The mysterious collapse of the Maya civilization may not have been driven solely by drought after all. New evidence from lake sediments in Guatemala reveals that one key city, Itzan, enjoyed a stable ...

Skeletons buried near the ancient Maya city of Copán have revealed new clues about the collapse, but not total decimation, of the Maya civilization. A study of the genomes of seven people from the ...

The collapse of the ancient Mayan civilization may have been linked to relatively modest dry spells, researchers now say. The ancient Mayan empire once stretched across an area about the size of Texas ...

For centuries, the decline of the Maya civilization has remained one of history’s most compelling enigmas. At its height ...

While Mel Gibson’s thrilling film “Apocalypto” attempted to depict a clear image of Mayan culture, it didn’t. There are in reality extensive gaps in our understanding of this civilization. In a recent ...

Will our own elites perform any better than the rulers of Chaco Canyon, the Mayan heartland, and Viking Greenland? Flames from the Caldor Fire crown in trees at Echo Lake, Calif., in August ...

The pyramid-building Maya reigned over much of Central America. Today, descendants keep Maya history alive—a sign of resilience. This sculpture of the head of a Mayan warrior found in the Temple of ...

Stalagmite climate archive growing on top of an archaeological archive (Mayan pottery) in a northwest Yucatán Peninsula cave. This image relates to a paper that appeared in the Feb. 24, 2012, issue of ...