The
Post-Classic period.
This Post-Classic era stretched out
until about the year 1000, when all semblances of the once-mighty Mayan empire
that began in the jungles of eastern Guatemala and western Belize faded out. When the Spanish arrived, only a few cities
remained and they were on the Yucatan, far from where the empire began around
the city of Tikal.
The most popular theories for the
reason the empire collapsed are war, disease, and starvation. Some people used to believe that the Spanish
destroyed the Mayan empire that centered in the lowlands of Guatemala and
Belize, but when researchers recognized that all the cities of these lowlands
had been abandoned before the Spanish arrived, that was no longer considered a
possibility. The Spanish found villages
of thatched huts, the cities with their stone palaces were mere ruins covered
with jungle.
War then becomes
the most likely possibility. Researchers
now recognize that the larger cities began fighting for domination of the
region, but we must recognize that this theory suffers from a major flaw. If war between the cities for domination
caused the collapse, what happened to the winner? The winning city would not have been
abandoned, and the cities that had been conquered would have been made vassal
states, because no profit will come from totally destroying a defeated
city. If all cities except the winner
had been destroyed, then the conquering city would have no other people to
dominate, no value to doing that.
Disease then
becomes the most likely possibility, but the cities were abandoned over a
period of hundreds of years. A disease
contagious enough to wipe out the entire population of a city would have spread
quickly, and since active trade was occurring between the Mayan cities, all
cities in a region would have been abandoned at the same time, and the disease
would not have waited hundreds of years before spreading to other regions.
Starvation would
not have caused the cities to be totally abandoned and never again
populated. The Mayans had developed very
advanced techniques of agriculture, including irrigation. If the population of a city had grown to
where the surrounding farms could no longer feed it then everybody would not
have abandoned the city. After enough
people left the city so the food was sufficient, the remaining people would
have stayed. If a famine had caused a
food shortage, when the famine ended, people would have returned. These were marvelous cities but they were
abandoned totally and abruptly, as if the residents had fled in panic, and they
never returned.
An oral history tale passed down
for generations in village near an abandoned city in western Belize may hold
the answer to this mystery. The tale was
told to a tourist with an interest in folklore, and he believed this tale was
based on a scrap of truth from a thousand years ago, when the city was
abandoned. This man spent five years
searching for that truth, and his book,
Mayan Mystery Unveiled, explains what he discovered. When you take a Mayan Mystery tour, you will
learn the events that explain why the ancients abandoned their cities and
disappeared from history.
I hope this brief description of
the Mayan people helps you understand what you are seeing if you take a Mayan
tour. For a close up view of a theory
describing the abandonment of an ancient Mayan city, read the novel Mayan Mystery Unveiled, available from
Amazon.. You can click on the link, www.mayanmysterysearch.blogspot.com
for a summary of the story, at no charge.
You can also enjoy an adventure that follows the story of the novel. Tours are available for either a short visit
from a cruise ship that stops for a single day at Belize City, or for a lengthy
visit that allows the tourist to travel to several distinctly different regions
of Belize and visit the ruins of ancient cities and pyramids. You can become involved in your own search for the answer to the Mayan Mystery. Perhaps you will notice something that will lead you to a better understanding of the reason the marvelous Mayan cities were abandoned.
The Mayan Mystery story is much like an Indiana
Jones adventure among the pyramids and the ruins of ancient cities. After reading the story, you may want such an
experience for your next vacation. This Mayan Mystery tour may not be as expensive as a vacation in Myrtle Beach, and a lot more ecciting and eucational.
Ask your travel agent to contact www.MayaLandBelize.com and arrange an
exciting Mayan Mystery tour to suit your circumstances.
Glenn Lawson
Storyteller
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