The great Maya civilization of Central America has long intrigued archaeologists, who have investigated its economic, social, and political bases, and its mysterious collapse around 900 A.D. Until recently, archaeologists theorized that the ancient Maya peoples practiced slash-and-burn agriculture that required great tracts of forest land, and that as population grew the dwindling forest resources could no longer support the civilization. It was thought that a small, centralized, priestly elite was supported by an undifferentiated mass of people in the countryside which surrounded temple complexes.