For decades, the dominant question in Maya studies was why their civilisation collapsed. Now, many scholars are shifting focus to ask: how did the Maya survive? This change is driven by new technologies that are overturning long-held beliefs about the ancient Maya.
Archaeologist Francisco Estrada-Belli, who first visited the Maya ruins at Tikal in 1970 as a child, is now part of a team using advanced techniques such as Lidar, DNA analysis, and climate science to rewrite Maya history. Their recent study suggests that the classic-era Maya lowlands (AD 600-900) were home to up to 16 million people—more than five times the current population of the region. This would mean the Maya lowlands were more densely populated than the Italian peninsula at the peak of the Roman Empire, in an area a third of the size.
The comparison with Rome is instructive. Some Maya cities predate Rome and feature larger surviving architecture. Both cultures had sophisticated astronomy, mathematics, writing, and agriculture. However, while Rome's ruins are part of a bustling modern city, Maya ruins are covered by tropical forest, and their descendants are among the poorest people on Earth. Today, over 11 million Maya live across Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, and the US, with 7.7 million in Guatemala, where they officially make up 44% of the population.
History remains a political issue for the Maya. In Guatemala, they demand a full reckoning with the 1960-1996 civil war that killed about 200,000 people, mostly Maya, and recognition as original inhabitants. They face ongoing discrimination: two-thirds of arable land is controlled by 2.5% of farmers, few of them Maya, while 60% of Indigenous children are undernourished.
In 2023, Maya groups helped secure the presidential election victory of Bernardo Arévalo, who appointed archaeologist Liwy Grazioso as minister of culture and sports. This marks a shift towards greater inclusion of Maya perspectives in national governance.
