The ancient Maya civilization once occupied a vast area in Central America from the 3rd to 9th century, producing impressive temples, pyramids, calendars, mathematics, and writing. One Maya site, Copán in Honduras, provides clues about why such advanced civilizations collapsed. Copán was once a large royal center but evidence shows that over time, people spread further from the central core and built homes on former crop lands, while nobles built smaller rival complexes further away as well. Though once wealthy and powerful, Copán collapsed around AD 822 with no monuments built after, but it remains unclear if the collapse was sudden or more gradual.
The ancient Maya civilization once occupied a vast area in Central America from the 3rd to 9th century, producing impressive temples, pyramids, calendars, mathematics, and writing. One Maya site, Copán in Honduras, provides clues about why such advanced civilizations collapsed. Copán was once a large royal center but evidence shows that over time, people spread further from the central core and built homes on former crop lands, while nobles built smaller rival complexes further away as well. Though once wealthy and powerful, Copán collapsed around AD 822 with no monuments built after, but it remains unclear if the collapse was sudden or more gradual.
The ancient Maya civilization once occupied a vast area in Central America from the 3rd to 9th century, producing impressive temples, pyramids, calendars, mathematics, and writing. One Maya site, Copán in Honduras, provides clues about why such advanced civilizations collapsed. Copán was once a large royal center but evidence shows that over time, people spread further from the central core and built homes on former crop lands, while nobles built smaller rival complexes further away as well. Though once wealthy and powerful, Copán collapsed around AD 822 with no monuments built after, but it remains unclear if the collapse was sudden or more gradual.
The ancient Maya civilization once occupied a vast area in Central America from the 3rd to 9th century, producing impressive temples, pyramids, calendars, mathematics, and writing. One Maya site, Copán in Honduras, provides clues about why such advanced civilizations collapsed. Copán was once a large royal center but evidence shows that over time, people spread further from the central core and built homes on former crop lands, while nobles built smaller rival complexes further away as well. Though once wealthy and powerful, Copán collapsed around AD 822 with no monuments built after, but it remains unclear if the collapse was sudden or more gradual.
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Why do civilizations collapse?
The ancient Maya once occupied a vast geographic area in
Central America. Their civilization extended to parts of what is now Mexico, Honduras, and El Salvador, and most of Guatemala and Belize. From the third to the ninth century, Maya civilization produced awe-inspiring temples and pyramids, highly accurate calendars, mathematics and hieroglyphic writing, and a complex social and political order. Looking at the impressive remains of ancient Maya civilization, it's hard to imagine how such a society could collapse.
Looking for clues at Copn
Clues to this collapse can be found at Copn, a Maya site in
western Honduras. Copn was once a Classic Maya royal center, the largest site in the southeastern part of the Maya area. Covering about 29 acres, it was built on the banks of the Copn River on an artificial terrace made of close to a million cubic feet of dirt. Over time, people spread out from the central core and built homes in outlying areas that had formerly been used for crops. Copn's nobles built smaller, rival complexes on sites that were increasingly further from the core.
In spite of its wealth, power, and size, Copn collapsed. No
monuments seem to have been produced after A.D. 822. Does this mean that the collapse was sudden? Or is it possible that the society collapsed more gradually? To explore why Copn collapsed, try an archaeological activity and discover what scientists recently found when they examined the site.