In documentaries and articles about ancient civilizations, the question of why the particular civilization “mysteriously” came to an abrupt end is almost always raised. Was it war? Drought? Famine? Disease? How could such a great and powerful empire disappear in such a short time? This was one of the problems associated with the Mound Building culture that once controlled the area where I grew up in North Georgia or the Mayas who built the ruins I visited in the Yucatan. I confess that I puzzled over this the same as the archaeologists.
Nowadays, I reckon that the archaeological issue has been poorly framed. The question should not be how oppressive, monument building regimes fail to maintain themselves perpetually; rather, we should ask how such regimes were ever allowed to exist in the first place and why they were not discarded sooner. I no longer imagine happy Mayan peasants volunteering to labor on the construction of elaborate ceremonial structures for the benefit of priestly and kingly elites. On the contrary, I imagine them as seizing any opportunity to be free of their overlords. When the Mound Builders or the Mayan rulers fell, ordinary people were probably no worse off for it.
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3 comments:
You're spot on about the Mayans. For one thing, they're all still there in the Yucatan. They claim, and all the available evidence supports them in this, that they got sick of having kings and just walked out into the jungle, built villages and ignored the kings and nobles until they starved, since there wasn't anybody around to do the shitwork. There are no signs of wars or disease in the archaeological record. Interesting, considering that the Zapatista movement is so strongly affiliated with the Maya villages. Maybe they're gonna do it again.
Any people will only sacrifice itself to a point. That seems the lost lesson of failed Empires.
Another on the way.
Dear friends,
I'm an Italian graduated and keen on history. I think could interest you my latest article about the big tsunami provoked by Mount Etna 8000 years ago in the entire East Mediterranean Sea, and the submerged town of Atlit-Yam. It's published in my website www.CataniaCultura.com and it's translated in English ( I hope for no errors). I'm sure that you will find it interesting.
With kind regards.
Ignazio Burgio.
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