Climate had a big Impact on the Maya

An extended and higher-resolution record of climate and land use from stalagmite MC01 from Macal Chasm, Belize, revealing connections between major dry events, overall climate variability, and Maya sociopolitical changes

Authors:

Akers et al

Abstract:

The stalagmite MC01 was recovered from Macal Chasm cave on the Vaca Plateau of Belize in 1995, and an initial paleoclimate interpretation was published in 2007. Additional uranium-thorium ages have extended the paleoenvironmental record back from 3250 to 5250 cal yr BP, and the stable isotope (δ18O and δ13C) record is dramatically improved by 660 new values. A series of major dry events (MDEs) evident in stable isotopes, ultraviolet-stimulated luminescence, and petrography began ~ 3100 cal yr BP, and the initiation of these events coincides with an increase in El Niño dominance and southern shift in the Intertropical Convergence Zone. Three MDEs, centered at 1750 cal yr BP (200 CE), 1100 cal yr BP (850 CE), and 850 cal yr BP (1100 CE) and found in other regional climate records, coincide with Maya sociopolitical changes. Residuals from regression of δ13C versus δ18O are interpreted as a proxy for maize cultivation and land clearing, with residual values gradually increasing at the start of Preclassic Period settlement (3950 cal yr BP/2000 BCE), peaking after 2250 cal yr BP (300 BCE) during major Maya development in the Late Preclassic and Classic Periods, and dropping to pre-Preclassic values after regional land abandonment (~ 850 cal yr BP/1100 CE). Regional Maya population growth and cultural expansion may have been aided by abnormally low precipitation variability, as stable isotope variability suggests the Late Preclassic through the Late Classic was the most stable precipitation regime of the past 4000 years. This additional research on MC01 complements other regional paleoenvironmental records that suggest that MDEs coincided with disruptions in Maya society from the Preclassic through the Postclassic Periods. Although it is clear that not all significant sociopolitical changes can be attributed to the MDEs, these events likely played an antagonistic role in social stability.

"Late Antique Little Ice Age" Contributed to Decline of Eastern Roman Empire, Bolstered Arab Conquests?

Researchers from the international Past Global Changes (PAGES) project write in the journal Nature Geoscience that they have identified an unprecedented, long-lasting cooling in the northern hemisphere 1500 years ago. The drop in temperature immediately followed three large volcanic eruptions in quick succession in the years 536, 540 and 547 AD (also known as the Common Era CE). Volcanoes can cause climate cooling by ejecting large volumes of small particles - sulfate aerosols - that enter the atmosphere blocking sunlight.

Within five years of the onset of the "Late Antique Little Ice Age", as the researchers have dubbed it, the Justinian plague pandemic swept through the Mediterranean between 541 and 543 AD, striking Constantinople and killing millions of people in the following centuries. The authors suggest these events may have contributed to the decline of the eastern Roman Empire.

Lead author, dendroclimatologist Ulf Büntgen from the Swiss Federal Research Institute said, "This was the most dramatic cooling in the Northern Hemisphere in the past 2000 years."

A later "Little Ice Age" between 14th and 19th centuries has been well documented and linked to political upheavals and plague pandemics in Europe, but the new study is the first to provide a comprehensive climate analysis across both Central Asia and Europe during this earlier period.

"With so many variables, we must remain cautious about environmental cause and political effect, but it is striking how closely this climate change aligns with major upheavals across several regions," added Büntgen.

The multidisciplinary research team made up of climatologists, naturalists, historians and linguists mapped the new climate information against a particularly turbulent period in history in Europe and central Asia. The volcanic eruptions probably affected food supplies - a major famine struck the region at precisely this time followed immediately by the pandemic.

Further south, the Arabian Peninsula received more rain allowing more vegetation to grow. The researchers speculate this may have driven expansion of the Arab Empire in the Middle East because the vegetation would have sustained larger herds of camels used by the Arab armies for their campaigns.

In cooler areas, several tribes migrated east towards China, possibly driven away by a lack of pastureland in central Asia. This led to hostilities between nomadic groups and the local ruling powers in the steppe regions of northern China. An alliance between these steppe populations and the Eastern Romans brought down the Sasanian Empire in Persia, the final empire in the region before the rise of the Arab Empire.

The researchers write, "The Late Antique Little Ice Age fits in well with the main transformative events that occurred in Eurasia during that time."

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