Publication:  The Terminal Classic in the Maya Lowlands:  Collapse, Transition, and Transformation

Results and Prospects

We did not expect any manner of consensus to arise from these chapters–and none has! What we did expect was that intriguing patterns might emerge, that directions for future research might be better defined, and that disagreements could be clarified as to their degree and nature. In general, the chapters in this volume provide summaries of regional archaeological evidence and culture-histories, a snapshot of the "state of the art" in Maya research on the centuries of the Classic to Postclassic transition, A.D. 750–1050. These summaries and interpretations allow comparisons and contrasts between the assemblages, the events, and the processes proposed for the many subregions of the Maya lowlands. Some contributions describe depopulation and political disintegration in their regions, while others present evidence for a more gradual change in institutions with less dramatic shifts in demography, economy, and political order. It is hoped that this compilation of data and ideas will provide an overview of the highly variable archaeological record and the wide range of scholarly interpretations of the evidence on this period, upon which research and syntheses can build.

Yet we do believe, as stated previously, that the volume represents a watershed in studies of the Classic to Postclassic transition, moving away from global projection of local evidence or grand theories to hypothesize a uniform pan-Maya catastrophe. The evidence presented here largely argues against the concept of a uniform, chronologically aligned collapse or catastrophe in all regions of the lowlands or even a uniform "decline" in population or political institutions. (Note that some recent climatological theories run counter to this trend and return to catastrophism, e.g., Chapters 9 and 15; Hodell et al. 1995; Haug et al. 2003). In light of the data and perspectives in most of these chapters, the enigmas of the Terminal Classic become more manageable and less value-laden problems. We can plot the various collapses, declines, or transformations of Classic Maya regional culture across the political landscape of the Maya lowlands and note the common underlying structural problems, the varying proximate "causes" and external forces, and the different results in each region. The beginning of such a comparative plotting was the principal goal of this volume and the meetings, correspondence, and debates that generated these papers.

We hope that these chapters will provide a baseline that will stimulate, clarify, and direct the continuing systematic compilation of regional culture-histories of the end of the Classic and beginning of the Postclassic period. This new epoch of research on the problem should leave behind the myth of global, pan-Maya catastrophism and the "mystery" of the collapse. Instead, the specifics of the varying regional sequences, and linkages between them, may lead to a more sophisticated understanding of the changes in lowland Maya political and economic systems.

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