Images from space are giving scientists new clues about the collapse of the Mayan Civilization of Central America. Other ancient civilizations may have suffered the same fate by trying, and failing, to manipulate their environments with massive public works projects.

The Peten region of Northern Guatemala was one of the most densely populated regions of the world about 800 A.D. "By about 900 A.D., these people had all but disappeared, and we think we're beginning to understand why," NASA archaeologist Tom Sever told the World Archaeological Congress in Washington. The suggestion is that the Mayans made major ecological mistakes in this area.

Charles Lindbergh did aerial surveys of the area more than 70 years ago. Analysis of satellite images by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and others is enabling scientists to see through the dense jungle growth. "We have been able to see things that have never been mapped before," Sever said. "Some of these features are so subtle that even if you chopped away all the vegetation, you couldn't see them."

Researchers are beginning to see the rise and fall of the Mayan civilization in a new light. A light that strikes a familiar chord in a modern civilization worried about water wars, droughts, and overpopulation.

The Mayans originated in the Yucatan and eventually occupied much of southern Mexico, Guatemala, western Honduras, El Salvador and northern Belize (Mayan pyramind). The Maya prospered around the lakes and ponds dotting the region. They deforested the region as they grew, to make way for more crops. The resulting erosion filled streams and rivers with silt and turned the lakes into seasonal swamps.

To replace the natural reservoirs, the Maya built hundreds of man-made ones. But there was no cushion for bad years. The population density was equivalent to that of China and every arable acre was under cultivation. "We calculated that even if all the reservoirs were full, they could only hold enough water to sustain that many people for 18 months," Sever said. A series of severe droughts sometime between 800 and 900 A.D. devastated the region, drying up the reservoirs, killing the crops. "Within 100 years, 95% of the population was gone," Sever said.

The analysis is not as advanced, but scientists are suggesting that a similar fate may have befallen the Khmer Empire in Cambodia between the 9th and 15th centuries. Long celebrated for their lavishly decorated temples and stone sculptures, archaeologists have mapped an extensive network of roads, canals and reservoirs covering more than 300 square miles. They estimate that the population of Angkor may have reached 1 million at its peak.

Mike Toner, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 6/26/2003, pg. A4