacular art architecture monuments and writing that were  part of classic period political ideology that's the important thing to stress this was the end  of an elite tradition characterized by Royal culture ceremony writing and complex citystate  politics in many cases some people continued living in the cities but in those cases they just  weren't erecting monuments when we think of the Maya population as a whole rather than just  the elites it's better to think of this as a demographic decline in reorganization if we look  at it that way the Maya collapse doesn't seem as exotic as clickbait would have you think cultures  societies and Empires rise and fall their peoples divide regroup and often reintegrate down the road  we see this all over the world in Egypt, China, mesopotamia and in the Americas too all righty let's  look at the collapse the first elements of the collapse can be seen at the opening of the  9th century and continuing through the next 150 years in the 20th century it was common for  Scholars to illustrate the collapse as a long steady and drawn out decline while it's true that  the collapse played out over a long period most archaeologists actually see it as a fairly sudden  event and to get a good grasp of this we're going to look at what was happening in the Century by  looking at the available historical record from major Maya sites by the way this period is often  called the terminal classic or epic classic in literature so you might see that used one way to  illustrate the decline is to look at this lovely chart adapted from one in Simon Martin's recent  book that shows the number of monuments with dated inscriptions being erected across the Maya  area during the 9th century and as you can plainly see there's a steady decline until we get silence  now we do need to be careful here just because the site stopped erecting monuments doesn't mean that  the site was completely abandoned as I mentioned earlier some people continued to inhabit some of  these sites it's just that no nobility or royalty were commissioning classic style monuments we'll  discuss that more in a bit that said this is still a useful indicator of the political collapse  of the city but let's get back to the Chart as revealing as it is Martin notes that it's actually  a bit deceptive for a few reasons first many of the sites presented here were erecting monuments  for the first time and if you look at just the centers that had erected monuments in the previous  Century that decline is even sharper yikes second many of The Monuments at those later dates are  of much different quality and do not represent a continuation of the past what do I mean by  this many of these sites appear to have ceased continuous Monument production between 810 and  820 CE even if these sites did not make monuments after that de decade it's clear that this is  not a continuation of that classic Monumental tradition but rather an attempt to revive it to  illustrate this let's look at the biggest fish in the Classical period pond tial on that chart  Tikal. last date is 869 CE which might suggest that the City Elite held out for quite a long time in  the 9th century a closer look paints a different picture during the 8th Century the city was  consistently building huge temples and erecting Stelae to commemorate important milestones in  810 a stelae went up to commemorate the 19th Katun and Temple 3 was dedicated by the ruler Dark Sun  after that building activity completely ceased and no Monument went up for nearly 60 years in  previous episodes we saw hiatuses for other cities but this was almost always because the city had  been conquered or subjugated by another city by this point Tikal had roared back and defeated its  enemies it was a winner and as far as we can tell it was not under the control of another city so  this Hiatus came out of nowhere it's likely that this represents a collapse of Royal Authority the  next Monument that went up in Tikal was the one we just mentioned in 869 by Jasaw Chan Kʼawiil II to commemorate the second katun of the new baktun it would be the city's last a final attempt  to revive Royal Authority it's safe to say that royal power had largely Fallen apart during the  past 60 years and was only Hanging On by a thread in fact many sites exhibit a similar pattern  the picture that emerges is that after 810 Royal Authority and activity noticeably contracted in  some cases for good in instances like Tikal where there's later construction it tends to be much  smaller limited and more crude than earlier work by 810 Palenque, Yaxchilan, Piedras Negras, Quiriguá and  many smaller sites had all erected their final known monuments Copán erected its last crude and  unfinished monument in 822 Calakmul and Tonina were entering prolonged hiatuses and would only  erect a few monuments after 810 what makes this all the more odd is that the 10th Baktun was  about to start and very few cities commemorated this important event that would be like the  United States erecting no monuments hosting no celebrations or issuing no commemorative coins  in 2076 to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the country not a Perfect Analogy I know but you get  the idea this sudden drop off in activity after 810 suggests that something was happening or had  happened in the lowlands around that year Simon Martin calls this hypothetical event the early 9th  century crisis while we'd all love to know more the details are elusive whatever this event was  it had profound consequences that played out over the next Century or two side note here I know I  keep harping on this but I want to iterate that we shouldn't characterize these abandonments as some  kind of Maya Extinction event with high casualties for some reason in popular culture people view  the collapse as an end to the Maya as far as archaeology can tell the Maya weren't dying out at  these sites archaeologists do not see Mass Graves or anything that would indicate that people were  dying at an increased rate in fact only in some places do we see starvation or a violent demise  for sections of the population and we'll discuss those in instances later but by and large the  Maya people survived the collapse just fine in fact their descendants are still chugging along  speaking their languages and living in the lands of their ancestors when the Spanish encountered  them centuries later they were thriving so what happened to the large populations in the lowlands? remember the largest cities had populations in the tens of thousands and a few even topped  100,000 they could have either stayed and tried to continue living in their ancestral lands or or  emigrate and seek out new futures elsewhere let's look at those who stayed although this was the  less common option it's one that is well attested in the archaeological record many large sites  continue to be inhabited by small populations sites like Palenque, Piedras Negras, Yaxchilan, Tonina  and possibly Copán all had occupations after the collapse albeit with much smaller populations  these sites produce terminal and postclassic pottery showing that people continued to live  there after the royalty vanished this is also true for smaller subordinate cities as well  often when you see these stubborn residents mentioned in literature they're usually referred  to as squatters which is a bit of an unfair term in my opinion they were simply using buildings  and spaces that were unused just like anyone else would do next let's take a look at those who  sought their Futures in new areas fortunately for them there were several options about where to go  as it turned out the collapse didn't hit everyone across the Maya area some areas actually did quite  well even some cities in the lowlands managed to continue classic traditions for a time it's not  known how these migrants affected the places they immigrated to they may have put considerable  strain on the resources available and contributed to the pattern of collapse across the Maya area  on that note let's look at the other places that held out and bucked that terminal classic Trend  a lot of these sites still failed to survive the 9th century but to get a full picture of the collapse  we need to discuss their history and experiences let's start close to home in the lowlands a good  example is the large site of Caracol when we last mentioned Caracol it had been humiliated in a  Star War by Naranjo in 680 and it went silent for the next Century Caracol reemerged from this  Hiatus under the reign of K'inich Joy K'awiil in 799 and he inaugurated a new building program and  his successor K'inich Toob'il Yoaat led successful Wars against neighboring ucanal and Bital Caracol was  also one of the few cities to commemorate the arrival of the 10th baktun however as impressive  as this Renaissance was Caracol could not escape the storm the last monument at Caracol dates to  859 and it must be a pretty impressive one because for the life of me I could not find a picture  of it to show you good effort Caracol but alas other sites like Xunantunich, Ucanal, Xultun and Nakum  also had fluorescences in the terminal classic these centers were erecting large buildings and  monuments and for a while stood in stark contrast to the decline of the lowlands it's likely  that they were absorbing populations from other collapsing cities however their classic Resurgence  was finished by the end of the 9th century and like their neighbors they were also abandoned  my favorite exception to this trend however is a site that has merited almost no attention until  now Seibal. Seibals historical trajectory is really bizarre and it could honestly be its own episode  but today we're going to have to condense it the city was originally founded in the middle of the  preclassic and it actually has the noteworthy distinction of having one of the first E groups in  the Maya area unfortunately it fell into a sharp decline in the early classic period and became a  vassel to Dos Pilas however it unexpectedly Rose back from obscurity in the late classic thanks  to the collapse of Dos Pilas an important Stelae at the site records the arrival of Aj B'olon Hab'tal to  refound the Dynasty in March 8:30 the day before the 10th Baktun the man knew how to start the  new Baktun on a high note just a quick word he also has a different name Wat'ul Chatel and  this appears in a lot of the literature so watch out. Aj B'olon Hab'tal originally came from the city of  Ucanal, another city that was enjoying a comeback as well once in Saibal he set about crafting a regime  in the classic style a monument dated to 849 that celebrated the end of the Katun notes that the  kings of Tikal cALKMUL and motul de San Jose all witnessed the event that guest list really shows  how high Seibal had ascended and how low Tikal and Calakmul had declined I should note that there's some  doubt if these rulers were legitimate or grandly titled Pretenders to fragmented kingdoms we'll  discuss this more later but smaller sites were actually started to use emblem glyphs of formerly  great dynasties so it's possible that these Kings weren't actually from Tikal or Calakmul although Seibal  never reached the size of the great classic cities it was still vibrant and it really contrasts with  the sad attempts of cities like Calakmul and Tikal to reassert their power the 17 Stelae it erected  in the 9th century were the most produced by any City in that Century unfortunately Seibal could  not escape the collapse despite its impressive rise it fizzled out in the early 10th Century  another exceptional area we have to discuss is the northern Yucatan this area proved very resilient  in the early 9th century in fact it was their time to shine Puuc Chenes and Rio Bec Styles have  their origins in this time period the Puuc region in particular was one of the final holdouts  of the classic tradition and it shows strong influence from the south at sites like Uxmal Sayil  and Kabáh not only do we see inscriptions and the Art of Maya kingship but also the blossoming and  pioneering of a new ornate style of architecture called the Puuc style. this style is characterized  by very ornate decoration with masks and geometric patterns and fine Stone veners Uxmal was believed  to be the greatest of these Puuc cities based on its size but the Heyday couldn't last forever and  like their southern Brethren the Puuc area also saw a decline in the late 9th century the last  monument at Uxmal was a erected in 907 further North during this time Ek' Balam reached its peak  supplanting Coba as the regional capital of the north but this was short-lived and Ek' Balam's  final inscription is dated at 841 the site continued past the 9th century and into the post  classic but with only a fraction of its peak population the new Northern Center of power was a  little place called Chichen Itza you've probably heard of it now Chichen Itza survived long into the post  classic but we aren't going to discuss it here because chichen Itza did not continue the classic Maya  Traditions that we've discussed up to now instead a new tradition took hold of Chichen itza that we are  not going to get into today all you need to know is images like this of Chichen Itza do not represent  classic Maya culture that's all post classic culture and a topic for another video while we're  in the north I want to bring up a little monument that really drives home how classic culture was  drying up at the site of Yaxhom in the northern Yucatan there's a very poyant homage to the fading  classic culture take a look at this Stelae here now to most viewers this looks like an ordinary Stelae  but to the four or five people in the audience who really know their Maya glyphs they are probably  raising their eyebrows at this inscription they're expecting a date inscription based on this  introductory glyph at the top and yet there's nothing below I mean yes there are glyphs but they  don't say anything it's the equivalent of alphabet soup or I mean glyph soup whatever what does this  mean? this shows us that whoever commissioned this Stelae clearly appreciated the Aesthetics of a good  inscription but lacked the means or expertise to see it through properly and settled on an elgible  text it's ironic that this silent Monument can say so much about the end of the classic period now  I don't want to suggest that Maya writing was dying out it survived and continued to be used by  Maya Elites for centuries in fact the surviving Maya Codicies all date to this time period or later  those scribes were still scribing but they weren't carving Royal monuments this little guy represents  a crude perhaps desperate attempt to recapture a glorious past that by then was quickly Fading Into  the background but back to our survey one part of the north that did very well during the 9th  century and largely survived was Northern Belize while this area isn't known for any particularly  huge sites and was pretty peripheral during the classic period it thrived during the collapse  with many sites lasting long into the post classic a good example is the large site of Lamanai which  thrived during the classic and continued to thrive into the post classic heck it was still going  strong when the Spanish arrived now Northern Belize wasn't all rainbows and unicorns there  were still abandonments Northern sites like Altun Ha and K'achob were abandoned in the 9th century  and a few sites like Colha and Nohmul have evidence of violence followed by a shift in ceramic styles  that were likely the result of conquest by people in the Yucatan you might be wondering why this  area was so much less affected but we'll get into that later got to eat your dinner before desert  kids okay now that we have a pretty good grasp of the collapse timeline let's take a closer look  at the changes that were happening on the ground during the late 8th and early 9th centuries  at different sites one of the biggest changes facing the Maya were changes to their environment  some of this change was brought about by the Maya themselves while some was natural I imagine  that many of you associate the collapse with environmental catastrophe it certainly gets a lot  of attention in scientific and popular media and not without reason there is evidence that the  Maya were putting a dangerous amount of stress on their environment in certain areas that said  in my humble opinion this does get overhyped and sensationalized a bit you've probably heard  the narrative that the Maya shortsightedly overexploited the forests and soil around their  cities with destructive slash and burn agriculture which exhausted the soil this would have led to  smaller harvests malnutrition and higher infant mortality which eventually resulted in the  collapse of the Cities. Jared Diamond in his best-selling book collapse how societies choose  to fail or succeed makes such a case about the classic Maya in such tellings the Maya becomes  something of a cautionary tale about the wreckless exploitation of the environment one that resonates  very well in our own time of environmental crisis so let's take a look at the evidence so that we  can appreciate the foundation of these claims at Tikal there's a change in material used in  the lentils of buildings previously the Maya Architects and Builders at Tikal had relied on wood  from the chicle tree the wood from this tree is easy to carve and cut when it's fresh and it's  very durable and rot resistant qualities that make it highly sought out after in the tropical forests  even to this day prior to 741 all temples in Tikal used this chicle wood but after that date it  stopped appearing in construction for about 70 years instead Builders were using Logwood trees  an inferior wood that was much more difficult to carve when chicle tree did reappear in construction  around 810 the beams were much thinner than they had been previously the botanists that first  documented this believed that this was because the tall Monsoon forests near Tikal were felled  around 740 and henceforth chicle had to be cultivated in protective Groves so that it  could be harvested later or that they were beginning to import it perhaps the most jarring  evidence comes from the city of Copán the Copán valley was a rich and fertile area that allowed  Copán to Blossom during the classic period even before the 9th century however the valley was  becoming stripped of resources pollen analysis has shown that the valley floor was devoid of tree  cover and even the mountain sides were beginning to be deforested I mentioned this in the previous  episode but it's worth repeating here this wood shortage coincides with a decline in Stucco  decoration stucco production requires a lot of firewood to burn Limestone and without abundant  wood sculptors and artists at Copán began to carve Stone more intricately than ever relying Less  on stucco to provide the finishing touches this deforestation had more dire consequences as well  this could have affected the microclimate of the valley and reduced rainfall when rainfall did come  it would have eroded the soil on the hill sides by the early 9th century the exploitation of the  valley appears to have reached a critical point 8th Century burials show that malnourishment and  infant mortality were increasing so it shouldn't be a surprise that by the 9th century the valley  was becoming depopulated as the population began to disperse the last monuments of Copán paint a  pretty pathetic picture the last Copán king we have any records of Ukit Took only commissioned  one Monument to celebrate his accession in February of 822 in very poetic fashion the  monument was never finished Ukit Took was unable to muster the labor to complete a simple Monument  as the kingdom went out with a whimper however I do want to stress that this doesn't appear to  have been the case everywhere and in fact some Scholars have really pushed back on this narrative  and Anabel Ford an expert on Maya Agro forestry has criticized some of this evidence on deforestation  by stressing the sophistication of Maya land use those who watched the first episode we did about  the Maya classic period will recall that the Maya were very conscious of the benefits that the  forests offered those trees provided fruits fibers latexes and woods and the Maya took steps  to make sure that productive trees were protected when they cleared land for agriculture when the  Maya cleared their maize fields, or Milpas they eventually allowed Old Fields to be reclaimed  by Forest this new growth allowed the soil to recover and protected it from erosion Ford argues  that those pollen analyses don't necessarily show deforestation but rather show the mixed use  of the land by the Milpa cycle and that this pollen record continues up until Spanish contact  there may have been a lot more going on than we appreciate Ford's research is really interesting  and if you're interested in Maya Agriculture and land Land Management I highly recommend looking up  her work another important ecological strain with something completely outside the control of the  Maya drought this has really occupied scientists for the last few decades and there's been a lot  of research about the ancient climate of the Maya area a few of you in the audience might be  saying drought but ancient Americas the Yucatan is covered by a lush tropical rainforce that is  always wet rainy and humid How could a drought happen been there? as it turns out appearances  can be deceiving first only the lowlands of the Yucatan contain tropical rainforests the northern  part is tropical Savannah which is much more Arid in an area where a lot of people depend on rain  to water their crops a drought would be a big deal now remember what I said about Water Management in  the episode on the classic Maya culture many Maya cities constructed enormous reservoirs to capture  rainwater during the rainy season and to hold it in the dry season so that people in the cities  could have clean drinking water keeping these in clean working order was extremely important to the  success of these cities as we discussed in that episode the Maya had several brilliant methods for  ensuring water quality but it doesn't mean that these were safe from failure droughts put huge  strains on this infrastructure and unfortunately for the mayia there was a bad drought on the  horizon. environmental scientists have assembled a very impressive array of climate data from Ice  cores Lake cores sea salinity records stalagmite rings and so on so we have good data at our  disposal these have shown that several drought episodes hit the Maya area repeatedly over its  history the one that we care about today appears to have struck the Yucatan around 800 CE before  abating in the middle of the 9th century and then striking again intensely in the early 10th Century  now this wasn't completely new. droughts had hit the area before but this one was very rough. Not  only would this have been ruinous for people relying on rain for their agriculture but it also  meant that what limited water there was could be more easily contaminated the deteriorating water  quality would have fostered endemic diseases disease carrying pests and the buildup of harmful  chemicals like nitrogen The increased erosion we mentioned earlier would have also deposited  more sediments into the water supply further compromising its quality. these developments  are very interesting but it's impossible to say if they are causal or just correlating events  we should also remember that the Maya were not entirely dependent on rain for their agriculture  some cities took advantage of wetlands raised fields and Terraces that would have been less  susceptible to the effects of drought there's also been some criticisms about the drought theories  after all droughts were nothing new to the Maya they had dealt with them before and likely had  strategies to cope with water shortages heck every society that exists and has ever existed must cope  with a changing environment some scientists have pointed out that the data for Drought comes  from specific areas of the Maya region and is applied universally to the Maya area as a whole  despite the fact that rainfall totals across the Yucatan can vary immensely. for example very little  paleoclimatic data exists for the Western lowlands which is a shame because that region actually  receives much greater amounts of rain than the rest of the Maya area in this area modern records  show that the rain in the dry season exceeds the amount of rain that other regions of the Maya  area get during their wet season not only that but this has mesoamerica's largest river the  Usumacinta which empties 59 billion cubic meters of water annually into the Gulf the Western  lowlands are also dotted by lakes and streams and surface water is abundant with very productive  agricultural areas this is an extremely wet and humid area several scientists have expressed  skepticism that a drought would have left the Western lowlands high and dry even if surface  water was diminished rainfall should have still been enough to productively Farm adding even more  confusion to the drought picture is the fact that the northern Yucatan was thriving during this time  remember what we said earlier about cities like Uxmal, Ek' Balam and chichen Itza they were hitting their  stride despite the fact that they were located in much drier areas than the the southern lowlands  that's because the northern Yucatan is actually quite arid compared to the south in fact the driest  parts of the north can receive less than half the rainfall of the lowlands and what's even worse  there's no rivers in the north due to the local geology if a drought was really stressing those  lowland cities to the breaking point why were the northern cities fairing so much better? we'd  expect people in the dry north to be fleeing to the wetter South now some of you might point out  that the north does does have underground water sources like cenotes, that can provide a ready supply  of fresh water while that's true cenotes are not everywhere in the north and there's no correlation  between cenotes and prosperity during the 9th century in fact most cities in the Puuc region  completely lacked cenotes and relied on storing rainfall but still enjoyed Prosperity during many  of those drought years what I want you to take away from this is that a drought as a major cause  of collapse fits really nicely in certain areas and fits poorly in other areas even if it wasn't a  Tipping Point for certain cities however it still would have put a lot of stress on the elite to  find solutions for water shortages and contributed to Growing discontent with the monarchies. speaking  of the elite let's look at what was happening at Maya Royal courts because there's a very  interesting Trend that emerged in the late 8th and early 9th centuries the rise of the Nobles  in some cities Nobles at Maya courts began to assume increasingly prominent roles in government  and this slowly eroded royal power one city that we see very compelling evidence for this is Copán, the city's 16th ruler and last great ruler of any Merit Yax Pasaj Chan Yopaat oversaw a Resurgence at  Copán after its subjugation by Quiriguá during this Twilight at copon he erected many monuments  and buildings but he wasn't alone in this other Nobles in the city were committ in their own  palaces and inscriptions that were every bit as impressive as the Kings prior to this Kings had  had a monopoly on such construction but at the end of Copán's history The Nobles had no problem getting  in on this action and that wasn't all they also seem to be taking a more active role in government  because Yax Pasaj constructed a council house the popal nah something hither to unseen at any large  Maya City! another example comes from Laxtunich a castle of Yaxichilan let's look at lentil 1 which  was carved in 783 fun fact this lentil is actually signed by the artist who carved it so that's  cool a real Maya Michelangelo right there at first glance this probably looks like a regular  court scene except that the focus of this scene the man on the right is not the king of Yaxichilan, Itzamnaaj Bahlam IV, but instead the sahal Aj Chak Maax who presents the king with three prisoners  quick reminder from the previous episodes sahal were military captains or lieutenants compare  this to the Exquisite monuments from Itzamnaaj Bahlam IV's father Yaxun Bʼalam IV in this lentil from  Yaxchilan dated to 752 he Towers over a submissive captive there's no question who's got the power  here looking at that previous lintle from nearly 25 years later it's wild that a noble could  commission such a fine piece from a prominent artist and it may signal Growing Power Within the  nobility and this wasn't limited to just Yaxchilan across the usumacinta region as a whole a lot  more subsidiary titles appear in inscriptions highlighting the greater role played by the local  nobility as interesting as this is It's hard to say whether this rise of noble power is a cause  or effect of Decline and we could chicken and egg this all day long but it is a trend that I think  is worth noting while we're on the subject of declining royal power one thing that is also worth  mentioning is the movement of emblem glyphs just a quick refresher emblem glyphs were Royal titles  used to identify the city ruled by a dynasty you can kind of sort of think of them as a royal  seal at the end of the classic period these emblem glyphs start showing up in very unexpected  places a damage Stelae from Xunantunich May link it to Naranjos ruling Dynasty if this is true it may  represent a move from a failing City in Decline to one that was more defensible it could however  just as easily represent a usurpation of the Naranjo dynastic title however this all assumes that  the identification is correct in the first place in a similar but more secure example the dynasty  at the city of Motul de San Jose appears to have relocated across Lake Patén Itza to the island  of Tayasal by the middle of the 9th century fun fact this site would actually be where the last  independent Maya Kingdom fell to the Spanish in 1697 after 859 the Tikal emblem glyph started  appearing at the sites of Ixlu and Jimbal former satellites of Tikal a century earlier this would  have been Unthinkable well I guess not really since Dos Pilas had already pulled that stunt whether  dynasties were actually on the move or whether new people were impersonating or usurping these old  titles is unknown remember when I mentioned that monument at Seibal that recorded the presence of the  kings of Tikal and Calakmul for all we know those could have been imposters styling themselves as kings  of Tikal and Calakmul ultimately both interpretations are possible but it undoubtedly speaks to  the weakening of royal power and authority another visible change in the archaeological and  historical record is the increasing intensity of warfare and violence Warfare had long been a  feature among the Maya city states but it's believed that Warfare was restricted to an elite  warrior class and nobility and that there were rules and ceremonies around it in a sense it was  very formalized however many scholars have pointed out that Warfare between states seems to have  reached a fever pitch just before the collapse in some areas violence became more common and  brutal with cities sometimes being completely destroyed nowhere is this more evident than in the  Patexbatun and Pasion regions of the lowlands just a quick reminder from the last last episode this  area was Dos Pilas's former territory after Dos Pilas unraveled it created a power vacuum in which  several smaller sites fought to fill Dos Pilas's Place unfortunately things escalated quickly  and got pretty violent and brutal at the site of Cancuén excavations have shown that many City  Elites were massacred and dumped into a cistern still wearing their Elite clothing and jewelry  many monuments at the site were also defaced whoever came to town Town had an axe to grind and  this is only one sight things got so hot that at the former sight of Dos Pilas the remaining population  settled in the main plaza and as violence picked up they tore down the deserted temples and  Palace structures so that the stone could be used to build two concentric walls around the  plaza the remains of weapons and decapitated skulls suggest that they were overwhelmed sometime  in the early 9th century the cities that saw a lot of activity in this period were one ones that had  good natural fortifications two good examples are Aguateca and Punto de chimino, Aguateca was built on  a very defensible Limestone Bluff and punto de chimino was built on a peninsula that jutted into  Lake petexbatun, both sides built very impressive networks of fortifications to protect them against  attack but ultimately both cities fell violently in the case of Aguateca it happened so quickly  that Elites at the city left behind all of their valuables in their homes and no one returned to  retrieve their goods or to bury the bodies at the site yikes things would not die down in the region  until about 830 before you think that this was a restricted local phenomenon let's move over to  the west to look at the Rivalry between Yaxchilan and Pierdras Negras remember that these cities  had been locked in Conflict since Yaxchilan threw off Piedras Negras overlordship this culminated  in 808 when kK'inich Tatb'u Skull IV was defeated and captured ruler 7 of Piedras Negras in a star  war. the archaeological record at Piedras Negras shows a violent end with several buildings being  burned and the palace Throne smashed this was catastrophic for the Dynasty and the Royal Court  appears to have ceased activity around 810 you'd think that Yaxchilan would be poised for greatness  ready to be a strong postclassic player on the Maya stage and yet it was an empty Victory K'inich Tatb'u Skull IV is the last ruler that we have any record of at Yaxchilan and his only Monument  is a simple lentil in Temple 3 that documents his capture of ruler 7 at piedras negras however this  inscription was so poorly and crudely executed that archaeologists originally thought that it  was one of the first inscriptions from the site instead of the last one a huge contrast to the  beautiful and mature artistic tradition we saw with previous rulers that Temple that the lentil  was found in was also never completed the murals at the nearby city of Bonampak were never completed  as all construction there ceased it's as if the artists and Craftsmen just dropped their paint and  brushes and chisels and walked away instances like this have prompted some Scholars to argue that all  of this Warfare took a toll on the Maya commoners and that they left the cities to escape the war  in violence and that this put additional pressure not just on the cities and their rulers but on  neighboring areas that absorb these new immigrants Arthur Demerest has written extensively on this  if you're interested in Reading More others have speculated that some of this violence was  intal and that commoners fed up with their rulers grabbed their pitchforks and torches and  led a rebellion against Elite tyranny and excess French Revolution style remember what I said  earlier about Cancuén the violence at that City appears to have specifically targeted the Royal  residence and Royal monuments keep in mind though that such instances are limited and that this is  not something we see across a wide area like we said about the climate evidence earlier it fits  certain areas very well and others more poorly now there's one last line of evidence that I want  to investigate and it's perhaps the most bizarre evidence out there foreign influence honestly  this was the thing in my research for this episode that surprised me the most during the 9th  century new types of art and architecture with a foreign flavor began to appear in the Maya region  in particular the cities that rebounded in the 9th century like Ucanal and Seibal show a lot of this  influence one visible change is in Ceramics in the 9th century we see the introduction of a new type  of ceramic these were mold-made monochrome vessels that are referred to as fine paste wares remember  from our classic culture episode Elite maya pottery during the classic period was characterized by  these beautiful polychrome vessels if you've been watching this series you've probably seen a  million of these by now those fine paste wares are almost the complete opposite of what Elite classic  maya Ceramics were mold made Vessels allowed people to produce multiple pots quickly without  needing an artist to paint complex designs that had to be carefully fired in a kiln while these  finepac Wares are impressive in their own right they didn't require the skill and expertise that  those earlier polychromes did they are also very similar to pottery that was being made on the  Gulf Coast to the west and the influence is easy to trace some of you out there may suggest that  these pots were imported but Studies have shown that these pots were produced locally in the Maya  area particularly around the upper Usumacinta and lower pesion River another odd thing seen on some of  these pots are foreign glyphs for example let's look at this very late classic polychrome pot here  you can already tell that this late pot is pretty basic compared to the elaborate polychromes we saw  in earlier episodes what's important here though are the at the top check this out in the middle of  the inscription we have these bold blocky glyphs that really stand out from the gentle Strokes of  the Maya glyphs those Square glyphs are actually Day signs but in this case they aren't recording  a date but the name of a person. many Mesoamerican people use Day signs as their name what's  more these Day signs are not Maya Day signs they're actually in the style that is seen in  central Mexico and on the Gulf Coast sites like Ucanal, Seibal and Jimbal also have examples of Monument  inscribed with square glyph names what's going on with these weird western names? Believe It or Not  foreign figures with foreign sounding names begin to appear in some inscriptions in the terminal  classic what's even more unusual is that many of these foreign coded rulers have the title Kaloomte'. we  discussed this term in our classic culture episode and it's a very prestigious but seldom used title  that referred to the very strongest rulers of the Maya world like a great Lord but the full title  used is actually Ochk'in Kaloomte' which refers to the West the appearance of these titles hints that  these Lords were people with powerful Western ties interestingly one of the earliest instances  of this comes from Tonina where an inscription dated to 787 references the erection of a monument  in the presence of a Kaloomte' which implies that the powerful city of Tonina was paying homage to  a greater power. a really interesting example of a ruler sporting this foreign idiom comes from the  site of Seibal we're going to be looking at a series of Stelae from the imaginatively named structure  A3 this building was constructed by the previously mentioned Dynasty founder Aj B'alom Haab'tal in 849 and  the Stelae are very interesting these first two look pretty normal and show him as a Maya Lord in  classic presentation but check out these other two Mama Mia what do we have here why does Aj B'alom Haab'tal look so different? in the latter two images he's depicted with non- Maya Western features  that we typically see in central Mexico did I mention that these scenes are all from the same  day? Aj B'alom Haab'tal is displaying multiple cultural and ethnic identities to his subjects and this  isn't an isolated incidence we see other 9th century monuments that depict Maya rulers in  foreign attire one last foreign element worth noting is a new type of architecture that appears  in these 9th century cities circular platforms now this might not seem Earth shattering or  anything but there's more that meets the eye here circular platforms were not a feature of  classic Maya architecture but they did appear in central Mexico where they were associated  with the wind god Quetzalcoatl those of you who know your postclassic history know that the  feathered serpent becomes a big deal and some scholars believe that this is the earliest sign  of the cult of Quetzalcoatl arriving in the area although it's worth noting that Quetzalcoatl is the  nahuatl term for the deity the Maya would have called him Kulkulcan what's even weirder though is that  these circular platforms don't first appear in the west as you'd expect but in the east in modern-day  Belize along the Hondo, Belize and Sibun rivers that is very interesting because if you recall from  earlier that was the same area that actually weathered the collapse really well but we'll get  back to that thread soon so what to make of this foreign evidence? are we looking at an invasion or  a migration of westerners into the Maya area? or is this a case of Maya Lords portraying themselves  in a foreign idiom we really don't know both are possible to an extent in the mid 20th century  many mayanists who looked at this increasing mexicanization today believe this to be the case  also we've seen Maya Lords adopt foreign imagery before particularly after the teotihuacan entrada what we can say is that there was much more interaction between the Maya and their Western  neighbors and this interaction went both ways when we discussed the postclassic sites of Xochicalco  and kakosa(?) some other day we'll see some really strong Maya influence at work in central Mexico  honestly there's a lot more changes and factors that we could discuss some Scholars have pointed  out that the early 9th century crisis occurs just before the 10th Bok tune and that perhaps the  end of this 256 year cycle may have fatalistically predisposed the Maya to certain changes in society  overpopulation and disease have been put forth as major factors in the collapse but pre-colombian  pathologies remain poorly understood others have contended that disruptions in trade in the paten  put pressures on Elites in many lowland cities even hurricanes and volcanic activity have been  cited unfortunately we can't discuss them all today or else I'd be releasing a 3-hour video  next summer but it's worth pointing out that these are not mutually exclusive to what we've  discussed already perhaps much of the collapse can be attributed to spectacularly bad timing and  dice rolls these all have Merit and they are worth considering as real factors that contributed  to the collapse now before we discuss how these events transformed the Maya world and what the  new postclassic world looked like I do want to mention one last thing that is worth keeping in  mind and that is that the title of this episode is something of a misnomer because the Maya  collapse was not just a Maya collapse many other cultures and sites suffered similar Fates just  before the 9th century those who have seen our teotihuacan episode know that by 750 the city was  almost completely abandoned those who know their zapotec History will know that Monte Alban was  abandoned between 750 and 800 CE the years between 700 and 900 were a wild time across mesoamerica  it was a time when old classic players faded away to be replaced by new players on the Mesoamerican  scene what did this new scene look like? what were the after effects of the collapse and how did  mesoamerica change? first let's look at the demise of Royal kingship the classic period was defined  in large Parts by its Kings and Lords in the post classic all of that Royal culture was gone the  Maya appear to have given up on the notion of divine Kings and the result is that there were no  rulers to commission Royal monuments celebrating victories ceremonies or important Milestones  surviving Authority seems to have leveled out and postclassic Maya Society looked more egalitarian  than it ever did in the classic later sites like chichen Itza and mayapan are reported in later sources  to have been governed by multiple Noble groups and families and if this was the case across the  post classic as a whole it speaks to a new form of government that involved much more consensus  many mins have pointed out that for many commoners this was a boon the old system under Kings may  have been burdensome on commoners who may have increasingly felt the brunt of their rulers vanity  projects and Wars I can't remember where I saw this and I searched the internet high and low but  I once heard the collapse described as a collapse up for the common Maya people and while that is a  big generalization I think that there's a kernel of Truth in it now don't at the idea that the Maya  commoners ate the rich and set up some sort of Glorious workers Utopia rather what Archaeology  shows is that the elite survived and adapted to new circumstances looking at many sites that  survived large buildings were still constructed and such projects would have required management  and organization Elite Pottery still existed but it was no longer characterized by those vibrant  polychromes that we saw in the classic period that said Authority seemed to be much less centralized  let's take the site of Lamanai as an example old classic frescoes celebrating kingship were covered  up and old buildings were renovated in postclassic Styles ceramic Traditions continued but  Incorporated more exotic Mesoamerican Styles this is interesting because it implies that the leaders  at Lamanai were faced with similar challenges but managed to navigate through them this leads  us to our next big change trade and communication during the classic period the Lowland were Center  of Trade that moved through the lowlands and up and down the usumacinta to the coast after the  collapse trade moved from the rivers to the coast and this had big implications remember  earlier when I mentioned that sites in the northern Yucatan and Northern Belize weathered the  collapse very well? a big reason that they may have survived the collapse was because they were able  to reorient their political and economic links to this new trade and the centers that profited  from it it shouldn't be a surprise that sites like chichen Itza, Mayapan Tulum and Tiho were going to  be the great Maya cities of the future in a sense you can think of the collapse as the decline of  the old Lowland trade routes although I'd be cautious because again you can chicken an egg that point  did Lowland sites collapse because of trade or did trade routes collapse because the sites collapsed  earlier? what is clear though is that surviving sites in the north were able to connect into those  trade networks much better and that trade would play a huge role for those cities going forward  remember when I mentioned that those circular platforms showed up in Belize before the rest of  the Maya area? that might speak to the trade links those cities were forging with Western groups  from an early time these new Maritime links are embodied by the rise of the Chontal or patún Maya  Who we've mentioned in some previous episodes the Patún Maya were renowned traders who Moved Goods  in and out of the Maya area along Coastal routes they were much more integrated into the wider  mesoamerican world and show a lot of Mexican influence in fact postclassic sites like chichen Itza show an influx of Mexican features in their art and architecture in many ways mesoamerica  emerged from the collapse as a landscape of new connections so let's wrap this all up if there's  one thing that you should take away from all this it's that there's no Silver Bullet that explains  the collapse it was a multifaceted phenomenon that manifested differently in different places I know  that it's been trendy in the past few decades for popular media to attribute the decline of the  classic Maya culture to environmental Decline and while that certainly fits several areas it  can't explain the decline everywhere violence and warfare were certainly getting out of  control in the Petexbatun and Pasion regions but in these instances there were no winners the  triumphant cities were barely able to celebrate their victories before they declined in several  cities royal power was declining at the expense of the Nobles in the Twilight of several cities they  were directing monuments and taking a greater role in governance below them many of the commoners  appear to have had enough and began leaving the great cities that they had served for Generations  migrating to new areas or possibly to the north where the cities continued to prosper others  went to the west where new postclassic powers were Rising rather than viewing the collapse as a  wholesale demise of a culture and people we should view this as a transformation and one that we can  appreciate as a response to a crisis man-made or otherwise in the wake of the collapse Maya and  foreign ideas came together to create a distinct postclassic Mesoamerican World regardless of what  exactly caused the collapse the collapse didn't showcase Maya weakness I would argue instead that  it showed their resilience even if we don't have the full picture it appears that Maya political  culture had become dysfunctional and to address this the Maya abandoned their classic rulers and  cities and forged new societies that proved to be very durable and successful even if they were less  flashy than prior periods admit it most of you would not relish living under a glamorous monarchy  I would even say that this wasn't the worst thing the Maya survived they survived the Spanish  conquest and for many Maya living in Guatemala they survived a Civil War and genocide in the 20th  century in fact their descendants are still around today speaking their languages counting their  days on the sacred calendar and living in the lands of their ancestors and I expect that the  Maya will still be around in a thousand years enduring as they have for Millennia once again  special thanks to my patrons for supporting my work you guys are the best if you'd like to join  the ranks of These Fine individuals and support the show you can do so on patreon the link will  be in the description don't forget to subscribe and follow us on Facebook we'll see you next year  enjoy your holidays everyone and take care!