Maya collapse

My collapse theory is that the Maya simply farmed themselves out of power to feed their city-states, war efforts and religion. They were organized into city-states that fought endlessly, and required a lot of food to feed the warriors. These city-states also required vast amounts of food to feed the people living there. Maize (corn) was considered sacred, and every man had to plant a blood crop, maize seeds doused in blood from when his umbilical cord was cut. Crops had a great value to the Maya, so they toiled the soil so much that it lost its fertility, forcing them to abandon their great cities lest they all starve.

The Chanchay were a people with an odd sense of humor. This was reflected in several pieces of strange artwork, such as the one below.

A strange-looking Chanchay doll.

The Chavin tribe built temples, tombs and monuments around 1000 BCE.

A tenon-head on a temple.

The Nazca people were most famous for the patterns they carved into the earth, known as the Nazca Lines.

A spider design in the Nazca Lines.