It’s something I think I saw on a Bob Brier documentary marathon, once—probably while I was battling insomnia and/or the flu—that I’ve been trying unsuccessfully to find info about.
Apparently, some Pre-Columbian American civilization (one of the lesser-known ones), had deliberately destroyed itself—excavations had suggested that there’d been a cycle of deliberately burning and razing their capital(?) city, for some unknown, possibly ritual purpose, and rebuilding it in another location; until after many years the last iteration was finally also destroyed, and the civilization essentially ceased to exist.
I can’t remember many more details than that, except that said destruction was evidently not through warfare, and I think it existed in a forested area. And of course, that whole outline I might be accidentally misremembering through a Nyquil haze, or have been exaggerated for TV entertainment value.
But still, it’s been bugging me for awhile, so I just have to ask. Can anyone enlighten me?
It is an interesting question: the Mayan Empire disappeared around 1200 AD-the capital city (Copan) seems to have stopped building around AD 822…the city was abandoned by 1200. Nobody really knows why-some speculate that the soil became exhausted, and agriculture could no longer feed a large population. The (Bolivian) Tiwanaku culture disappeared around the same time-their great temple was abandoned. Was there a drought or period of abnormaly cold weather ? Nobody seems to have the answer.
One theory is that the climate change that brought us Vikings in Greenland also did in the tenuous agricultural arrangements of the Mayans. Supposedly there are extensive irrigation canals now buried by jungle in the Yucatan area.
My first thought was the Easter Island inhabitants.
For a good romp through this sort of history, read *Collapse *by Jared Diamond.
Razing the capitol was a common practice, or, at least sections of it over time. This was used to control pestilence. It wasn’t until they got sewers and the like implemented were they able to stop.
Why did they move the capitol each time? Probably because the supporting area was depleted. Had to find new trees, new ground to use, etc. They may have razed it as some part of ritual or to prevent others from using it.
If memory serves, Diamond’s take on the Mayan collapse is as follows: Population growth → more land cleared to grow crops → deforestation alters weather patterns → drought → crop failure → famine.