Can anyone tell me (serious question) why the Mayans (and Incas/Aztecs/etc) are heralded as some great civilization? As far as I can tell (and admittedly I’ve done little investigation) they couldn’t do in 900 AD what the Minoans had done in 2000 BC (yes, I stubbornly still say BC) or what the Egyptians were doing in 3000 BC.
Why were they so behind the rest of the world? Is it just further evidence that life started around the Fertile Crescent and it took that long to disperse out? And is it further evidence of how long life had to be around before they were advanced enough to, say, create a civilization like the Minoans or Egyptians? (Or is it evidence that a supernatural power, I.e. God, must have enlightened them - otherwise they’d be as backward as the Mayans after 2000 years?)
Furthermore, what’s the deal with acting like the Mayans are so great? PC bs? Pushing it on us to prop up the idea of flooding illegals into the States? Bc, frankly, after as much time as they had they should’ve been able to come up with something better than what they had. So I see no reason to be impressed. Then again, I may just be ignorant and racist. Which is why I’m asking.
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Eurocuckistan ago
most of the old ruins scattered across the world are from before the ~12,000bc cataclysm, don't believe any date they put to these structures and their civilizations.
even the Maya's themselves always claimed that they didn't build the structures, they inherited them from previous generations and they always spoke about great cataclysms that engulfed the earth and destroyed pretty much all of it. all old cultures that of this through religion and myths.
Maroonsaint ago
Those Jre episodes were interesting as shit. Not the one where they argued that was just annoying. The best is the one where they got em both on
TrialsAndTribulation ago
I was going to post nearly the same thing as @Eurocuckistan, even down to the references. The only thing I'd add is a recommendation for the book, "The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes: How a Stone-Age Comet Changed the Course of World Culture" by Firestone, West, and Warwick-Smith. Richard Firestone is a physicist at Lawrence Livermore laboratory and cogently challenged the accuracy of the C-14 test in North America due to the amount of carbon and radiation that was introduced by the cataclysm over 12,000 years ago.
Judgejewdy ago
Ok, even still, why couldn’t they advance beyond that if they were around for 13,000 years.... and does that mean the pyramids etc are even older than reported? Or roman aqueducts? Is their lack of advancement bc they had no access to other cultures? (Unlike Europe/Asia/Middle East)? Anyway, I still feel like we’re suppised to be overly impressed with them. Maybe I am if the dates are older. But other than that, big nothing burger.
Eurocuckistan ago
According to the Mayan themselves they themselves were a savage cannibalistic race that had civilization brought to them by a white 'wizard'. that explains their calendar, culture, and fixation of the stars. My guess is that they didn't really understand most of what they were given and the only thing left was their fixation on the stars and general maintenance of their structures. It's the same thing all over the world, Egypt included, that the older structures were all built much better and newer generations could never get close to the previous ones.
The pyramids are, according to people like Graham Hancock, possibly much older then what the narrative tells us. There is some evidence that supports it, weather-erosion on the Sphinx. Robert Schoch is an expert on this, great stuff if you're interested. Combine this with the fact that most parts of the ground surrounding the pyramids is forbidden for further excavation and many believe there's huge underground facilities there, iirc sonar readings showed signs of this. Gobekli Tepe too, goes against the general narrative of our history and the majority of it has not been excavated and it is forbidden to do so.
pauly_pants ago
They did well considering their lack of resources (domesticated beasts of burden) and trading partners. The old world 'began' sooner and had many more nations working on different things and all fighting each other. War is an evolutionary selection pressure on societies. China has a very long history of being a stable unit for lack of a better term. Many more people over a greater amount of time means more discovery, inventions etc. Mayans and Aztecs were much more isolated compared to the old world but managed some respectable achievements.
SpottyMatt ago
Largely this and farming: there's a fascinating book called "Lost City of the Monkey God" which is mostly an archaeological memoir but at the end talks about the extinction of the central American civilizations, in order to give that a fair treatment has to speculate on why they were prime extinction material when the Europeans arrived, which gets into the differences between the great civilizations on the various continents.
Big things central Amerocan civs didn't have:
Given all that, the growth of the population size and the need to form large civilizations (with accompanying structures) in Central America, is hypothesized to have been on a much slower timetable -if it would've got there at all- than Europe.