ABSTRACT
Catastrophe, Disasters, Recoveries, and Transformations
O f the major Classic civilizations of Mesoamerica, Teotihuacan appears
to have been the first to fall. The first indications of difficulty for the em-
pire and the great city were their withdrawal in the beginning of the 530s
from the Maya Lowlands and from other long-distance trading partners
to the southeast. This pullback was offset somewhat by expansion to the
north and west, but these moves into the arid mining zones of the Gran
Chichimeca did not really balance out the loss of commodities from the
richer tropical zones. Internal stresses are reflected in increasing evidence
for social inequalities. Considering these and other possible factors, how-
ever, Rene Millón accepts CowghTs (1988:263) suggestion that bureau-
cratic inflexibility and interference may have brought the city down. M i l i -
tarism appears to have been on the rise, and the political authority was
shifting from a religiously sanctioned type to a more secular wielding of
power (R. Millón 1988:146-149).
