How could powerful, prosperous empires dominating the natural resources of their region evaporate in the space of a few years? Climatic disaster, internal revolts, self-collapse, or cosmic phenomenon, almost everything has been imagined. From Easter Island to the Minoan civilization via the Mayas, a look back at eight mysterious disappearances.
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At its height, the opulent Khmer Empire stretched over 1,000 km2 and had up to one million inhabitants. However, it collapsed in a few years, like many other civilizations that thought they were invincible. As for the fall of the Roman Empirethese collapses are the subject of much speculation by scientists.
The Rapa Nui
The theory long advanced to explain thecollapse of the society of Easter Island, a small isolated island off the coast of Chile populated by a few thousand inhabitants until the end of the XVIIand century, is that of the self-destruction of a civilization obsessed with building statues, which would have led to the disappearance of the forests. This deforestation would then have caused soil erosion, the disappearance of birds and prevented the construction canoes for the peach. The self-destruction thesis has, however, been called into question by several studies, which suggest environmental factors, such as the proliferation of rats which devoured the seeds of treesa typical climatic phenomenon El Ninobut also many other factors such as conflicts between clans.
The Caral civilization
Built 4,000 years before the Incas, the pre-Columbian city of Caral, Peru, is probably the oldest city in the Americas. However, it mysteriously disappeared around -1800 BC, after having been inhabited for nearly a millennium. It has long been assumed that more advanced civilizations have supplanted Caral in prestige. But according to a 2009 studythe inhabitants would have been driven out by earthquakes and climatic changes. The phenomenon El Ninowhich regularly affects the Peruvian coasts, would have led to the scarcity of Pisces, torrential rains causing gullies and silting up of the coast. Caral would thus have been engulfed by the sand and dust.
Minoan civilization
The Minoan civilization extended to Crete and part of Greece during the Neolithic era, between 2,700 and 1,200 years BC. Taking its name from the name of the legendary king Minos, it is known for its palaces and its cities adorned with frescoes that strongly influenced the ancient Greeks. The Minoans had developed trade, established a very hierarchical society and advanced writing. The eruption of volcano from Santorini, long credited with his sudden demise at the end of the fifteenthand century, would in fact not be in question. According to the theories, the island would have been invaded and burned by the Myceans, would have suffered from commercial competition in the region or from a revolt of the plebs against a monarchy with militaristic tendencies.
The Anasazis
The Anasazi were a powerful Native American dynasty that lived in southwestern North America from the beginning of the Christian era until the 13thand century. This civilization reached its peak between the Xand and the XIIIand century, with the rise ofirrigation, architecture and an influence that extends to all neighboring peoples. The remains of almost intact abandoned houses suggest that the Anasazis would have hastily left their territory, taking refuge in the Río Grande valley and in central Arizona and then eventually disappearing without a trace. The causes of this exodus remain mysterious. War ? Invasion? Drought ? Deforestation? Traces of cannibalism also suggests a society undermined by massacres and violence.
The Khmers
The Khmer Empire dominated the peninsula Indochinese between 802 and 1430. Taking advantage of international trade passing through Southeast Asia, the Khmers were so rich that the kings built sumptuous temples the most famous of which is that of Angkor. This powerful empire, however, slowly declined at the beginning of the 13thand century, without it being possible to determine the reason. Again, theories advance the explanation of self-destruction through deforestation, which would have broken the natural cycle of monsoons. Others suggest an irrigation system victim of its complexity, with the construction of dams and canals that have become uncontrollable. More likely, the empire was the target of relentless external attacks and internal power struggles.
Assyrians
The Assyrians formed one of the main empires of the Near East between the IXand and the VIIand century before J. – C. They then occupied a vast territory extending from Egypt to current Turkey until Euphrates. Building sumptuous cities and gardens, the Assyrians swim in luxury and wealth for two centuries. Conflicts for the struggle for power and less and less influential kings will however cause their fall, the empire eventually disintegrating into small pieces, attacked by the Medes and the Babylonians. A 2019 study invokes for its part a persistent drought of 60 years, which would have weakened the empire, the latter resting on the power of its Agriculture and very dependent on precipitation.
The Mayas
The Mayan Empire reached its peak between 550 and 950 AD, with an area stretching from the northern Yucatán Peninsula to the Pacific coast of Guatemala. Main pre-Columbian civilization, it has up to 50,000 inhabitants living in large cities erected around temples and palaces, and using a complex writing system. These magnificent cities will however be gradually abandoned and engulfed by the forest. The fall of the Mayan Empire has been the subject of countless hypotheses, including a demographic crisis, wars endemic internal, or an ecological catastrophe. A study of Science thus highlighted a drop in annual precipitation of 41% to 54% in the years before the collapse, which would have pushed populations to exodus.
The Clovis
Could a cosmic event have overcome the Clovis civilization? This prehistoric people arrived in America by the Bering Strait 14,000 years ago would have been decimated by a meteor showerthe impact of which ejected large amounts of dust into theatmospherecausing a drop in temperatures of about 7°C throughout thenorthern hemisphere 12,800 years ago. This event would also have led to a burning of the forests and the disappearance of the mammoth and big game, the main food source for the Clovis. Another one 2018 study argues that these disparate populations simply migrated south, their lineage genetic being replaced by that of other arrivals.
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