Abstract

The Terminal Classic Period (AD 750–1000) collapse of lowland Maya social, economic, and political systems has been temporally correlated with severe and extended drought in regional paleoclimate records. Ancient Maya society also experienced a protracted multicentury drought earlier during the end of the Late Preclassic Period (AD 100–300). While some large Preclassic polities declined, many more flourished through the Early Classic. Why were the effects of the Terminal Classic drought more dramatic? What allowed some earlier Maya communities to be more resilient in the face of climate change? Accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dating and stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of human skeletal remains from 50 individuals at the ancient Maya community of Cahal Pech from this critical time period suggest that more diverse diets may have promoted resilience in the face of changing socioecological systems at the end of the Preclassic. During the Late Classic Period (AD 600–800), isotopic data indicate that high-status individuals had a narrow and highly specialized diet, which may have created a more vulnerable socioeconomic system that ultimately disintegrated as a result of anthropogenic landscape degradation and severe drought conditions during the Terminal Classic.