Why were ancient cities abandoned –

Looking for:

Why were ancient cities abandoned
Click here to ENTER

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Wealthy cities like Babylon were doomed when the basis of their wealth eroded. Mesopotamia with very fertile soil turned into a salty desert at most places because irrigation with surface . Jul 02,  · In the ninth century A.D., the Maya abandoned the great city of Tikal after hundreds of years of prosperity and expansion. Researchers have long sought to explain how . Ancient cities in different regions have different reasons for being abandoned, depending on their circumstances. Take the most ancient city in history, the Sumerian city of Eridu, for .
 
 

– Why were ancient cities abandoned

Civilizations rise and fall in the blink of a cosmic eye. When we unearth their ancient settlements decades, generations, or centuries later, sometimes we find that they were abandoned after a terrible disease, famine or disaster, or that they were wiped out by war. But the culture of the people here was unlike anything we know today.

First of all, they built the city like a honeycomb, with houses sharing walls. Homes and buildings were accessed by doors cut into the roofs. People would stroll on the streets across these roofs, and climb down ladders to get to their living quarters.

Their architectural style seems to be unique, though archaeologists have found many fertility goddess figurines in the city that resemble others found in the region. As one of the largest and best-preserved of the Maya city-states, Palenque is emblematic of the mystery of the entire Maya civilization — which rose up, dominated parts of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras, then vanished with little explanation.

Discovered in the s, the ruined City of Palenque is lying in the protective embrace of the Mexican jungles, being one of the most breathtaking of all Mayan ruins.

Known for its intricate carvings and as the resting place of Pakal the Great, the city was once a thriving metropolis between AD and AD and was home to somewhere around 6, people at its height.

Though descendants of the Maya are still thriving in Mexico and Central America, no one is sure why the great cities of the Maya fell into ruins and were finally abandoned in the s. Palenque was in its heyday during the classical period of the Maya civilization, from about AD. Like many Maya cities, it had temples, palaces, and marketplaces that were truly amazing. However, Palenque, located near what is today known as the Chiapas region, is a uniquely great archaeological find because it has some of the most detailed sculptures and inscriptions from the Maya civilization, offering reams of historical information about kings, battles, and daily life of Maya peoples.

Theories for why this and other Maya cities were abandoned include warfare, famine, and climate change. There are some cryptic carvings that depict bizarre symbols, which have alternately been interpreted as astrological or religious symbols, or symbolism implying the use of a space ship by the deceased on his way to the next world. For the Maya, red was the colour of blood and the colour of life. Palenque was abandoned in the 10th century CE, left to be enveloped by the jungle and preserved by the same wilds that were once cut back from it.

When scientists scanned the jungles of Guatemala with LiDAR technology, they found an ancient network of roads and settlements hidden in the jungle. They covered an astounding 87 miles of area that helped create El Mirador, the cradle of the Maya civilization. Laser technology known as LiDAR digitally removes the forest canopy to reveal ancient ruins below, showing that Maya cities such as Tikal were much larger than ground-based research had suggested.

Researchers identified the ruins of more than 60, houses, palaces, elevated highways, and other human-made features that have been hidden for centuries under the jungles of northern Guatemala. The results suggest that Central America supported an advanced civilization that was, at its peak some 1, years ago, more comparable to sophisticated cultures such as ancient Greece or China than to the scattered and sparsely populated city states that ground-based research had long suggested.

Louis, Missouri. The ancient city ruins lie in south-western Illinois between East St. Louis and Collinsville. Cahokia was for hundreds of years the biggest city in North America. Its inhabitants built enormous earthen mounds — some of which you can still visit today — and vast plazas which served as markets and meeting places.

There is strong evidence that the inhabitants had very sophisticated agricultural practices, and that they diverted tributaries of the Mississippi several times to water their fields. Like the Maya, the people of Cahokia were at their civilizational height between AD. Nobody is certain why the city was abandoned, nor how the region was able to support such a high-density urban civilization of up to 40, people for hundreds of years.

To say, very little is known about the actual history and expanse of these settlements. Archaeologists argue over how big the settlement was, with population estimates ranging from 10, to 15, for the main hub of the city, with another 30, people settling in what was essentially the suburbs. It was established around AD with surprising speed, and it was completely abandoned by the time Columbus made landfall in the New World. The city shows signs of being rebuilt several times between AD and AD, but beyond that, no one knows why so many people left.

This dramatically different from most other cities, which are often built around central market squares and plazas. How did such a successful civilization exist without a recognizable economy? In the 8th century BCE, this legendary city was the gateway to Egypt, a port town that was full of incredible monuments, rich merchants, and huge buildings.

Now it is entirely submerged in the Mediterranean Sea. Thonis began its slow decline after the rise of Alexandria in the 3rd century CE. But eventually, that slide became literal, as the city drowned in the sea that was once the source of its wealth. Nobody is certain how it happened, but by the 8th century CE, the city was gone.

It may have been the victim of liquefaction after an earthquake. Recently rediscovered by archaeologist Franck Goddio, the underwater city of Thonis, which is also known as Heracleion, is now slowly being excavated from the Mediterranean Sea off the Egyptian coast. Read More. Together with ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, it was one of three early civilizations of the Near East and South Asia, and of the three, the most widespread, its sites spanning an area stretching from northeast Afghanistan, through much of Pakistan, and into western and northwestern India.

It flourished in the basins of the Indus River, which flows through the vast regions. Located mostly in modern-day Pakistan, the Indus Valley Civilization thrived 4, years ago and was then forgotten until the s when local legends led archaeologists to excavate and unearth its enormous ruins. By the year BCE, people began to abandon the cities, and no one knows exactly why. Some theories suggest that they fled because the river dried up due to climate change leading to a collapse in agriculture, while others cite a flood or invasion by Indo-European tribes or nomadic cattle herders.

Though none has been confirmed yet. In the Indus Valley, there were earlier and later cultures often called Early Harappan and Late Harappan in the same area. By , over 1, Mature Harappan cities and settlements had been reported, of which just under a hundred have been excavated. Once one of the most powerful empires of Southeast Asia, the Khmer civilization spread from modern-day Cambodia out into Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and Malaysia and is best known today for Angkor, its capital city.

The empire dates back to CE. Other than stone inscriptions, no written records survive, so our knowledge of the civilization is pieced together from archaeological investigations, reliefs in temple walls and the reports of outsiders including the Chinese. The Khmers practiced both Hinduism and Buddhism and built intricate temples, towers and other structures including Angkor Wat, dedicated to the god Vishnu.

Attacks from outsiders, deaths from the plague, water management issues affecting the rice crops and conflicts over power among the royal families likely led to the end of this empire, which finally fell to the Thai people in CE. Theorized to be the home of the Queen of Sheba, the Aksumite Empire was likely an indigenous African development that grew to encompass most of present-day Eritrea, northern Ethiopia, Yemen, southern Saudi Arabia and northern Sudan. The empire had its own alphabet and erected enormous obelisks including the Obelisk of Axum, which still stands.

It was the first major empire to convert to Christianity. The ancient Nabatean civilization occupied southern Jordan, Canaan and northern Arabia starting in the sixth century BCE, when the Aramaic-speaking Nabatean nomads began gradually migrating from Arabia. Little is known of their culture and no written literature survives. Nabateans defended their magnificent city of Petra against Alexander the Great and were sacked by the military captains that came after him.

Sometime around the 4th century CE, the Nabateans left Petra for unknown reasons. Though they spoke a form of Arabic, they left behind almost no written records. Once they built their dream city, they fought against the Greek power, they were overtaken by the Romans, saw the rise of Christianity and then they left to be never found again.

More of a collection of peoples that shared a similar culture than an empire, the Moche civilization developed an agriculturally-based society complete with palaces, pyramids and complex irrigation canals on the north coast of Peru between about CE and CE.

While they had no predominant written language, leaving us few clues as to their history, they were an extraordinarily artistic and expressive people who left behind incredibly detailed pottery and monumental architecture. In , a Moche chamber was discovered that was apparently used for human sacrifice, containing the remains of human offerings.

There are many theories as to why the Moche disappeared, but the most prevalent explanation is the effect of El Nino, a pattern of extreme weather characterized by alternating periods of flooding and extreme droughts. The story of Amaru Muru is as much legend as it is history today, because there are absolutely no traces of any sort of abandoned city or settlement that saves a massive, mysterious doorway.

Other theories suggest some dark secrets of the Amaru Muru doorway. Local residents call it the Gate of the Gods, and many refuse to go near it. There are stories of mysterious lights appearing in the doorway, and of people who have gotten too close to it and disappeared.

The gate appeared and opened for him, keeping the relic safe. White arrived in England just as a major naval war broke out and Queen Elizabeth I seized all available ships to help in the cause against the Spanish Armada. When White arrived back to Roanoke Island three years later in , he found the colony completely abandoned. Croatoan was the name of an island and the Native American tribe that inhabited it, causing some experts to believe that they were abducted and killed.

However, that theory is yet to be proven. Others hypothesize that they tried to sail back to England and died somewhere, or were killed by Spanish settlers who were travelling north from Florida. Easter Island is famous for its massive head statues, called Moai.

They were made by the Rapa Nui people, who were thought to travel to the island in the middle of the South Pacific using wooden outrigger canoes around CE. The first time European explorers landed on the island was on Easter Sunday in , when the Dutch crew estimated that there were 2, to 3, inhabitants on the island.

Apparently, explorers reported fewer and fewer inhabitants as the years went on, until eventually, the population dwindled to less than Inhabitants could have also starved, as evidenced by the remains of cooked rat bones found on the island. Although most evidence of their structures has disappeared, many of these carved heads remain to commemorate their existence. All archaeological evidence of the society disappeared after BCE.

Civil war, famine, and natural disasters are the leading theories, although without bones, there is very little that can be determined for sure.

Though little is known about the people who once inhabited this large basin roughly miles south of modern-day Cairo, we have discovered from archaeological sites in the area that the people here farmed, domesticated animals, and fashioned ceramic vessels more than 9, years ago, around 7, BCE.

Among the most striking ruins that remain in Nabta Playa are stone circles resembling Stonehenge. These circles suggest that the people who once lived here also practiced astronomy. What they did not leave behind was a reason for their decline, or even their actual name. Many contemporary descendants of this ancient civilization prefer the term Ancestral Puebloans. Whatever they were called, the Ancestral Puebloans once built great cities across the areas of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico.

Some of these airy settlements were built around BCE, it was the time when their civilization first arose. Toward the end of the 13th century, some cataclysmic event forced the Anasazi to flee those cliff houses and their homeland and to move south and east toward the Rio Grande and the Little Colorado River.

Just what happened has been the greatest puzzle facing archaeologists who study the ancient culture. Ancient Egypt was repeatedly attacked by a mysterious army of massive warships.

The world’s great lost cities and abandoned settlements | Rough Guides

In the ninth century A. Researchers have long sought to explain how and why the city collapsed, but despite extensive study of the site, unanswered questions ancienf. Located in northern Guatemala, Tikal dates back to the third century B.

Once among the most powerful city-states in the Americas, the rainforest metropolis boasted multiple stone temples standing more than wby tall and, at its zenith in the mid-eighth century, supported upward of 60, inhabitantsaccording to David Roberts of Smithsonian magazine. These reservoirs were essential during the dry season, as the city why were ancient cities abandoned no access to lakes or rivers, and the local water tableor level at which the ground reaches saturation, lies more than feet underground.

Members of abanddoned Maya civilization mined this mercury-based ore and combined anciwnt with iron oxide to create a bloodred powder used as a versatile pigment and dye. The brilliant red—found coating the interiors of almost every why were ancient cities abandoned burial in Why were ancient cities abandoned have held special significance for the Maya. One grave unearthed by archaeologists wdre roughly 20 pounds of powdered cinnabar.

Nobody would have wanted to drink that water. Even without the poisoned drinking supply, losing the use of two huge water stores would have been devastating for Tikal. Prior research has identified a period of drought between and —a timeframe that corresponds with the layers of sediment in which the blue-green algae and mercury were found. Taken together, the dry weather and befouled water supply may have led the Maya to suspect their rulers had failed to adequately appease the gods.

According to Ars Technicathe researchers may pursue similar tests at other former Maya settlements to determine if the phenomena documented at Tikal influenced the decline of other cities across the why were ancient cities abandoned. Alex Coties is a freelance science journalist based in Washington, D. You can find him at Alexfoxscience. The Ссылка city of Tikal thrived for hundreds of years but was abandoned in the wyh century A.

Post a Comment.