What if the Mayan civilization had not finally collapsed under the impact of repeated droughts? This is the question researchers are asking today. They discovered that the Mayans cultivated many particularly resilient plants. What to avoid them the inconvenience of famine.
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From periods of drought prolonged or repeated periods of time can be the cause of sometimes severe famine episodes. And this is how researchers believe the Mayan civilization abruptly collapsed around 1,000 years ago. But new work carried out at the University of California at Riverside (UCR, United States) today cast doubt on this scenario.
Researchers do not question the occurrence of a series of droughts on the Yucatan peninsula at the end of the IXe century. Just when the Mayan cities began to depopulate. On the other hand, they underline that, contrary to what was hitherto commonly accepted, the Mayans did not rely, for their food, only on crops sensitive to drought.
Variety to survive climate change
According to this new study, the Mayans had nearly 500 edible plants “Of which at least 59 could have withstood the most extreme drought situation, comments Louis Santiago, plant physiologist at UCR, in a communicated. And there is no evidence that such droughts even hit the region at this time.“
Among the essential allies of the Mayans, plants like cassava and chaya, rich in protein and in carbohydrates. In iron, potassium and calcium too. Thereby, “The explanation of the drought leading to thecollapse of the’Agriculture is probably too simplistic ”. And this work once again underscores the importance of exploiting a wide variety of plants, especially resilient ones, for those who hope to survive drought. Or to a climate change…
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