Module 8: Why did the Mayan civilization collapse?

Module 8: Why did the Mayan civilization collapse?

Overview

We will use archaeological and environmental data to investigate the causes and chronology of the collapse of the ancient Mayan civilization. We will explore the relevance of these results for understanding the vulnerabilities and risks to contemporary society. 

Objectives

  • Understand how archaeologists use archaeological and environmental data to answer questions about past human behaviours and relationships
  • Compare the value of single-cause or multi-cause explanations of ancient events
  • Join tables of related data to analyze and visualize
  • Write a reproducible report that presents archaeological and environmental data to explain why the Mayans collapsed

Readings

Go to Perusall to access the readings and video to prepare for class (FAQ on Perusall)

Lectures

Lecture slides will be available here after class.

Discussions

Discuss this module and ask questions on Discord (contact us for an invite). When asking for help with code, please share a screenshot (FAQ: how to take a screenshot)  

Assignments

Assignments for this module are:

      • Before Thursday's class complete 8.1 and 8.2 on Perusall
      • Before Tuesday's class complete 8.3 and 8.4 on Perusall
      • Poll Everywhere responses during scheduled class time
      • Complete the Module 8 Lab report, you can work on this online in RStudio on JupyterHub. We will demonstrate how to do the lab in class on Tuesday, then you will submit your completed lab before the following Tuesday's class. You have one week to complete the lab after seeing the demonstration in class.