I don’t know the answer to this question. It seems very unlikely that archeologists could have overlooked a pattern of collapse that seems to have been present for the 3000 years of pre-Conquest Mexican history. Furthermore, all the other collapses of complex societies seem to have been unique instances. The vast majority, in fact, occurred in island civilizations, where geographic isolation made escape from apocalypse impossible. But in Mexico, if there was a problem with drought or disease, people could have relocated. Why they didn’t can only be a matter of speculation, but I can’t see that there has, in fact, been any speculation about this at all.

Also strange is that no one in the field has pointed to the general lack of innovation as a significant cultural issue or tied it to the calendar or to the building of cities to reflect repetitive astrological events. I understand that archeologists working in the field are trying to fill in their site’s missing puzzle pieces: how much human sacrifice was there? how much immigration? trade? etc. But even books that connect Mexican collapses within a certain time period—and others elsewhere—with a temporary climate change do not acknowledge the Mexican collapses that preceded and followed that particular period.

Do you know of other cases where something was passed over by the experts and pickup by an amateur?

topics: culture