Abstract. The impact of climate change on the development and
disintegration of Maya civilisation has long been debated. The lack of
agreement among existing palaeoclimatic records from the region has prevented
a detailed understanding of regional-scale climatic variability, its climatic
forcing mechanisms and its impact on the ancient Maya. We present two new
palaeo-precipitation records for the central Maya lowlands, spanning the
Pre-Classic period (1800 BCE–250 CE), a key epoch in the development of
Maya civilisation. A beach ridge elevation record from world's largest late
Holocene beach ridge plain provides a regional picture, while Lake Tuspan's
diatom record is indicative of precipitation changes at a local scale. We
identify centennial-scale variability in palaeo-precipitation that
significantly correlates with the North Atlantic δ14C
atmospheric record, with a comparable periodicity of approximately 500 years,
indicating an important role of North Atlantic atmospheric–oceanic forcing
on precipitation in the central Maya lowlands. Our results show that the
Early Pre-Classic period was characterised by relatively dry conditions,
shifting to wetter conditions during the Middle Pre-Classic period, around
the well-known 850 BCE (2.8 ka) event. We propose that this wet period may
have been unfavourable for agricultural intensification in the central Maya
lowlands, explaining the relatively delayed development of Maya civilisation
in this area. A return to relatively drier conditions during the Late
Pre-Classic period coincides with rapid agricultural intensification in the
region and the establishment of major cities.
Sea-level proxies in Holocene raised beach ridge deposits (Greenland) revealed by ground-penetrating radar
