[EggsAckley]

The examination of the Italian skeletons also dismissed the hypothesis that the demise of the Roman Empire was related to lead poisoning.

I am a firm believer that the demise of the Roman Empire was due to the centuries/generations of in-breeding. They just got weaker genetically and weirder mentally. Perhaps this was also the cause of Egypt's disappearance. On a positive note, the Islamists are still avidly practicing in-breeding; perhaps that will finally resolve the problem with this troublesome sector of the human race.

[blam]

"Perhaps this was also the cause of Egypt's disappearance."

Nah, It was a meteor shower, see post #15 & 16 on the thread linked below. This incident probably ended Sodom & Gomorra and provided the fireworks described in Revelations.

Disaster That Struck The Ancients

[TopQuark]

What a eugenic thing to say!

At the turn of XX century, Germany was the most civilized and elightened nation, and then turned into the most barbaric within one generation. The point is that ideas change much more rapidly than genetic code, and it is people's ideas and values that determine the actions they choose.

[Renfield]

I hope that both of you are joking. Excessive taxation, official corruption, loss of cultural integrity, and loss of agricultural productivity due to soil erosion and salination in the grain-supplying areas of North Africa were the major causes. A series of barbarian invasions provided the coup de gras, but the empire was already weak, decadent, and spindly by that time.