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1. artbot
   June 19th, 2007 at 11:38 am

   “They gobbled up the resources around them, but failed to develop new technologies that might have allowed them to adapt to changes in their natural surroundings.”

   It’s a good thing we learn from history so this will never happen again….oh, wait….

2. Sid Morrison
   June 19th, 2007 at 12:15 pm

   Climate change did the Mayans in, huh? How can that be when they didn’t have SUVs? Perhaps they just had overly large “carbon footprints”? Or maybe, they just did not purchase enough “credits” in the form of carbon indulgences. When you cut out your enemy’s heart and burn his remains on a pyre, is that carbon-neutral? You are reducing *their* carbon footprint, after all.

   I subscribe to the print Mental Floss and it’s a great magazine, but one thing irks me a little bit about this article. Nowhere is it mentioned that the Mayans killed TENS of THOUSANDS of themselves (within tribes and enemy Mayans) in human sacrifices. What effect did this have on their subsequent downfall and the disappearance of their civilization? It’s not adressed at all and the only indication of any sacrifice is a small reference in the caption of one of the art photos.

   Unfortunately, it’s very PC to talk about how ingenious and technologically sophisticated these ancient cultures were, all while ignoring or just glossing over the “bloodthirsty savage” qualities. Yes, in years past, the opposite was true, but now we have WAY overcorrected.

   Straight talk from Sid.

3. Alex
   June 19th, 2007 at 12:30 pm

   From the article, I gathered that it was the combination of both severe weather events and warfare that did the Mayans in.

   The Mayans had been in war with each other for a long, long time - and the population managed to grow even with the “bloodthirsty savage” qualities. It was the combination of this AND severe draught (plus deforestation) that collapsed the ancient Mayan civilization.

   Severe weather events do happen throughout history - even without significant contribution from human activities back then - but one thing should be clear: we’re going to see a higher frequency of severe weather events due to changes in climate triggered by human activities since the industrial revolution.

   Alex talks in a slightly crooked but charming way.

4. Shaun Wyland
   June 19th, 2007 at 1:47 pm

   There’s another theory of the collapse of the Mayan empire:

   Disease.

   When the Spaniards came to the Americas in the 1500’s, they brought with them successive waves of plagues that decimated vast populations.

   There’s a fascinating article about it in the Atlantic:
   http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200203/mann

   Here’s a paragraph about the Incas;

   Smallpox was only the first epidemic. Typhus (probably) in 1546, influenza and smallpox together in 1558, smallpox again in 1589, diphtheria in 1614, measles in 1618—all ravaged the remains of Incan culture. Dobyns was the first social scientist to piece together this awful picture, and he naturally rushed his findings into print. Hardly anyone paid attention. But Dobyns was already working on a second, related question: If all those people died, how many had been living there to begin with? Before Columbus, Dobyns calculated, the Western Hemisphere held ninety to 112 million people. Another way of saying this is that in 1491 more people lived in the Americas than in Europe.

   The article goes on to say that the collapse brought on by the plagues fueled the fires of war which finished off the culture.

   The article says that the combined plagues in such a short time took out about 95 - 98 % of the native American populations.

   The article says that if the same type of collapse hit New York City today, only about 56,000 survivors would be left — not enough to fill Yankee stadium. If that hit America as a whole, whoever was left would be knocked back to the Stone Age in about a generation or two.

   So the answer to the vanished Maya (and Inca): Us. Or more precisely: our many plagues and diseases, never before seen on this continent.

5. Sid Morrison
   June 19th, 2007 at 3:32 pm

   Shaun’s comment about the mean white Europeans wiping out the Mayans with their diseases is a popular myth, but it’s way misplaced. The Maya civilization, was pretty much “done” by A.D. 1000, LONG before the Europeans arrived. Sure, some of their descendents survived (and do today), but the organized temple-building child murdering society we like to wax poetic about was long gone when the Europeans showed up. You can still blame conquistadors for knocking off the peaceful Incas and Aztecs, though.

   Straight talk from Sid.

6. D.Cardoso
   June 20th, 2007 at 4:23 am

   The article focused on some aspects I’ve never known about, such as draught and deforestation. Very interesting and, unfortunatly, actual. But, I would like to leave a remark: in that time, european kings didn’t eat turkey!

   Turkey is a bird from north america. Therefore, europeans only started to eat it after they re-discovered the Americas, in 1942 - the vikings already discovered the continent in the X century.
   Only, the american people have thanksgiving day and it’s principal plate is turkey - I’m not very sure since, I’m not american. You should look for thanksgiving day history!

   I hope my english is understandable!
   Continue the good work.

7. Bryan
   June 20th, 2007 at 10:22 am

   Barbara Wright, against the Doctor’s express wishes, tried to get them to discontinue human sacrifice all to no avail. She almost got herself and Ian killed in the process.
   Or was that the Aztecs? Unlike Barbara, Mesoamerican history isn’t my specialty.

8. Sid Morrison
   June 20th, 2007 at 10:52 am

   Barbara was dealing with the Aztecs… 500+ years later than the Mayans.

9. dad
   September 16th, 2008 at 2:58 pm

   this site sucks

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