Non-ecological
theories of Maya decline are divided into several subcategories, such
as overpopulation, foreign invasion, peasant revolt, and the collapse of
key trade routes. Ecological hypotheses include environmental disaster,
epidemic disease, and climate change. There is evidence that the Maya
population exceeded the carrying capacity of the environment including
exhaustion of agricultural potential and overhunting of megafauna. Some
scholars have recently theorized that an intense 200 year drought led to
the collapse of Maya civilization.
Mixed Media copyright (c) Trevi Bennett 2012
