Mystery behind great civilization's ruin revealed

Mystery behind great civilization's ruin revealed
Study says droughts, followed by monsoons, led to Khmer downfall
LiveScience
updated 6:49 p.m. ET, Tues., March. 30, 2010

Climate change might have helped bring about the fall of the ancient Khmer civilization in Angkor, Cambodia, nearly 600 years ago, new research suggests.

Historians have given various explanations for the fall of the empire that stretched across much of Southeast Asia between the ninth and 14th centuries (801 to 1400), from land overexploitation to conflict with rival kingdoms.

But the new study offers strong evidence that two severe droughts, punctuated by bouts of heavy monsoon rain, could have weakened the empire by shrinking water supplies for drinking and agriculture, and damaging Angkor's vast irrigation system, which was central to its economy.

More:
www.msnbc.msn.com...

That is a recurring theme in the decline fall and even disappearance of many ancient cultures
and it's a matter of their occurrence being timed or dated and traced in succession to
map the migrations of humanity across history for genealogical and cultural ties!

Plausible enough. Climate changes, of a greater scale of course, have driven many species to extinction, species much more adapted (physically) to the natural environment than us humans. There are strong indications that the Great Dying, a.k.a. Permian Extinction, was caused by severe climate changes triggered by a humongous volcanic eruption in Siberia, with a result of 95% of all life being extinct.

Severe droughts can cripple large settled populations that rely on stable climate for their food supply (hunting-gathering cannot feed millions, unfortunately!). Couple that with severe rainfall right afterwards (or, worse, in between droughts) and you are left with soil that's "stripped" of its nutrients, thus incapable of yielding crops for years.

Is there any indication that a famine occurred at around that time? If so, then we can safely say that odds of the Khmer culture being brought down by something else are very very slim.

Good find and good presentation

Notice how "climate change" happens in cycles? It's due to the Sun's companion star Nibiru and it's coming this way again

reply to post by Pauligirl

Just regarding here, that the Khmer "civilization" didn't disappear, but the Khmer EMPIRE, what is different. The descendants of the ancient Khmer people are still living in Cambodia and other areas of Indonesia. And I think more interesting than figure out how this empire disappeared, is how it was RAISED, 'cos according to hindu scriptures, the Khmer people descends from "giant humanoids" crossbreeding of ancient "gods" and Angkor Wat, the jewel of Khmer empire, was built by these giants sent by Shiva and Vishnu, to help the king Suryavarman II. Just for this record, the main square of towers of Angkor Wat, was built perfectly aligned with Draco constellation, what remind us Giza pyramids, built aligned with Orion constellation... Signature of the ancient "star gods'???

One of the things that concerns me about stories like this is the obvious fact that it can happen again.

I was watching a program about Canadian history, specifically the mid western areas. What really caught my attention was the decade long drought in the 1930's.

How much trouble would the world be in if this happened again?

reply to post by [davinci]


thanks pauligirl.

i agree, davinci. i think modern civilization has been and can be saved from environmental destructors by our technology and ingenuity. but i think we all know, in the grand scheme of things, we are no match for nature. i don't know if a dustbowl scenario like america's would have a similar impact or not today, or even if conditions would still allow it, but we certainly can't stop everything and it's probably the case that we'd be surprised by how quickly a, or all, modern civilization could be devastated by certain events.

We most possibly won't be able to stop a severe climate catastrophe, we are way too "small" to match nature's wrath. what we may be able to do though is withstand it, adapt to it and finally overcome it. Our genetic makeup is such that adaptability is, along with our curiosity, our greatest assets for survival (adaptable means being able to withstand more, spread out and flourish in more diverse environments than our original cradle in Eastern Africa, inquisitive means we can make do with just about anything to cope). It may take too much to wipe us out.

Our civilization though is another matter, how much of it can survive is directly related to how big a "pool" of specialists we will be able to sustain if such a catastrophe occurs. If we all are forced to fall back to food gathering (by whatever means) then our civilization with all its technological marvels may crumble and much too soon, to say the least.