Resolving the Maya climate-collapse hypothesis

该项目旨在通过对未崩溃的玛雅城市的气候和社会变化的详细记录来测试气候崩溃理论，并在此过程中确定为什么有些城市比其他城市更能适应气候变化的影响。灾难性的气候变率经常被用来解释全球热带地区大型低密度城市中心的历史性崩溃。公元8世纪后中美洲玛雅文明的崩溃是典型的社会崩溃，尽管中美洲各地都有干旱的有力证据，但考古证据表明，社会反应各不相同。该项目将揭示哪些社会、材料或环境属性有助于历史城市中心应对气候变化的弹性。

This project aims to test the climate-collapse theory by developing detailed records of climate and social change from Maya cities that did not collapse, and in doing so identify why some cities were more resilient to the impact of climatic variability than others. Catastrophic climate variability is often invoked to explain the historic collapse of large low-density urban centres in the global tropics. The collapse of the Maya civilisation of Central America after the 8th century AD is the archetypal social collapse yet, despite robust evidence for drought across Central America, archaeological evidence suggests a heterogenous social response. This project will reveal what social, material, or environmental properties facilitated resiliency in historic urban centres confronting climatic variability.