X-Message-Number: 5878 From: Peter Merel <> Subject: Maya Date: Wed, 6 Mar 1996 00:19:00 +1100 (EST) Thomas Donaldson writes, >On the decline of civilizations, Mr. Merel produced some interesting examples. >We note, for instance, that the Toltecs had successors (sure, we may have >SUCCESSORS too, but that doesn't mean that they simply vanished). The Mayans >are actually still there, in Yucatan. Yes, I screwed up. I was closest with the Egyptians, and I probably could have thrown in Nubians and Sumerians - I'll try to work up a definitive list over the next week or so; this point bears closer examination than I troubled with in my previous message. The point I was trying to make was that without adequate technology to keep pace with them, civilizations grow until they surpass their ability to maintain themselves - and then bust, leaving behind scorched earth. However, it's plain that the Mayans and Toltecs have left no deserts behind them. Excess hand-waving on my part - mea culpa - but I think the point is still sound. >a group which regressed would be the Easter islanders; Mr. Merel might also >have mentioned the aboriginals of Tasmania. One problem these peoples had >which most did not was not so much the exhaustion of resources as the small >number of people: it takes more than a certain amount to keep any animal >population going indefinitely. A lot of Pacific islands, once populated by >Polynesians, were empty by the time Europeans reached them: because they >could only sustain too small a population, not because that population >simply ran out of resources. That description doesn't fit Tasmania or Easter Island. Tasmania is larger than the whole UK. And Easter Island was quite viable until bad land management cut down its forests - then soil erosion is thought to have done the rest of the work. Peter Merel. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=5878