Abstract
MAYAN PEOPLES occupied the southernmost portion of the Yucatin Peninsula and developed one of the highest known indigenous cultures of the New World during the first millenium A.D. This culture collapsed before 1000 A.D. and the Peten, as it is now known, never regained either the level of civilization nor the population it once is supposed to have supported. Other Mayan groups living to the north and south of the Peten underwent various types of cultural disturbances but generally there was no permanent depopulation in these areas. It would appear therefore that the population that once lived in the Petin presents a rather special case. It is presently thought that this population virtually disappeared. A number of hypotheses attempting to explain the cause of the collapse of Classic Maya civilization have been proposed. The purpose of the subsequent discussion is to review such ideas in the light of research that has been carried out in the southern Maya lowlands, namely El Departamento de El Peten, the northernmost state of Guatemala.
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