Well I'm glad that's cleared up:
Posted on 11/02/2009 5:04:13 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY
The mysterious people who etched the strange network of 'Nazca Lines' across deserts in Peru hastened their own demise by clearing forests 1,500 years ago, according to British scientists.
The Nazca people, famed for giant animal drawings most clearly visible from the air, became unable to grow enough food in nearby valleys because the lack of trees made the climate too dry.
Archaeologists examining the remains of the Nazca, who once flourished in the valleys of south coastal Peru, discovered a sequence of human-induced events which led to their 'catastrophic' collapse around 500 AD.
Author Oliver Whaley, of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, which conducted the research, said: 'The mistakes of prehistory offer us important lessons for our management of fragile, arid areas in the present.'
The Nazca people are best known for the famous 'Nazca Lines', geolyths they left etched into the surface of the surrounding empty desert plains.
Although some conspiracy theorists believe the geolyths were created by aliens, most scholars agree they were sacred pathways followed during sophisticated ancients rituals.
Despite their advanced civilisation the people vanished around 500AD, a collapse that has been blamed on a variety of factors including a massive El Nino weather system hitting the region.
Now the Cambridge University-led team of scientists have found evidence that the Nazca were agents of their own destruction through devastating forest clearances.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
How the ancient Nazca civilisation sealed its own fate by failing to replant harvested forests
There’s grown up quite a cottage industry in the last few years blaming the disappearance of various ancient cultures on man-induced climate change. Since internal combustion engines were nonexistent thousands of years ago, other explanations have to be used; clear cutting of forests being the most popular. As a fad it says quite a lot about the phobias of the present day, although it says little about what actually happened in thousands of years ago.
Let it only be said that if we look solely at civilizations which have a mass of historical documentation attached to them, man-induced climate change cannot be blamed for the demise of any. However, when dealing with civilizations that we don’t know very much about (such as the Nazca) avenues are opened for all sorts of extrapolations. Von Daniken looks at the Nasca and sees evidence for extraterrestrial visitation. Why? Because that’s what he wants to see and with a convenient dearth of historical information it’s difficult to be proven wrong. When environmentalist look at the Nazca they also see what they want to see - and for much the same reason.
Spot on - all these global warmingesque theories are merely the fashion of the day.
Well I'm glad that's cleared up:
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
Gods |
Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. |
||||||||||||||||||||
|
· Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google · · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists · |
|||||||||||||||||||||
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
