The Maya collapse: A zooarchaeological investigation

This tripartite zooarchaeological analysis investigates the "collapse" of Late Classic Maya civilization, through an evaluation of causal models for the abandonment of the Petexbatun region of the Guatemalan Peten. Primary causality here and elsewhere has been attributed to varying factors including environmental degradation as a result of overdependence on maize agriculture, declining dietary health caused by reductions in the availability of protein and other resources, and dramatic changes in the economic and political systems of the Mesoamerican lowlands. The large zooarchaeological assemblage recovered from the Petexbatun sites provides the opportunity for detailed analysis, through a combination of traditional and innovative zooarchaeological techniques, of both environmental and societal factors surrounding this crucial period in the history of the Maya.; Two zooarchaeological techniques test a popular model of environmental degradation. Carbon istotope analyses of archaeological deer bone quantify the ancient extent of land in agricultural production by measuring chronological changes in the dietary reliance of browsing herbivores on corn. Ecozone resource analyses define proportionate environmental representation through time by tracing relative frequencies of ecosystem allied taxonomic communities to describe past patterns of ecosystem distribution.; Analyses of spatial and chronological taxonomic variability in the Petexbatun zooarchaeological faunal communities, using community and population statistics in combination with the more traditional studies of species and skeletal element use, define changing Classic period patterns of dietary animal use to test current models of collapse period dietary inadequacy and protein insufficiency.; Finally, to test a model of socioeconomic change, osteometric and typological analyses of debris from a Terminal Classic locus of bone tool manufacture generate a hierarchical model of production. Comparative analyses of modified bone from other sites in the Petexbatun region test this production model, while similar patterns of bone distribution from nearby sites are used to derive a generalized description of changing patterns of bone tool production during this "collapse" period.; The combined approaches have allowed me to evaluate and dismiss models of environmental and dietary failure, and have emphasized the importance of reevaluating socioeconomic causality for this transitional period in the Petexbatun, and elsewhere in the southern Mesoamerican lowlands.