Classic era Maya collapse, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, and the abandonment of Pripyat
I'm getting ready to teach a month-long course in Mexico with my friend Charles Heath. During the planning process, I've been thinking a lot about the Maya exodus from cities like Palenque and Calakmul at the end of the classic period around 800 C.E. By the time the Spanish arrived in Mexico in 1519, most major Mayan cities had been abandoned for close to 700 years (give or take a few decades). That's roughly the same amount of time that separate us from the world of Christop
