featheredfish wrote:
I've always taken the view that if the Mayans could see into the future as far ahead as 2012 they would have got the fuck out of Dodge before the drought destroyed their own civilization.
Just sayin'
It probably wasn't that simple. A lot of us today see urban settings as purely modern creations. That's not the case. The Mayan empire was very urbanized. If your civilization is built around an urban culture, the people tend to rely almost completely upon it. For example, the people of London likely wouldn't do very well living in a dense forest. They'd be mentally adjusted to urban living. I think the Mayan people were very much the same in that regard.
Our species in general doesn't do too well with harsh extremes like rain forests. The Mayans would likely have cut the forest back for much of the same reasons we do today (cultivation, wood, etc). Unfortunately that could have accidentally engineered the drought you mentioned, Ted. Without the fibrous root systems of the trees to hold in moisture, create humidity, and subsequent weather systems, drought would be almost assured. That's something we're figuring out again today.
Maybe they were warned by the scholars, and ignored it? Certainly there was political and religious upheaval. There's always some of that in any culture. Several sides vying for power while they ignore the voices of reason. Our societies are mirroring that today. A consistent theme amongst our species the world over.
