Posted on 07/24/2012 7:54:00 PM PDT by Sir Napsalot
For almost as long as we've had civilization, we've lost it. There are records going back hundreds of years of explorers discovering huge temples encrusted with jungle, or giant pits full of treasure that were once grand palaces. Why did people abandon these once-thriving cities, agricultural centers, and trade routes? Often, the answer is unknown. Here are ten great civilizations whose demise remains a mystery.
1. The Maya
The Maya are perhaps the classic example of a civilization that was completely lost, its great monuments, cities and roads swallowed up by the central American jungles, and its peoples scattered to small villages. Though the languages and traditions of the Maya still survive up to the present day, the civilization's peak was during the first millennium AD, when their greatest architectural feats and massive agricultural projects covered a vast region in the Yucatán — today, an area stretching from Mexico to Guatemala and Belize. One of the largest Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya made extensive use of writing, math, an elaborate calendar, and sophisticated engineering to build their pyramids and terraced farms. Though it's often said that the Maya civilization began a mysterious decline in roughly the year 900, a great deal of evidence points to climate change in the Yucatán combined with internecine warfare, which resulted in famine and abandonment of the city centers.
2. Indus Valley Civilization
One of the great civilizations of the ancient world is called simply the Indus or Harappan civilization. Thousands of years ago, it may have boasted up to 5 million people, almost 10 percent of the world's population, spread over a region that encompassed parts of today's India, Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at io9.com ...
Also in the comment section, there is another mention of the Hittites.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hittites
Every civilization has had its versions of Democrats and Obamas, and they die.
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My bet is in most cases, crop failure. Due to variable rainfall, variable temperatures and crop disease. Anyone involved in modern agriculture knows how much successful production depends on adapting methods.
What works for a time, simply stops working because of insect adaptation, fungus growth, competing crop appearance.
Only by constantly observing and changing to current conditions does agriculture succeed.
Bwahaahaahaha......
Wait a sec, that means us. Not so good. :-(
I’ve heard some archeologists who say that our ability to find solutions can sometimes create complex systems that fall apart because they were too complex to hold together.
It is a known fact that the climate of the earth varies from era to era and small differences in average temperatures and rainfall can devastate crops and populations. They can even trace the movements of prehistoric peoples into and out of Europe as a result of those temperature changes.
Only in recent years has there been some degree of ability to adapt to major changes and even that is limited.
Both those are not ancient. They postdate the printing press.
11. Flint, Michigan
too complex?
Yep, God reminding us who is actually in charge.
The Mayan collapse is no great mystery. Constant warfare between the city-states eventually took its toll. The treasure needed to maintain a vital civilization was pee’d into the winds of war. Even a short drought or period of intensified hurricanes (they’re periodic and devastating on that flat land that’s barely above sea-level) was probably enough to push the “tilt” button.
DEMOCRATS, next question
Bureaucracies stifle growth and adaptation.
They kill any civilization in time.
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