When archaeologists look at man’s response to natural disasters, the discoveries they make can be very surprising. This is the case with the behavior of the Mayans after a volcanic eruption.
In the year 539 AD, the volcano named Tierra Blanca Joven which is located at San Andrés, El Salvador, entered eruption. This eruption is considered to be the largest of the Holocene to have occurred in America . Indeed, the volcano projected 43.8 cubic kilometers of tephra into the air and caused global climate cooling in the northern hemisphere during the middle of the VI e century AD The tephra consists of volcanic products such as ash, bombs (projected fragments of lava ) and stones pumice .
A study recently published in the journal Antiquity reports the results of analyzes as to the impact that this volcanic eruption on the local Mayans but also on the Mayan civilization as a whole. Until then, there were two hypotheses regarding their response to this eruption.
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There were two hypotheses concerning the Mayas’ response to this eruption
The first stipulated that the populations had declined and the society had collapsed because of the immediate effects, but also on the long term of this rash. However, this hypothesis was based on an earlier dating of the eruption and its supporters indicated that the populations had not resettled in the area close to eruption only after one or two centuries after the disaster. The second hypothesis, which considers that the eruption took place in 539 AD, suggests that the reorganization of society following the eruption took place much more quickly. According to this hypothesis, a large part of western El Salvador was repopulated in the middle of the 7th th century and
construction monumental were completed.
A pyramid of ash. .. in a flash
The author of the study, Akira Ichikawa, has carried out archaeological and dating analyzes at San Andrés, which is located about 40 kilometers from the volcano. The discovery that the researchers made suggests that a monumental architectural project was started at this site between five and thirty years after the disaster.
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A monumental architectural project was started at this site between five and thirty years after the disaster
Also, much of this construction was made with tephra from eruption. The author indicates that the realization of such a project, which required investment on the part of all and colossal work, was decisive in order to restore social and political order in the disaster area.
The monument consists of a platform (85 x 65 m, 7 m high), on which is placed a pyramid (35 x 40 m, 13 m high). According to the author’s estimate, if the construction was carried out by 1,000 people who worked 60 days a year, the structure would have been completed in three years, which is quick to build a structure of 24,000 m 3 .
In addition, the volcanoes and the mountains were sacred places in Mesoamerica. The constructions with tephra could therefore have very powerful religious or cosmological meanings for these peoples.
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