SPECIAL SECTION: SPECIAL SECTION: HISTORICAL CLIMATOLOGY IN
THE MAYA AREA
SPECIAL SECTION: SPECIAL SECTION: HISTORICAL CLIMATOLOGY IN
THE MAYA AREA
| |
LOS MAYAS Y EL NIÑO(Paleoclimatic correlations,
environmental dynamics, and cultural implications for the ancient
Maya)
Lewis C.
Messenger
Jr.
a1
a1 Department of Anthropology, Hamline
University, 1536 Hewitt Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55104,
USA
| |
AbstractDuring the spring of 1998, an El Niño event produced
harsh drought conditions in much of Mexico, including the Maya
area. Similar events surely occurred in the distant past. This
paper reports on investigation of chronological correlations
between El Niño event sequences as suggested by glacial
ice-core data from Quelccaya in the Peruvian Andes,
historical-severity-ranked El Niño event sequences, and
historical drought documentation for the Maya area. Positive
correlations between Andean ice-core data sets and historical
sequences were expected to provide evidence for earlier discrete
El Niño event sequences as far back as A.D.
470 that could be used as proxy data to reconstruct annual El
Niño events affecting southern Mesoamerica, including
the Maya Classic through Postclassic periods. Correlations of
these data sets proved inconclusive, suggesting the need for
alternative approaches toward reconstructing discrete El
Niño sequences for the Maya area.
|
