Posted on 10/02/2016 1:44:14 PM PDT by LouieFisk
History is full of mysterious disappearances — of people, of places and even of entire civilizations. In many cases, time has not told us what happened to the populations that have vanished en masse, all over the world. Archeologists unearth ruins and uncover clues as to the demise of ancient cultures, but the fates of many inexplicably evaporated peoples remain question marks. Here are four mysteriously vanished civilizations that keep scientists scratching their heads.
(Excerpt) Read more at mic.com ...
The fall of the Maya is pretty well understood, with more information being added as additional texts are deciphered and translated.
The Minoans disappeared at the same time as what is now thought to be a meteor impact on a section of land near the North East shores of the mouth of the Jordan River. Minoan influenced artifacts have been found there as well as evidence of high heat exposure, burnt bones, microscopic iron spheroids that came from the instant searing of red blood cells that sprayed from exploding bodies as well as smashed buildings. Pottery was found where sections appeared to have been scorched into trinitite, a kind of glassy material found in sand after atomic explosions. The meteor appeared to come in from the southwest and destroyed multiple cities and villages in a 400 square mile area on that eastern side of the Jordan river’s mouth and adjacent plains.
In short God took out the Minoans when he took out the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah!
The Mayans are considered a civilization by every traditional standard. Chahokia and Easter Island have in the past been considered advanced tribal societies but not quite civilizations. The standard for civilizations is looser these days.
Really .. I thought it was Mohammed who wrote the Koran in a CAVE .. which is where I would always look for god.
It’s not clear from archaeology whether the earth mounds of Mississippian cultures such as Cahokia were cities or ritual centers. However, this used to be said of the Maya, too, and it’s now known that their temple complexes were part of very significant urban centers.
The difference is that the Maya build in stone rather than with soil, and that we have a deciphered historical record. In my opinion, the fertility of the Mississippi valley makes it likely that “mound builder” sites were cities, by an reasonable definition, but we’re unlikely to find sufficient remains to establish it.
I guess you are right. The Mayans did have writing and some interesting architectural accomplishments. Still hard to believe they did not even have the wheel.
Close.
It was The Blob.
Something like Hero of Alexandria's steam engine.
Traditionally, the requirement for "civilization" was that a culture have cities.
When I was a girl, we didn't know whether Maya sites were cities, or temple complexes (like the Athenian acropolis), or great cemeteries (like the Egyptian Valley of the Kings). Now, since we have deciphered their writing and done more sophisticated archaeology, we know that their stone monuments were part of significant population centers.
Compare this to Aztec cities: we know the Aztecs' stone monuments were part of large population centers because they were active when Europeans arrived. If we had only some stone ruins deserted in jungles or mountains, it would be harder for us to determine.
It’s because they didn’t have someone to make their civilization great again!
1. Detroit
2. Oakland
3. Baltimore
4. Chicago
LOL!
But but Mittens and Beck are angry because there’s no mention of the Nephites and Lamanites... /s
(let me add a few more to be sure)
/s /s /s
Oh, take your bias and stick it. Historical discussion gets a break from people’s stupid obsessions.
I recall how it has been suggested that the Cahokia collapsed due to the Little Ice Age, just as they had flourished during the Little Optimum; however, it seems that some folks who may have a vested interest in suggesting that these were conditions localized to mainly Europe and not world wide didn’t like the idea.
Democrats.
Cahokia is well established as a major urban center.
The archeological digs on site are enormous. It is estimated that it held a population of 40k or more. This might be why someone would classify it as civilization since the tribal settlement cultures are generally much smaller.
I remember the days when some Mayan pyramids were thought by a few to be ceremonial centers. The Mayan culture itself has been thought to be a civilization for at least the last 60 years and AFAIK long before that.
The Mayans left writings on stone and that helps establish a timeline for them. To my knowledge no Cahokian writing has been found. Having built with dirt sometimes mound builders work is hard to discover.
Living up here in Western Pennsylvania, I’m familiar with the mound builders of this area and their sites are primitive compared to Cahokia. I don’t think anyone has discovered a major urban site near these mounds (they’ve certainly tried finding one).
Thanks for the correction: I haven't followed archaeology in this area. A population of 40,000 would absolutely be "civilization": you can't call that number anything but a city!
Have you visited a lot of Mound Builder sites? I haven't. We could have got to some from Tulsa easily, but we went to modern American Indian sites instead.
It’s a fascinating area of history. Another interesting related theory is how the Dark Ages was were really *dark* and due to the Krakatoa eruption in 535 A.D.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpmauuMrQQU
Genesis 6:17 ... And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.
Genesis 19:24 Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven; 25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.
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