Architecture and structure of the Mayan city
- Coastal parks
Archaeologists have isolated environmental DNA
We are talking about a city that is located onterritory of modern Guatemala is Tikal. In the vicinity of Tikal there were no rivers or lakes, so to provide water to such a large number of the Mayan population, they built a system of artificial reservoirs.
Recent studies have shown that problems withThe availability of high-quality drinking water served as an impetus for technological progress and the Mayans learned to use zeolites as natural absorbers.
This is especially important in the context of the fact that Tikal, apparently, was abandoned by the Indians due to water poisoning with mercury, phosphates and cyanobacterial waste products.
David Lentz et al
- Ritual and administrative center Nishtun-Chich
American anthropologists have established that the Mayan city of Nishtun Chich, discovered in 1995, had the status of a ritual and administrative center in the Middle Preclassic era.
The city planning showed that the designers andthe builders proceeded from an ancient belief system based on the crocodile myth - the Maya believed that during the creation of the world, the gods sacrificed a crocodile, which, returning from primitive waters, formed the earth.
Wikimedia Commons CC
- Ceremonial Center Aguada Phoenix
Archaeologists discovered in the state of Tabasco in the southMexico Mayan monumental complex dating from 1000–800 BC. This is the oldest such structure associated with the Mayan civilization.
Judging by radiocarbon dating data,Aguada Phoenix was built around 1000-800 BC: for comparison, one of the largest buildings in Mesoamerica - the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan - dates back to 200 AD.
The appearance of Aguada Phoenix suggests that early Mayan societies were egalitarian and did not have a powerful ruling class, according to scientists from the University of Arizona in Tucson.
To create a three-dimensional map of the area, onwhere Aguada Phoenix is located, a group of researchers carried out aerial photography using lidar, a technology for obtaining and processing information about distant objects using active optical systems. In this way, they scanned the lands in the state of Tabasco - and found 21 rectangular plateaus on which the Maya, presumably, performed their rituals and ceremonies.
Inomata at al.
Salt as money
Archaeologist Heather MacKillop concluded thatsalt may have been used as a payment instrument by the Mayans during the Classical Era (300–900 AD). This product meets the important requirements for commodity money, such as utility, value, portability and divisibility.
McKillop argues convincingly that salt was a very valuable commodity in the Mayan civilization, and that those who knew how to mine it could use their skills to make a profit.
I think the ancient Mayans who worked here wereproducers-sellers, and they transported salt by canoe up the river. They produced a lot of salt, much more than they needed for their immediate family and their own needs.
Heather McKillop, professor at Louisiana State University
Fully operating kitchens discovered by McKillop and her colleagues could produce enough salt to meet the needs of several thousand people every day.
At that time, salt was highly prized, above alldue to the fact that with its help it was possible to store meat for longer. It was necessary for everyone, and therefore people could well use salty cakes, produced according to certain standards, as a form of money.
Filtration of water
Scientists at the University of Cincinnati (USA) have found that the ancient Maya were able to use relatively complex technologies to purify water. They made filters from natural materials.
Researchers have discovered a filter system inTikale, in the Corriental Reservoir, an important source of drinking water for the ancient Maya in northern Guatemala. To make filters, the indigenous Mesoamericans used quartz and zeolite, which form a natural molecular sieve. Both minerals are still used in modern drinking water purification systems.
Scientists believe that the Mayans built at the entrance tothe tank is a multi-layer filter made of pieces of limestone, coarse fabric and a mixture of zeolites with quartz sand. This would explain the anomalous cleanliness of Corriental, which is low in both chemical pollutants and traces of blue-green algae blooms.
The last traces of the functioning of the zeolitefilters belong to the late classical period (600-900 AD), after which the system was no longer restored, probably due to the loss of access to raw materials.
Tankersley et al
Reduction of civilization and death
- Impact of climate change
Scientists have found that part of the Mayan civilizationdecreased due to climate change. The Mayan population in the city of Itsan, in what is now Guatemala, has declined in response to climate change. Both droughts and floods led to significant population decline.
The researchers succeeded in mapping the main changes in the Mayan population in the area for a period beginning in 3300 BC.
The results showed that Maya numbers in the area declined due to drought in three different periods. During the driest periods, water dropped 70% less than it should have.
But not only drought is to blame, climate jumps wereserious - the Maya population declined even during the very humid period from 400 to 210 BC. Until now, the flood period has not received much attention.
Maya had to adapt to changesoil and loss of nutrients. Therefore, scientists suggest, they left their cities one by one, moving into more favorable conditions - into the jungle.
- Poisoning by drinking water
Water in some reservoirs in the city of TikalThe Mayan civilization in the 9th century AD contained so much mercury, phosphates and cyanobacteria waste products that it was hardly suitable for drinking.
Chemists, microbiologists, archaeologists and specialists from other fields, led by David Lenz, studied the composition of sedimentary deposits at the bottom of four Tikal water reservoirs.
In samples of material from different layers, palynologistsanalyzed the species composition and condition of pollen, paleoethnobotanists looked for 16S ribosomal RNA of bacteria and archaea, as well as the DNA of other organisms, geochemists used atomic absorption spectrometry and other methods to determine the content of mercury and phosphates, which can harm human health in large quantities.
In samples from two tanks closest tothe main temple and palace, the mercury content exceeded the threshold value, after which the toxic effect begins to appear. Apparently, the metal accumulated most actively in containers in the late classical period of the Mayan civilization, 600-900 AD, that is, shortly before how Tikal was deserted.
DNA and RNA from reservoirs suggests that in the last centuries of Tikal's life, there were a lot of cyanobacteria in drinking water.
- The causes of the death of civilization
Hurricanes in the Caribbean became more frequent, and their strength changed markedly around the same time that classical Mayan culture in Central America was in its final decline.
Tropical cyclones in the Atlantic - hurricanes - pose a serious threat to the lives and property of local people in the Caribbean and neighboring regions in the southeastern United States.
It is possible that the increased impact of hurricanes onthe Central American continent, combined with the extensive flooding of lowland Mayan croplands and rain-induced erosion in the wetlands of the Belize mountains (excluding the already known periods of drought) have contributed to the demise of civilization.
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