A Simple Fiscal-Demographic Model of the Classic Maya Collapse

Summary

The Classic Maya civilization flourished from approximately 200 A.D. to 800 A.D. in the southern reaches of the Yucatan Peninsula. Population increased throughout the period, accelerating towards the end, finally falling to a small fraction of its former peak level (10% or less) in a relatively short span of time (50-100 years). Even though Maya civilization continued in the northern end of Yucatan Peninsula, the holy kings who had been the protagonists of Classic Maya civilization disappeared from the Maya cultural tradition, with their former habitat remaining practically vacant until modern times. In order to explain this `collapse', I embed a predator-prey model (with an agricultural support population as prey, and a dependent non-agricultural population as predator) within a dynamic model of conflict. With the help of such model it is argued that Classic Maya civilization collapsed because Maya kings could not, under the pressure of warfare, manage (politically) to keep the balance between support and dependent populations upon which the long term sustainability of their kingdoms depended.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

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