All civilizations must die? (Part 1)

At the very first i will throw a question; are we all destined to kill ourselves? Sustainable civilization has been a myth; in the end all civilizations are doomed to kill themselves. This may be true for civilizations far beyond our own galaxy.

I think there's no rule of sustaining a civilization, we only have fate; fate to be doomed. All the prominent civilizations fell prey to biodiversity, environment disruptions, climate change, personal or ethnic greed, bureaucratic feud leading to war and to whole bunch of other reasons. All civilizations we can name or remember lasted only a few centuries before they got their doomsday triggered by mentioned events.

To exemplify, one civilization that comes first to my mind is "The Maya", arguably world's most advanced pre-Columbian civilization. Mayans are known for carving civilization into the rain-forests of southern Mexico and Central America, also for their hieroglyphic writing and calendar-making, mathematics & astronomy skills. Being in the peak during the so-called Classic period, from 250 A.D. to 900 A.D., the Mayans suddenly abandoned the cities complete with elaborate plazas, palaces, pyramid-temples and ceased with immense technological innovations.

Mayan Calendar

Different historians mentioned different reasons of mayan collapse i.e. drought, exacerbated by deforestation and soil erosion, corruption & warfare among the city-states, disruption of trade routes and others. Though collapsed, mayans are not dead really (no worries, they won't scare you as zombies 😄). They are with us through their research & innovation, unique cuisine, - one word "Impact". They are one who first organized ball game, made "hot chocolate" from the seeds of cacao (they didn't make M&Ms or Snickers though 😋, they used to drink the whole chocolate instead), built pyramids to reflect astronomical events, built glittering temples and most importantly, developed the concept of "Zero (0)".   

El Castillo aka Temple of Kukulkan

The Indus came and started inhabiting in the present-day India & Pakistan nearly about 8000 years ago. They occupied more areas than their better known contemporaries in Egypt and Mesopotamia. I don't know why - almost every civilization tried to develop its own (personal 😁) writing script; might not try other things first or at all. Indus did it too which is yet to be deciphered.

Indus Valley Civilization

Eventually the Indus valley or Harappan civilization went into free-fall. It was believed that Aryan invasion from the north was the reason but later it was found that mother nature played its role here too. Recent research found that monsoon cycle stopped for two centuries, making agriculture nearly impossible. Other factors, such as earthquakes or outbreaks of malaria or cholera, may have also played a role. An Indian period film named "Mohenjo Daro", written and directed by famous director Ashutosh Gowariker, released in 2016 delineating the Indus Valley civilization and the city Mohenjo Daro, its debacle and introduction of river "Ganga".

Greenland's Vikings, straight out of Icelandic saga, started civilization with just 25 boats. Being famous for man-slaughtering, Vikings colonized around Greenland, herded goats, sheep; hunted caribou (reindeer) & seals and built stone churches which can still be seen today.

According to archaeologists, onset of little ice age in the 14th century was the main culprit for the deathblow upon Vikings. Lush & fecund vikings lands were devastated and routes in and out of Greenland were clogged up; hence crumbled the Greenlanders' export-import business. Some starved to death, some succumbed to the black plague or were exterminated by the Inuits (Inuits are a group of culturally similar indigenous people inhabiting the Arctic regions of Greenland, Canada & Alaska); others fled to Iceland or Scandinavia.

Norse mythological characters

Some of us may have watched or heard about the series Vikings; a historical drama television series written and created by Michael Hirst for the History channel. It is inspired by the sagas of Viking Ragnar Lothbrok, one of the best-known legendary Norse heroes and notorious as the scourge of England and France. Travis Fimmel is brilliant in the role of Ragnar and Katheryn Winnick is outstanding in the role of Lagertha, a viking shieldmaiden (Female warrior in Scandinavian folklore and mythology) & Ragnar's first wife and obviously - gorgeous as always.

(To be continued)