The Classic Maya Collapse: A Review of Evidence and Interpretations Page: 37

                                
37

be underestimated by a less superstitious people--uncertainty
and fear that spring from forces beyond the control or under-
standing of man.
Representative of this basic idea in recent times is Euan
MacKie, who also worked on the periphery of Belize, near the
Guatemala border at the striking ruins of Xunantunich, perched
above the banks of the Mopan River. Not so rash as to postu-
late a single cause theory, MacKie, who states clearly that he
suggests possibilities for this site only, and not the entire
area, proposed "a natural disaster, an earthquake, caused
damage to the buildings, and was followed immediately after by
a social upheaval. "8  However his interpretation of evidence
for this theory is for .the most part, unverifiable, and based
on examination of two particular buildings at Xunantunich. In
the first, Structure A-ll, he noted:
All the roof vaults, the outer walls, and large pieces.
of the substructures had collapsed. The vault blocks
lay in large numbers on and near the interior floors,
under masses of debris yet often with air spaces between
them, suggesting a rapid collapse. (T)he fall of the
vaults had shattered some 17 pottery vessels which had
been standing on the floor of the long front room.
These pots would almost certainly have been removed if
the building had remained intact and abandoned for any
length of time.9
The second building he examined, Structure A-15, of the
palacio, a residential style, showed the same signs of rapid
collapse.  What was especially important was the fact that,
8.  Euan W. MacKie, "New Light on the End of Classic Maya Cul-
ture at Benque Viejo, British Honduras," American Antiquity,
vol. 27, no. 2 (1961),, p,. 219.
9. Ibid, p. 216.