Doomed civilisations

We have a lot to learn from the demise of the Mayans, says Sanjida O'ConnellIn the 1830s, explorers John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood "rediscovered" the Mayan cities of South America. Here was the archetypal picture of a great "lost" civilisation, its abandoned monuments submerged by the encroaching jungle."It's a very evocative image when you have cities that have transparently undergone some Sodom and Gomorrah-like cataclysm. Some might even think it is a judgment from God," says Dr Chris Scarre, an archaeologist from the McDonald Institute, Cambridge University. It is tempting to imagine that some great disaster overtook the citizens. Last week, US scientists proposed that cyclic, extended drought pulled down the Mayan civilisation arund 900AD. Many archaeologists believe that environmental events destroyed civilisations that had reached their cultural peak. Dr Scarre is not convinced. He believes many of the great civilisations of the world were unsustainable and held within them the seeds of their own destruction. Environmental factors may have played a role, but these catastrophes were brought on by the inhabitants themselves - all lessons, he believes, we could apply to our own civilisation.Continue reading...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Science Humanities Technology Higher education Wonders of the world Mayan temples of Tikal, Guatemala Source Type: news