1839, explorer Stephens led a team to discover the remains of the ancient Maya in the tropical rain forest of Central America: magnificent pyramids, magnificent palaces and highly accurate calendars carved on stone tablets with strange hieroglyphs.

Archaeologists have put forward many hypotheses about the mystery of the destruction of Mayan civilization, such as foreign invasion, population explosion, diseases, climate change, etc ....., all of which endow Mayan civilization with a strong mystery.

In order to solve this eternal mystery, in the late 1980s, a team of 45 archaeologists, zoologists and nutritionists.

A multidisciplinary team of scholars has traveled all over the rain forest in Guatemala, where jaguars and rattlesnakes often haunt, and even grave robbers dare not set foot easily. The expedition spent six years investigating about 200 Mayan civilization sites and concluded that Mayan civilization was destroyed by a bloody civil war for wealth and power. The Mayans were not the legendary peace-loving people. On the contrary, in the heyday of 300-700 A.D., Mayan nobles in neighboring city-states were always fighting for power and profit. The Mayan war seems to be a terrible sports competition: soldiers attack other cities with spears and sticks as weapons, with the aim of capturing prisoners and giving them to their priests as a gift to worship the gods, which is a symbol of Mayan society's worship of the gods.

Maya society was once quite prosperous. Farmers cultivate marginal fields, terraced fields and swamp rice fields to produce food that can support the population explosion. Craftsmen use flint, stone, bone horns and shells to make works of art, make cotton cloth, carve words on stone tablets, and draw pottery and murals. Commodity trading is prevalent. But since the middle of the 7th century, Mayan society has declined. With the increase of political marriage, other royal brothers except the eldest son are excluded. Some princes left their homes to look for new cities, while others stayed to fight for inheritance. This kind of "throat" has changed from fighting for sacrifices to fighting for jewels, luxury goods, kingship and beauty ... The war is continuous, the lives are ruined, the trade is interrupted and the city is destroyed. In the end, only 65,438+00% people survived.

In 76 1 year, the fall of the palace in Dusit-Pilars City can be regarded as the starting point of the decline of Mayan society. Deuce-Pilars is the central city-state within 0/500 miles of Fiona Fang/Kloc. It was attacked by enemies from the neighboring city of Tomareto. A cave with 13 heads of men aged 8 to 55 proves that the city was extinct when it was captured. Eight days later (these precise details were recorded on the stone tablet), the winner held a "closing ceremony" and smashed the throne, temple and stone tablet. Some nobles fled to the nearby city of Aguadica, a natural fortress surrounded by huge cracks. They lived there for 40 years and were finally captured by the enemy and plunged into disaster.

In 800 AD, Adika was already a ghost town. After 820 AD, the Mayans abandoned the Piteng Rainforest, which had been built in countless cities for thousands of years, and never returned to the birthplace of this civilization. The destruction of Mayan civilization has become history, but the warning it provides is worth remembering forever.

Today, more than 2 million Maya descendants still live in the lowlands of Guatemala, Mexico, Belize and Honduras. However, the essence of Mayan culture, such as hieroglyphics, astronomy, calendars and other knowledge, has disappeared and failed to be left to future generations.

2. Mo Chi culture

In today's long and narrow coastal zone about 350 kilometers northwest of Peru, there used to be an ancient and splendid center of Indian civilization, that is, the mysterious Mochi cultural area. It is about 1200 years earlier than the world-famous Inca culture in South America. From 100 to 700. This culture is named after the local Mochi River. Mochi people once created and developed a brilliant core of civilization, but after 700 AD, their culture gradually declined and eventually disappeared into the wilderness. What caused the termination of the development of Machi culture? So far, this is a problem that many foreign scholars have been trying to explore.

During the pre-Inca culture period, the coastal valleys of Peru showed great vitality and colorful social life, and its foundation was agriculture. Rivers originating in the Andes contain a lot of fertile substances in its downstream, which provided rich fertilizers for ancient Indians to develop agriculture. Ancient people planted corn, cassava, kidney beans, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, peanuts, cotton and Pogostemon cablin. The inland hills along the coast are rich in deer, and a large number of birds inhabit the reeds in the estuary. Therefore, for those ancient coastal residents in tropical sandy land, the rivers in the Andes are a gift from God. Under this favorable natural condition, Mochi people engaged in agricultural planting, hunting and fishing activities. In addition, they also engage in trade activities in the vast areas of western South America from Ecuador to Chile. On the above solid economic foundation, Mochi people have made remarkable cultural achievements.

Then, why did Mo Chi culture, which had such a profound influence, tend to disappear after 700 AD? This issue is still inconclusive, and there are several different views at present. First, it is believed that there is another powerful cultural core along the coast of Peru, which is advancing from south to north, thus obliterating Mochi culture. Secondly, it is believed that tribal groups from the Andes invaded from the east and eventually destroyed the ancient cultural center along the coast of Peru. Third, people think it may be destroyed by natural disasters such as floods, droughts and earthquakes.

3. Nabatai civilization

From the 6th century BC, it occupied southern Jordan, Canaan and northern Arabia. At that time, Aramaic-speaking Nabatai nomads gradually migrated to the Arabian Peninsula. Petra carved their skills on the rocks of the Jordan Mountains, and later generations remembered their exquisite water conservancy projects and management of complex dams, canals and reservoirs, helping them grow and prosper in this arid desert area. People know very little about its culture and have not left any words.

In 65 BC, they were defeated by the Romans. In A.D. 106, the Romans completely controlled this place, and changed its name to the Arabian Petria Dynasty. About the 4th century AD, the Nabatai people left Petra for some unknown reason. Some people think that after centuries of foreign rule, Nabatai civilization gradually disappeared, and Nabatai people converted to Christianity before their land was completely occupied by Arab invaders.

4. Mycenae civilization

Mycenae is located in the northeast of algie's Cardiff Plain. In the 20th century BC, some Indo-European peoples entered the Mediterranean region from the north. At this time, Thessaly and Macedonia in the north were still in the Stone Age, while the coastal areas in the south were in the Bronze Age.

In 1600 BC, the Akya people began to develop Algard Reed civilization (Argo? Lide), which is located in fertile land, communicates with the Aegean islands and Crete, and has always maintained a close relationship with Mycenae, because Mycenae has become the main center of this region at this time.

These invading Indo-Europeans were Akya and belonged to the Greeks in history. It is said that they are Danaus' sons. Because the Akya people learned the culture of the conquered people, they became quite rich and their civilization gradually became civilized. At this time, their wealth and culture can be compared with Crete civilization.

In 1500 BC, the Mycenae civilization owned by the Akaya people fully absorbed the Crete civilization, and at the same time developed its own characteristics, making it an integral part of the Aegean Sea and even more likely to replace Crete. And occupied northas in 1450 BC. After fully absorbing the heritage of Crete civilization, Mycenaean linear character B was formed by writing Mycenaean with the original linear character A, and their linear character B was introduced into Nossas. Finally, Nossas was destroyed in 1430 BC, from 1400 BC to 1200 BC.

In BC 1 190, civilization was destroyed, and Mycenae and its cities were severely damaged by the Trojan War at the end of Mycenae. At that time, Mycenae and the Greek countries formed a joint force and crossed the Aegean Sea eastward. The expedition site was Troy, a famous bustling city in Asia Minor. Because the allied forces were still unable to capture the city after ten years of hard struggle, they adopted the "Trojan Horse Plan" to capture the city (the famous "Trojan Horse Slaughter Plan"). Although the battle was won, the Mycenae kingdom suffered great losses and the national situation was shaken. Soon after, Dorians in the north (one of the Greeks) began to invade from the northern part of the Greek peninsula and destroyed the Mycenae kingdom. At this time, the great national migration also caused the decline of Xitai people, and the struggle between Pharaoh Menevieta and Ramses III accelerated the demise of Ugarit.

5. Anasazi civilization

Anasazi is the modern name of Gupueblo people, who once lived at the junction of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado. The stone and adobe buildings they built along the cliff are the most famous. Gupuwebulo people left their homes in the 12 ~ 13 century for some reason. Many experts and modern Pueblo say that deforestation and drought have led to infighting and wars among Gupueblo people, who were forced to flee their homes and move to other places.

6. Indus civilization

It began to decline from about18th century BC. The reason for the decline is still unclear, and scholars have put forward various hypotheses. One view is also very popular, that is, the theory of foreign invasion. People who hold this view believe that some cities in the Indus Valley were seriously damaged by invaders around 1750 BC, especially the heroes of Mohenjo. In this large-scale foreign invasion, Mohenjo's legal heroes were completely invaded by this city, and the residents were dispersed. Since then, Mohenjo, a hero in the legal field, has been abandoned. There are similar signs of destruction on the upper floor of the Acropolis, and new pottery coexisting with Halaba culture has also been discovered. No obvious signs of destruction were found in Qianghudaro and Armeli in the south of Mohenjo, but special types of pottery and other material cultures appeared. All this shows that the new invaders have occupied the central area of the Indus Valley.

Regarding this large-scale invasion, most scholars in the past thought it was the Indian Aryans in the Vedic era (hereinafter referred to as Aryans). However, the Aryans in the Vedic era appeared in India later, and it was centuries later. So who is the new intruder? According to archaeological data, some scholars believe that there are various ethnic groups among the tribes that invaded the Indus Valley, including those living in Baluchistan, those close to Iranian tribes and those close to Indus civilization. These new invaders invaded here one after another, some of them may be the earliest Aryan tribes, but the Aryan people invaded on a large scale later, mainly in the upper reaches of the Indus River.

Another view is that the destruction of civilization is caused by natural disasters and ecological changes, such as river bed diversion, earthquake, flood, desert invasion, seawater recession and other disasters will cause great ecological changes. These destructive factors may vary from place to place. This assumption is often adopted.

The centuries-old history from the decline of Indus civilization to the invasion of Aryans in the Vedic era is basically vague, although there are some archaeological reports. The history of India has only been recorded since the Vedic era.

7. Khmer Kingdom

The Khmer Empire is an ancient country in Cambodia. Around 400 AD, the Khmer people established a country called Zhenla, which was the most powerful during the reign of Jayavarman I about 700 years ago. Khmer believed in Hinduism and accepted Buddhism during this period. The real wax declined and was occupied by Javanese for a short time. In 802, Jayavarman II established the Khmer Nation. He is the God King, and the capital of the empire is Angkor Wat. The Khmer army has hundreds of war elephants, and they conquered most of the surrounding areas. 1010-150 During the reign of Suryavarman I and Surrier Pomona II, the empire entered its heyday.

/kloc-in the third century, people gradually got tired of being forced to work for the God King, and Khmer society began to collapse. 143 1 year, the invading Siamese army forced the Khmer people to give up Angkor, and the Khmer Empire perished. Since then, Angkor Wat has been buried in the jungle.

8. Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome usually refers to the civilization that rose in the middle of the Italian peninsula in the 10 century BC. After the Roman monarchy and the Roman Republic, it expanded into a huge Roman empire spanning Europe, Asia and Africa around the 10 century. By 395, the Roman Empire was divided into two parts. The Western Roman Empire perished in 476. The Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire) became a feudal country, and/kloc-0 was destroyed by the Ottoman Empire in 453.

9. Aztec civilization

Teotihuacan civilization is a typical urban civilization in ancient Mexican civilization. About the second century BC, Teotihuacan civilization was very special.

Otiwakan began to take the form of a city with an area of about 20 square kilometers and a population of about 50,000. From 350 to 650 AD, Teotihuacan was the most prosperous period with a population of about 200,000. "death avenue" extends for three kilometers to the south, opening up an east-west street. Crossroads divide the city into four parts. The Altai Temple in Kesar Branch is located in the city center. At the northern end of death avenue stands the Moon Pyramid, and there are many temples on both sides of the street, including pyramid of the sun. At the southern end of "death avenue" is Quetzalcoatl Temple. Teotihuacan is an urban society with many classes and occupations. At that time, it had a sound civilized life. From 650 to 750 AD, this civilization was destroyed. Archaeological evidence shows that the city should have been destroyed by a man-made fire. After the demise of Teotihuacan, a new Tortek period followed, which was also formed after a long period of cultural exchanges and mixed population. The pioneers of these civilizations inherited the characteristics of Teotihuacan civilization and established a new civilization in the Mexican valley. The Toltecs are mainly composed of foreign tribes. They came to Kulhuakan around the 9th century and established their own capital in Tula. Later, the Aztecs inherited the Toltec civilization, and combined with their own creation, established the last Indian civilization in the ancient Mexican valley. This is a process of cultural alternation.

As we mentioned earlier, the Aztecs are not indigenous people in the Mexican valley, but a nomadic people. About AD 1276, the Aztecs entered the Mexican valley and settled in Tepeck, chapple, chapple. Because of their bellicose nature, they constantly invaded neighboring tribes, which made their neighbors very angry. So they joined forces to crusade. The result of the war was that the Aztecs were defeated, most of them were captured, and a few people fled to the island. The captured Aztecs were taken to the Kulhuakan dynasty, which was composed of Tortec descendants, and lived under the supervision of Chief Cox of Kulhuakan. Later, he became famous for his meritorious service in a battle in Kurhuakan. Around AD 1325, these Aztecs moved to live on an island in Lake Teskoko, and joined the people who had fled here before. Later, the island developed into Tran City, Nositi. The real development of the Aztecs should begin with their fourth generation leader Izkot (1426 ~ 1440), and Montezuma Ilhuikamina (Montezuma I) consolidated the rule of the Aztecs. In Axayacatl (1449 ~1481year), Tizoc (1481~1485), Avi Soter (Ahuizotl). 15 19, the Spanish invaders led by cortes launched a conquest war against tenochtitlan. According to Spanish records, Monctesuma II was stoned to death by his own people; According to Indian history, he was strangled by the Spanish. After Monctesuma II's death, the Spaniards realized that the danger was approaching, and they decided to break through that night. These conquerors, full of looted treasures, tried to slip away quietly along a dam road, but they were found. Indian ships surrounded the Spanish and a fierce battle began. Many Spaniards are forced to throw their treasures into the water to lighten the burden. Many others fell into the water in the melee and died with gold. That night, 1000 more Spaniards and a larger number of aborigines died, which was later called "miserable night". After the Spanish fled in panic, tenochtitlan did not calm down. Smallpox brought by the invaders ravaged the city and people died in it. Kuyt Lavarch succeeded to the throne, but died of smallpox a month later. The last chief was Cuauhtémoc, who organized the defense of tenochtitlan and was hanged by the Spanish four years later.