Beyond the Mayan Lowlands: impacts of the Terminal Classic Drought in the Caribbean Antilles

Abstract

High-resolution paleoclimate records from the Mayan Lowlands and the Cariaco Basin have shown that the collapse of the Mayan socio-political structure at the end of the Classic period ∼1000 C.E. was linked to a series of severe, multi-decadal drought events, collectively termed the ‘Terminal Classic Drought’ (TCD), between ∼750 and 1100 C.E. Here we present proxy evidence indicating that increased aridity leading up to and during the TCD also strongly affected the Caribbean Antilles. Additionally, the timing of the TCD corresponds with cultural and demographic shifts in the Greater Antilles, including the appearance of Ostionoid cultural traditions, the colonization of new islands, and the intensification of agriculture. We propose that these multi-decadal droughts affected not only the very large and complex socio-political structures governing large populations like that of the Late Classic Maya, but also smaller and less politically complex societies across the Caribbean. However, instead of resulting in societal collapses as suspected in the Mayan Lowlands, these climatic events may have spurred a cultural transition across the Caribbean Antilles that ultimately led to the development of Taíno cultural traditions encountered by Christopher Columbus upon his arrival in 1492 C.E.