Scientists of Brown University in the United States showed that up to 900 of our era in mesoamer have existed the kingdom of Maya, which used sustainable agricultural methods that ensure food safety. A new study published in the Remote Sensing magazine showed that strategic thinking could help them cope with droughts that caused the decline of ancient civilization.
Archaeologists conducted a laser scanning of a 331 square kilometer in the basin of the upper part of the Usumasinta River in Mexico and Guatemala using high resolution airlidera. On this territory there were three kingdoms Maya: Piedras-Negrat, La Mar and Sak Qi. Digital areas of terrain demonstrated traces of ancient settlements and related irrigation facilities, and cluster analysis made it possible to distinguish urban, suburban and rural zones, lost in the jungle of Central America.
It turned out that between 350 and 900 of our era there were Maja kingdoms that were characterized by a low population density. At the same time, agricultural technologies were sufficiently developed in order not to not only satisfy the basic vital needs of the population, but also to provide excess food. According to scientists, this indicates the strategic thinking of the indigenous mezoaers, which could stock up with food and, thus, to deal with the lack of town years.
Maja agriculture methods, whose major culture were corn, included the construction of terraces, dams and fields with channels.
All three kingdoms managed Adjav – a representative of political nobility. But Piedras-Negrat, the greatest kingdom, headed Kool Adjav or the “Saint Lord”, a special honorable title, who did not claim Lorda La Mara and Sak-Qi. The last two kingdoms are also not quite equal, since La Mar was more densely, than Sak Qi, who, in turn, had more political autonomy.