MEXICO—A pyramid at the Maya city of Kiuic in Yucatan Peninsula started out as a ceremonial platform in 700 B.C., much earlier than previously thought, according to George Bey of Millsaps College. Many scholars think that the Maya collapse was caused by long-term drought and the depletion of natural resources, but Kiuic seems to have been abandoned rapidly around 880 A.D. Bey and Tomas Gallareta Negron of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History have found evidence that the residents left behind their grinding stones and other valuable kitchen tools, along with the remains of ancestors. “These were the Maya middle class, and they were doing well,” Bey said.