A.D. 536 AND THE MAYA HIATUS: A RE-CONSIDERATION OF THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL, ICONOGRAPHIC, AND EPIGRAPHIC RECORDS IN MESOAMERICA

In A.D. 536 the world experienced a global disaster. Known as the year(s) without summer, historical sources from this period record a plethora of global effects including a drastic decline in temperature, the dimming of the sum to brightness no greater than a full moon, the appearance of a dry fog, and the start of ongoing famine and drought. While the cause of the disaster is still subject to debate, it has been purported that the eruption of volcán Ilopango in El Salvador in A.D. 535 was the source. This assertion is supported by a range of data including the coinciding peak in sulfur in both the Antarctica and Greenland ice cores. If this conclusion is correct then it follows that the impacts would have been greater near the source of the eruption.

Looking to Mesoamerica, A.D. 536 is within a marked period of change. More specifically, for the Maya A.D. 536 falls generally within the transition from the Early to Late Classic periods. Furthermore, at this time the Maya experienced what Morley named the “Maya Hiatus.” Simply, the hiatus denotes a period of depressed monument dedication. Maya scholars have recently challenged the existence of the Maya hiatus because some areas were more clearly affected than others. Consequently, the question of what, if anything, caused the Maya hiatus, is crucial to understanding why some areas were affected more than others. While the Maya were located relatively near Ilopango, it appears that A.D. 536 was not particularly deleterious to their society as a whole. The answer to why this was lies in the investigation of the archaeological, epigraphic and iconographic records. Only by considering the entire picture can we understand how 536 might have affected the Maya and why they were able to withstand a large-scale sudden environmental disaster.