More on the Collapse

Ironically, just as I was writing my last post, on the Classic Maya Collapse, the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences was releasing online the articles in a special section devoted to historical collapses. It appears to have been organized by Karl Butzer, the doyen of environmental archaeology. The special feature includes two articles on the Maya:

Dunning, Nicholas P., Timothy P. Beach, and Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach (2012). Kax and Kol: Collapse and Resilience in Lowland Maya Civilization. www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1114838109.

Luzzadder-Beach, Sheryl, Timothy P. Beach, and Nicholas P. Dunning (2012). Wetland Fields as Mirrors of Drought and the Maya Abandonment. www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1114919109.

I haven't had the chance to read them yet, but the authors are at the top of the field and have already made major contributions to the research on the question, so I expect the articles to be both interesting and important.