How did military conflict fit into the end of a mighty civilization? AP Photo/Moises CastilloTwo trophy skulls, discovered by archaeologists in the jungles of Belize, may help shed light on the little-understood collapse of the once powerful Classic Maya civilization. The defleshed and painted human skulls, meant to be worn around the neck as pendants, were buried with a warrior over a thousand years ago at Pacbitun, a Maya city. They likely represent gruesome symbols of military might: war trop
Jeremy Gaunt / Creative Commons
Are we on the verge of societal collapse? We tend to worry about the big explosive stuff like nuclear war, asteroids, and solar flares when we consider end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it scenarios. The reality is that most fallen civilizations gradually decline over many decades with a banality that can barely register.
We often remember the decline of civilizations as the fault of poor leaders or natural disasters but it s more like death from a thousand cuts from conditions like inequality, corruption, and political dysfunction. That s (partly) what happened to the Roman Empire.
And most civilizations don t collapse. They adapt and transform and take their culture with them. The Maya civilization is the archetype of a “collapsed” civilization, ingrained through popular and scholarly literature. That s not really what happened and millions of Maya descendants are alive to talk about it.