Below is the first part of an informative video taken from the 'Maya Collapse' episode of the 2001 BBC series 'Ancient Apocalypse'. It provides a good introduction to the Classic Mayan collapse and follows the research of Dick Gill, some of who's papers will be researched in forthcoming blogs. (The whole programme is split into 5 parts which can be accessed at the end of the first video).
It is said that Gill, originally a banker, became interested in Mayan population decline as he was unconvinced that conventional theories accounted for the speed at which the demographic collapse occurred. Through years of research into climate records Gill proposed that drought might well have been the major factor. Eventually, it is said, conclusive evidence is retrieved from a single lake core in the Yucatan Peninsula.
This video is useful as an introduction and scene-setter to the subject of Classic Mayan collapse and provides an outline of the first evidence for drought as a cause of Mayan population decline. However, it does take a very simplistic view, stating that drought extended across the entire Mayan region and had equal implications for all Mayan population centres, based on only one lake core. Further detailed evidence is needed if drought is to be wholly accepted as the reason for the Maya collapse.
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