The Briefing Room

General Category => Science, Technology and Knowledge => Topic started by: jmyrlefuller on November 09, 2012, 11:35:00 pm

Title: Why the Maya Fell: Climate Change, Conflict—And a Trip to the Beach?
Post by: jmyrlefuller on November 09, 2012, 11:35:00 pm

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/11/121109-maya-civilization-climate-change-belize-science/

by Nicholas Mott
November 9, 2012

Every civilization has its rise and fall. But no culture has fallen quite like the Maya Empire, seemingly swallowed by the jungle after centuries of urban, cultural, intellectual, and agricultural evolution.

What went wrong? The latest discoveries point not to a cataclysmic eruption, quake, or plague but rather to climate change. And faced with the fallout, one expert says, the Maya may have packed up and gone to the beach.

(excerpt)

Title: Re: Why the Maya Fell: Climate Change, Conflict—And a Trip to the Beach?
Post by: Rapunzel on November 09, 2012, 11:48:21 pm

Even more interesting is they came before the Egyptian Empire....... I have been to the ruins at Chichen Itza - we could climb to the top back then, I understand you cannot today.  They were fascinating to me.....