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New Findings Shatter Old Mayan Theories

Posted Jun 23, 08 6:59 PM CDT in World 

(Newser) – Some experts want to drain Mayan history of its high drama—the sudden collapse, and desperate migration—to tell a longer, slower story, USA Today reports. Classic history claims that Mayan cities imploded quickly around 900 AD, and their people trekked north to colonize in the Yucatan—but experts now say that Mayans had already lived there for 1,000 years.

Also, Mayan cities probably broke up due to decades of local disasters, not a single catastrophe: "The public needs to understand that the so-called Maya collapse was not an overnight affair that resulted in the total disappearance of the Maya people," one expert said, adding that indigenous Maya still exist. "The collapse took place over a period of more than 200 years."

Source USA Today

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View of the jade mask of Mayan King Pakal, at the National Museum of Anthropology and History, in Mexico City.   (Getty Images)
Around 300 people take part in the Rising Sun ceremony in front of the Mayan Inscriptions' Palace at the Palenque archaeological site, in Mexico's Chiapas state, on March 10, 2008.   (Getty Images)
Partial view of a sculpture at the Mayan ruins of the Archaeological Park in Copan, Honduras.   (Getty Images)
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