Study into Mayan disappearance rules out nutritional deficiencies: 11-11-2008
The disappearance of the Mayan civilisation may have been down to environmental factors such as ecosystem failure, according to a new study into the demise of ancient civilisations, according to USA Today.
Written by The Florida Museum of Natural History's Kitty Emery and published in the journal Human Ecology, the research looks at what could have happened to make the Mayans die out.
The study suggests that ecosystem destruction as a result of mismanagement or climactic shifts could have led to crop failure and a depletion of wild foods, which in turn may have led to the downfall of the Mayans.
The environmental archaeologist used remains of what the Mayan ate to try to decipher what could have become of the civilisation.
"We looked mostly at garbage pits right in the heart of the central lowlands," Ms Emery explained.
Doing so allowed her to recognise that, although a lack of white-tail deer in the Mayan diet coincided with the civilisation's destruction, an abundance of other nutritionally viable foods were consumed in its place.
The findings meant that a lack of nutritious food was unlikely to be the reason for the disappearance of the once-great race.
Instead, the study speculates that the civilisation simply slowly lost faith in its leaders and melted away into obscurity.
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