Maya Collapse Theory

         I think that the Maya collapsed because of widespread hunger. Many Maya skeletons, over 80%, show signs of anemia, an iron deficiency. Corn, the staple food of the Maya, has plenty of iron in it. This suggests that famine caused the anemia because there are only  a few infectious causes for anemia that are contagious and would wipe out that much of a civilization.  They may have had to switch to eating other foods because their corn would no longer grow. Today, if you went and asked a farmer who lives in the Copán valley near the Maya city of Copán about the size of his corn crops, he would say that the yields get smaller each year. Currently, the valley has a population of 25,000 people, approximately the same amount that lived there when the Maya collapsed. The farmers feed everyone in the valley. Because of this, the fields are always in use. they do not get time to lie fallow and replenish the nutrients that the plants take out of the soil. A similar predicament might have happened with the Maya. One year, they probably couldn't grow enough corn to feed the whole valley. The Mayas died out soon after, as everyone had died of starvation. Also, nobles may have had health problems, as their skulls were squished when they were young to give them elongated foreheads.