Environmental Degradation and the Classic Maya Collapse at Copan, Honduras ( a.d . 600–1250)
Evidence From Studies of Household Survival
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20187707 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Richard R Paine (0000-0001-6996-7402, University of Utah, corresponding author), Anncorinne Freter (Ohio University) |
| Year | 1996 |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 37-47 |
| Publication date | 1996-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Ancient Mesoamerica (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0956-5361 • E-ISSN: 1469-1787 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0956536100001279 |
| OpenAlex | W1991081026 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 19 |
| References cited | 31 |
The Late Classic Maya abandonment of the Copan Valley, Honduras, began in the ninth century a.d . and lasted approximately 250–300 years. The relationship between local ecological setting and residential group abandonment is examined by applying event-history analysis to the known occupation spans of 140 residential mound groups, dated by obsidian hydration. Late Classic households in ecologically vulnerable sections of the Copan Valley—as measured by slope, soil type, and natural vegetation—had significantly higher risk of abandonment than households in more ecologically stable settings. Abandonment risk rises sharply in all regions at the end of the seventh century a.d . Both computerized agricultural simulations and settlement demographic reconstructions indicate that increased levels of agricultural intensification necessary to meet the subsistence needs of Copan's growing population would have led to large-scale erosion in upland areas and a significant reduction of soil fertility in all regions of the valley at that time. Mound-group abandonment patterns tend to support the hypothesis that environmental degradation played a dominant role in the collapse of the Copan polity
Agriculture · Archaeology · Geography · Maya · Population · Subsistence agriculture · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Demography · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
Stratigraphic evidence for anthropogenically induced coastal environmental change from Oaxaca, Mexico
Mesoamerican Landscape Archaeologies
Classic Period collapse of the Central Maya Lowlands
Classic Lowland Maya Political Organization
Commoner Power
New Directions in Classic Maya Household Archaeology
The Archaeology of Copán, Honduras
Recent Advances in Maya Archaeology
Using event-history analysis to examine the causes of semi-sedentism among shifting cultivators
What Maya Collapse? Terminal Classic Variation in the Maya Lowlands
The archaeology of Copán, Honduras
Regional Settlement Pattern Studies
Reconstructing Classic Maya Socioeconomic Differentiation and the Collapse at Dos Pilas, Peten, Guatemala
Multiscalar Model of Rural Households and Communities in Late Classic Copan Maya Society
On the absence of a millennial population rebound in the central Maya lowlands
Ancient Climate and Archaeology
Situating Power and Locating Knowledge
The "Invisible" Maya
The Collapse of the Classic Maya
Life Table Techniques and Their Applications
Event History Analysis
How the Maya Built Their World
Mayan Urbanism
Nonparametric Estimation from Incomplete Observations
The Classic Maya collapse
Classic Maya political history
Maya Archaeology and Ethnohistory
Detection of significant demographic differences between subpopulations of prehispanic Maya from Copan, Honduras, by survival analysis
A Mathematical Projection of Population Growth in the Copan Valley, Honduras, A.D. 400-800
The causes and consequences of deforestation among the prehistoric Maya
Mathematical hazard models of mortality
The Osteological Paradox
Structure and Change in a Late Classic Maya Domestic Group at Copan, Honduras
Prehistoric Political Change on the Southeast Mesoamerican Periphery
Chronological Research at Copan
Continuity and Change in a Royal Maya Residential Complex at Copan
Obsidian-Hydration Dating
A Simulation of Copan Populatin History and its Implications
The Children of Copan
Prehistoric Lowland Maya Environment and Subsistence Economy
Obsidian-Hydration Dating, the Coner Phase, and Revisionist Chronology at Copan, Honduras
The Obsidian Hydration Dating Project at Copan
Settlement History and the Classic Collapse at Copan
Site-Planning Principles and Concepts of Directionality among the Ancient Maya
Maya Diets of the Rich and Poor
Pre-Columbian Population History in the Maya Lowlands
| Unique citing works | 19 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,66 |
| Citation span | 1997 - 2025 (29) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 17 |