What was done
The authors, as they describe it, "infer the Holocene paleoclimate history of the northeastern Yucatan Peninsula by comparing physical and chemical properties in two sediment cores from Lake Punta Laguna [located approximately 20 km NNE of Coba], and discuss the potential implications for Maya cultural transformation." Here, we comment on their findings as they pertain to the Terminal Classic Collapse, which stands out, in their estimation, as "the greatest cultural discontinuity prior to Spanish contact."

What was learned
Hodell et al. report that the Terminal Classic Collapse - which they identify as occurring between 750 and 1050 A.D. - "can be viewed as a series of transformations, occurring first in the south during the late eighth and ninth centuries A.D., followed by a similar decline in the north in the tenth century A.D." Concurrently, they report finding evidence for "lower lake level and drier climate at about the same time as each major discontinuity in Maya cultural history."

What it means
The three researchers state that "the fact that both major climatic changes and cultural transformations occurred in the Terminal Classic Period between 750 and 1050 A.D. is probably not coincidental." We agree; and we note, in this regard, that this time period begins at the sharp jump in the number of worldwide studies that identify the Medieval Warm Period as beginning in earnest at that first point in time (750 A.D.) and culminates at the broader peak in the number of studies that define the Medieval Warm Period's most common worldwide time of occurrence at approximately 1050 A.D., as shown in the Interactive Map and Time Domain Plot of our Medieval Warm Period Project. It would thus appear - although more corroboration is certainly appropriate - that global weather patterns may have changed in such a way over this time period that the recurring multi-year dry spells that were characteristic of the Terminal Classic Period became ever more severe and difficult for the Maya to bear, possibly leading to their collapse at the very peak of the Medieval Warm Period, as defined by the global data set to which we are continually adding new findings each and every week.