The Guardian published this article on the recent potential insight into how Maya populations were sustained:
"A pre-Columbus settlement in El Salvador known as America's Pompeii appears to have answered the riddle of how Maya civilisation fed its multitudes.
Archaeologists have found buried beneath the volcanic ash a 1,400-year-old field of cassava, a tuber also known as manioc, which produces the highest yield of food energy of any cultivated crop.
If cultivation was commonplace throughout central America in that era, as researchers now suspect, it would explain how the Maya were able to build and sustain cities with such high population densities."
The article was based on an earlier one in the New York Times (21-08-07), "Discovering How the Maya Fed the Multitude". There's more on the National Geographic site as well including this on the site of this discovery:Archaeologists have found buried beneath the volcanic ash a 1,400-year-old field of cassava, a tuber also known as manioc, which produces the highest yield of food energy of any cultivated crop.
If cultivation was commonplace throughout central America in that era, as researchers now suspect, it would explain how the Maya were able to build and sustain cities with such high population densities."
Where Are the Volcano's Victims?
Despite the lucky find, there are many more questions to be answered, including why no victims of the volcanic explosion have ever been found at Ceren, despite some 30 years of excavations there.
[Prof. Payson D.] Sheets said the villagers may have been warned that the volcano was about to blow when rising lava turned underground water to steam. When the steam was forced out of cracks in the surface, it could have created a horrifying shriek that sent the Mayans fleeing, he explained.
Perhaps the villagers escaped unharmed, he added, or perhaps they were overtaken by the volcano's fast-moving cloud of ash and gases and their bodies haven't been discovered yet.
Sheets said he hopes these questions will be answered eventually, as continued digs at Ceren work to uncover the site's secrets.
"There's much more than I'll ever do in my lifetime," he said. "There's well over a century of research to be done there."
Despite the lucky find, there are many more questions to be answered, including why no victims of the volcanic explosion have ever been found at Ceren, despite some 30 years of excavations there.
[Prof. Payson D.] Sheets said the villagers may have been warned that the volcano was about to blow when rising lava turned underground water to steam. When the steam was forced out of cracks in the surface, it could have created a horrifying shriek that sent the Mayans fleeing, he explained.
Perhaps the villagers escaped unharmed, he added, or perhaps they were overtaken by the volcano's fast-moving cloud of ash and gases and their bodies haven't been discovered yet.
Sheets said he hopes these questions will be answered eventually, as continued digs at Ceren work to uncover the site's secrets.
"There's much more than I'll ever do in my lifetime," he said. "There's well over a century of research to be done there."
Speaking of the National Geographic, they have a brilliant feature this month on the rise and fall of the Maya which is a worth looking at for an overview of the current theories.
