Find Out What Happened to the Mayan People

Chichen Itza
Daniel Schwen/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0

The fall of the Maya is one of history’s great mysteries. One of the mightiest civilizations in the ancient Americas simply fell into ruin in a very short time, leaving many wondering what happened to the ancient Maya. Mighty cities like Tikal were abandoned and Maya stonemasons stopped making temples and stelae. The dates are not in doubt: deciphered glyphs at several sites indicate a thriving culture in the ninth century A.D., but the record goes eerily silent after the last recorded date on a Maya stela, 904 A.D. Many theories exist as to what happened to the Maya, but experts display little consensus.

The Disaster Theory

Early Maya researchers believed that some catastrophic event may have doomed the Maya. An earthquake, volcanic eruption, or sudden epidemic disease could have destroyed cities and killed or displaced tens of thousands of people, bringing the Maya civilization crashing down. These theories have been discarded today, however, largely because of the fact that the decline of the Maya took about 200 years; some cities fell while others thrived, at least for a while longer. An earthquake, disease, or another widespread calamity would have snuffed out the great Maya cities more or less simultaneously.

The Warfare Theory

The Maya were once thought to have been a peaceful, Pacific culture. This image has been shattered by the historical record; new discoveries and newly deciphered stone carvings clearly indicate that the Maya battled frequently and viciously among themselves. City-states such as Dos Pilas, Tikal, Copán, and Quirigua went to war with one another often, and Dos Pilas was invaded and destroyed in 760 A.D. Some experts wonder if they went to war with one another enough to cause the collapse of their civilization, which is quite possible. War often brings with it an economic disaster and collateral damage that could have caused a domino effect in the Maya cities.

Civil Strife Theory

Staying with a theory of unrest, some researchers believe civil war may have been a cause. As the populations in the large cities boomed, a great strain was placed on the working class to produce food, build temples, clear rainforests, mine obsidian and jade, and do other labor-intensive tasks. At the same time, food was becoming more and more scarce. The idea that a hungry, overworked working class might overthrow the ruling elite is not too far-fetched, especially if warfare between city-states was as endemic as researchers believe.

The Famine Theory

Preclassic Maya (1000 B.C.–300 A.D.) practiced basic subsistence agriculture: slash-and-burn cultivation on small family plots. They planted mostly corn, beans, and squash. On the coast and lakes, there was some basic fishing as well. As the Maya civilization advanced, the cities grew, their population growing much larger than could be fed by local production. Improved agricultural techniques such as draining wetlands for planting or terracing hills picked up some of the slack, and increased trade also helped, but the large population in the cities must have put great strain on the food production. A famine or other agricultural calamity affecting these basic and vital crops could certainly have caused the downfall of the ancient Maya.

Environmental Change Theory

Climate change may also have done in the ancient Maya. As the Maya were dependent on the most basic agriculture and a handful of crops, supplemented by hunting and fishing, they were extremely vulnerable to droughts, floods, or any change in the conditions that affected their food and water supply. Some researchers have identified some climatic change that occurred around that time: for example, the coastal water levels rose toward the end of the Classic period. As coastal villages flooded, people would have moved to the large inland cities, placing added strain upon their resources while losing food from farms and fishing.

So...What Happened to the Ancient Maya?

Experts in the field simply do not have enough solid information to state with clear-cut certainty how the Maya civilization ended. The downfall of the ancient Maya was likely caused by some combination of the factors above. The question seems to be which factors were most important and if they were linked somehow. For example, did a famine lead to starvation, which in turn led to civil strife and warring upon neighbors?

Investigations haven't ceased. Archaeological digs are ongoing at many sites, and new technology is being used to re-examine previously excavated sites. For example, recent research, using chemical analysis of soil samples, indicates that a certain area at the Chunchucmil archaeological site in Yucatan was used for a food market, as had been long suspected. Mayan glyphs, long a mystery to researchers, have now mostly been deciphered.


McKillop, Heather. "The Ancient Maya: New Perspectives." New York: Norton, 2004.

National Geographic Online: "The Maya: Glory and Ruin." 2007.