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A brand new research reshapes our perspective on the decline of of traditional Maya civilization. Although archaeological information lengthy recommended a dramatic inhabitants fall round 1,200 years in the past, new genetic proof confirms that the Maya folks by no means actually disappeared. The research, revealed in Present Biology, analysed genomes from seven historical people from the traditional metropolis of Copán, a serious heart of the traditional Maya world, which lies beneath western Honduras. The outcomes spotlight a robust thread of genetic continuity from the Late Archaic interval to fashionable Maya populations, providing new perception into migration, elite integration, and the enduring legacy of the Maya civilization.

Copan’s Cultural Fusion

In accordance with the research, Copán was first settled throughout the Early Preclassic interval (earlier than ~1000 BCE) by small farming communities. Monumental structure and complicated inscriptions signifies that town had turn into a serious maya heart by the early Traditional interval (300–400 CE). A royal dynasty started in 426/427 CE when Ok’inich Yax Ok’uk’ Mo’, an outsider, assumed energy—an occasion supported by each epigraphic and genomic proof. Genetic knowledge reveal that he, and others within the elite class, doubtless got here from highland Mexican populations, equivalent to these close to Chichén Itzá.

Archaeological and historic information lengthy recommended that elite Maya migrants intermarried with native non-Maya populations to ascertain the dominion. The brand new genetic research helps this idea. Researchers discovered robust genetic continuity from the late archaic period to fashionable Maya teams, together with about 6% gene stream from highland Mexican populations, indicating regional integration and elite motion.

Collapse and Continuity

The DNA evaluation of the research reveals that regardless of the massive decline within the inhabitants of Copan across the starting of 750 CE, the genetic continuity continued. It signifies that native populations remained whilst elite buildings crumbled.

Conventional narratives described the Maya collapse as a mysterious vanishing. However this research signifies that Maya folks didn’t vanish out of the blue however they reorganised by adapting, migrating, and redefining their identities.