Two chapters, the same questions asked of both
Put two Deep Time chapters next to each other — their evidence base, the dating methods behind them, the live debates, and the questions still open.
Maya
A fully deciphered script, precise astronomy, and a still-contested collapse.
Open full chapter →Aztec
Lake-city agriculture, tribute economics, and codices written on both sides of conquest.
Open full chapter →A deciphered hieroglyphic script, dated monuments, four surviving codices, lidar-mapped settlement, and continuing Maya communities.
Excavations in and beneath Mexico City, indigenous and colonial-era codices, Nahuatl-language texts, and Spanish accounts written by participants and their descendants.
| Method | What it constrains |
|---|---|
| Epigraphic deciphermentCarved stelae, lintels and painted ceramics | Yields dynastic history in the rulers' own terms — which is court history, with its own agenda. |
| Lidar landscape surveyAirborne laser returns under forest canopy | Maps structures and field systems at scale. Dating still requires ground excavation. |
| Palaeoclimate reconstructionLake sediment and speleothem records from the lowlands | Documents drought intervals overlapping the Classic decline. |
| Method | What it constrains |
|---|---|
| Urban excavationTemplo Mayor precinct and offering deposits | Directly tests textual descriptions of ritual. Much of the city remains under a modern capital. |
| Codex analysisPictorial manuscripts and Nahuatl alphabetic texts | Preserves indigenous accounts; most surviving copies were produced under colonial conditions. |
| BioarchaeologySkeletal remains from ritual and burial contexts | Establishes practice and demography without confirming reported totals. |
What drove the Classic-period collapse?
Drought, warfare, soil exhaustion and political fragmentation interact differently by region.
How much of the codical tradition can be reconstructed?
Four codices survive from what was clearly a much larger literature.
What was the scale of human sacrifice?
Skull-rack excavation confirms the practice; Spanish-reported totals remain contested.
How coercive was the tribute empire?
Provincial evidence shows a spectrum from garrisoned control to negotiated tribute.
- How were regional political networks structured between capitals?
- How large were peak populations, now that lidar has changed the baseline?
- How much surviving text remains unexcavated or unreadable?
- How much of Tenochtitlan is recoverable beneath Mexico City?
- How did the lake hydraulic system function in detail?
- What did pre-contact population figures actually look like?