Word: culbert
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Stephanie K. Clifford Aaron R. Cohen Samuel C. Cohen Pablo Colapinto Erin A. Connearney Shawn M. Conover Brendan G. Conway John E. Connolly Andrew D. Cooper Macarena M. Correa Daniel A. Cousin John F. Coyle Angela K. Crenshaw Melissa K. Crocker Rodrigo A.C. Cruz A. Maximo Cuellar Adam C. Culbert Susan M. Curry Carina P. Curto Matthew R. Daniels Elizabeth M. Darst Sriram P. Das Victoria P. de Menil Nathan D. Dean Simon J. DeDeo Adeyemi K. Delbridge Rashid A.H. Delgado Matthew F. Delmont Roanak V. Desai D. Lawson DeVries Stefanie E. De Santis Joseph P. Di Pasquale Jennifer...
While many Mayanists agree that wars contributed to the collapse, no one thinks they were the whole story. Another factor was overexploitation of the rain-forest ecosystem, on which the Maya depended for food. University of Arizona archaeologist T. Patrick Culbert says pollen recovered from underground debris shows clearly that "there was almost no tropical forest left...
Overpopulation was another problem. On the basis of data collected from about 20 sites, Culbert estimates that there were as many as 200 people per sq km in the southern lowlands of Central America. Says Culbert: "This is an astonishingly high figure; it ranks up there with the most heavily populated parts of the pre-industrial world. And the north may have been even more densely populated...
...inevitable consequence of overpopulation and a disintegrating agricultural system would be malnutrition -- and in fact, some researchers are beginning to find preliminary evidence of undernourishment in children's skeletons from the late Classic period. Given all the stresses on Maya society, says Culbert, what ultimately sent it over the edge "could have been < something totally trivial -- two bad hurricane seasons, say, or a crazy king. An enormously strained system like this could have been pushed over in a million ways...
What sorts of lessons can be drawn from the Maya collapse? Most experts point to the environmental messages. "The Maya were overpopulated and they overexploited their environment and millions of them died," says Culbert bluntly. "That knowledge isn't going to solve the modern world situation, but it's silly to ignore it and say it has nothing to do with us." National Geographic archaeologist George Stuart agrees. The most important message, he says, is "not to cut down the rain forest." But others are not so sure. Says Stephen Houston, a hieroglyphics expert from Vanderbilt University: "I think...