What Took Down These Three Ancient Civilizations?
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- Опубліковано 10 чер 2024
- When it comes to piecing together what happened to civilizations that no longer exist, it can be challenging to solve the mystery. But research into Angkor, the Akkadian Empire, and even the Norse of Greenland, is helping us see that these three groups of people separated through time and geography mat have all met their ends through a common enemy - Mother Nature.
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It's so cool how we can look at sand layers and tree rings to make a pretty accurate guess as to what happened to old civilizations that seem to have just vanished
I had a class on it last year, the tree rings etc are used as proxy data which is tested against deep sea cores or terrestrial cores to see if the events you see in tree rings/pollen count lines up to the O16/O18 data from the cores line up. During my class we were mostly looking at the last glacial maximum, and if you add up all those proxies together you can get a pretty accurate picture of past climate (up to a certain point in history) and can figure out how the landscape evolved over time as well. Although during my class we were also looking at Milankovitch cycles to add to the datasets. It still amazes me.
It's so cool how *we think* we can look at sand layers and tree rings to...
yep someone is gonna look at the soil layers about 1000 years from now to see what we did lol
Archaeology is a fantastic intersection of various scientific fields. It’s amazing to see how they all come together to uncover the past!
The methods scientists have used to discover and chart paleoclimate trends is nothing short of amazing. Tree ring widths and sand deposition in ocean sediments are easy concepts to grasp and make sense, but oxygen isotope ratios in insects, who would have thunk it!
The channel GeoGirl has some more detailed videos on geochemistry and isotopes, if you are interested. An I agree, it is cool.
I really like seeing several fields of study converge like this, it's really cool.
"Fall of Civilizations" is the best youtube channel EVER on this topic
Agreed, his research team is very thorough, delivered by excellent narration.
All the best Jules
+
Agree!
Hello! Iraqi person! here at 0:57 Tell is supposed to be تل which means “hill” so if you convert it to English it wouldn’t be Tell Leilan but instead it would be Leilan hill
Thank you.
@@maipai101 you’re welcome
I'd love to see you do a take on the Late Bronze Age collapse of civilization around the Mediterranean. Been a bit of a mystery for a while.
It was the sea peoples 😆😉
@@Katelizheaston 👏👏👏
Invicta did a deep dive on it. Look them up on here if my link did not go through
There's an excellent book on this by Dr. Eric Cline, called 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed.
Don’t forget about the asteriod/comet.
My second favorite ancient civilization that collapsed mysteriously is The Vinland Norse. Around 1000 AD, settlers led by Leif Eriksson became the first Europeans to settle in the American Continents. Consensus is lacking on the _why?_ but all agree that the Viking "Empire" was stretched to thin.
My first is the Axum State/Empire. And honorable mention to the infamous collapse of Roanoke Colony (the first English colony in the Americas).
Archaeology really making all the other sciences team up
Kind of terrifying when you realize we nicknamed a period “the little ice age” which was caused by a drop of 1 to 2 degrees, and global warming is projected to increase global temperatures by 1 to 4 over the next 50 to 100 years 😬
Kind of terrifying????? I really don’t expect humans to survive and my offspring will curse me and us.
@@edwardlulofs444 no offense, but you are ill informed. There are dangers from global warming, but they are not apocalyptic.
@@illitaret8780 oh, ok. I’ll stop worrying
Except they have been saying that for over 50 years now and yet rich folks are still buying waterfront property lol
@@missourimongoose8858 and sea levels are rising. We aren’t in a movie. It takes a while to melt that much ice.
By the time beach front property is abandoned, there will only be one million people left alive because of wars, mass migration, and famine.
I’m really hoping that my grandchildren will be able to have a life.
It’s difficult to overestimate how selfish a few people in power can be and it will kill billions.
Quite interesting content. Thank you.
I just have one thing to say: "Damn, I love me some SciShow!"
This are some interesting stuff here 👍🏻
Thanks for the awesome channel. 👋
@6:42
So, what you're telling me is that the norse called Greenland "greenland" because it actually looked like a greenland when they arrived?
*_Whoa._*
Nah it was a marketing scheme.
No, not really. But if you're intent on misunderstanding things who are we to stop you?
No, Greenland was still basically arctic. Iceland, however, despite looking like a moonscape today, was 40% forested at the time of first colonisation. But the soil and hence ecosystems were much more fragile than on the mainland of Europe, so once the trees were cleared for farms, they were gone forever.
And Vinland was called that because it was ideal for vines and wine-making. The planet can sort out its own temperature changes and, whether we like it or not, yakking on about global warming is just hubris.
@@clogs4956Global warming is dangerous to humans and other plants and animals. Obviously the planet will survive. With or without humans.
My favorite part was the dog at the end 💖🤓
Merci 🤗
For more on this topic, check out "Four Lost Cities" by Annalee Newitz. It gave me new insight into what we really mean by "lost" and "city."
and four
The two Norse settlements in Greenland were found to be empty way before 1721. The western settlement was discovered to be unoccupied circa 1350s/1360s. Eastern settlement not until circa 1450.
Amazing how the depth of time slowly reveals its secrets to us! :O
Or anyone who liked this topic. I highly highly recommend the podcast Fall of civilizations. Very well informed and produced.
Weird, I just watched PBS Spacetime’s video on the Silurian Hypothesis: a serious thought experiment on how to detect previous civilizations on Earth. It turns out it is very difficult to detect in the geologic record.
That video was about how we might detect life on another planet, and how hard that is. And to emphasize that the host made a long point about how short the Anthropocene is, _yet it will still be detectable in the record of the Earth's crust._ Difficult, yes, but still possible.
The fact that these 3 civilizations left buildings behind indicates their presence.
The Silurian Hypothesis is nothing. I propose the Protozoan Hypothesis, wherein a race of hyperintelligent, unicellular organisms achieved sentience, self-awareness, and discussed high level philosophies and mathematics while floating in the primordial oceans.
Ancient bugs and their O2 isotopes as a proxy for temperature is wonderful-
What took down a Civilization?
1. Drought
2. Increased Rain/Drought extremes.
3. Extreme Cold
The case of the Greenland Norse is a bit more complicated than that presented in the video. While their society was ultimately ended by the drop in temperature, it was already unstable and on the verge of collapse. Firstly, the Norse did not adapt well to their environment. The two large settlements on Greenland supported few people because they may have refused to eat fish - only a few fish bones out of thousands of others in middens have been found - or whales, despite the abundance of them. This suggests in a dependency on Skyr (many Skyr huts have been uncovered) made from goats and sheep, which required the vast cultivation of hay. Norse Greenlanders also reared cattle, the most prestigious food source that could survive in Greenland and which required an even larger amount of hay for little to no meat. Their cattle would have to stay indoors for 9 months of the year and were half starved for 6.
The lack of resources in Greenland prompted annual summer visits to the Canadian coast where iron, wood, and other impossible to collect materials could be harvested, but it came at the expense of their brief growing season.
The Greenland Norse were also a violent people and disputes with each other led to death or maiming so any solution to their environmental concerns could not have been reached. Additionally, armed conflict with the Proto-Inuit/Dorset people became increasingly fierce. The Little Ice Age and this combination of factors, as well as others, were the cause of the society’s collapse.
If you’re curious about this sort of thing, I’d really recommend Jared Diamond’s “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail” (2005) as it has 4 chapters on just Greenland Norse, and many other societies both past and present. Beware that it is an old book and doesn’t go into the scientific detail on the Little Ice Age, like this video did (thoroughly enjoyed it), and was written before isotopic analysis has suggested that they did eat fish - up to 80% by 1300s. He also takes a ‘euhemeristic’ approach to the Vinland Sagas which leads to some unconvincing evidence.
"I’d really recommend Jared Diamond’s"
Welp, that was a waste of time.
The Norse refused to eat fish? 😂😂😂
LoL
I have another theory. The reason the Norse finally picked out and left wasn't the environment but economy.
The Greenland vikings basically had 2 sources of income: Walrus ivory and "unicorn" horn.
African ivory totally screwed the market for Walrus tusks and dropped the price like there was no tomorrow.
"Unicorn horn" was really Narwhal teeth and they also used to be sold for a fortune but they also started to disappear from history around the same time.
So as a Greenland Norse you could survive a worsening climate while your 2 major exports basically stopped being worth the trouble or you could sail back to Iceland or Norway (and we do have a report about a couple of ships with people moving from Greenland to Iceland in the early 1400s.
Norse are tough but there is a limit. When growing more then a little food is impossible so you have to live only on fish, seal and walrus while there really isn't anything you can sell to anyone, it is bloody time to move. They were pretty practical people and I bet you they would have stayed if the worsening weather also would have meant increasing profit. With both worsening weather and close to zero profit, any sane person would leave.
The archaeologists never found any signs of a great dying out, most people just seemed to have disappeared (besides that report of at least some people moving back to Iceland) so everything points towards them just packing their stuff and leaving. The climate certainly did have an impact but I am not convinced they would have stayed even if Greenland kept being warm since they entire reason to move there had disappeared besides maybe good fishing.
One thing I wonder about though is that Greenland 1.5 degrees warmer is exactly the same we see today with global warming so I do wonder if scientists screaming that Greenland's glaciers is melting is a bit of an over reaction. Yeah, in Antarctica we know the temperature is higher then for the last 25 000 years which is something to panic about but Greenland had a similar temperature to today for 500 years not that long ago without a major disaster.
@loke6664,
Very good point. Another problem was, they couldn't risk hunting anymore, because they weren't very friendly to natives from the beginning already. All the possible hunting territories were a bit remote, factually in enemy territory. So, to go out hunting, they could either take enough warriors along, leaving wifes and children back unprotected, or hunt with not enough men to manage all eventuallities.
They couldn't go to America either. The Indians wouldn't let them reach land anymore, after the 4th or 5th expedition.
Viking: "These natives are not very tough ! I barely touched him with my sword and his head already fell off."
Columbus was very lucky in that he found the opposite end of that coast.
🚀🏴☠️🎸
Two hundred years! Wow.
Go Go Sci Show!
Cool
I personally think of these as periods within the overall human civilization that's been chugging along since agriculture kicked into high gear.
Ag being quite dependent on benevolent and predictable weather-
"it's a trap!" 😅
"Our civilization can't repel climate change of that magnitude!" 😉
Wow
We too are doomed.
AGW is going to put the brakes on massive dependable farming practices-
I thought you might talk about the Mississippians in this video.
I like the bone carving necklace. Is it from NZ?
I'm confused... What were the pebbles found at Tell Leilan indicating?
Drought?
Not pebbles. Pellets. From an intermediate period of time in the region when drought became so severe it limited growth of vegetation that would contribute to loamy layers before and after the fact. Loam is just decomposing plant matter, and is found in dense forests and grasslands. A severe, centuries-long drought forced humans to abandon Tell Leilan for generations.
He said "loam, then sand {dust} then loam" describing the occupation {gardens} then abandonment {sand/dust} then re-occupation-gardens.
So basically the lesson is "You're not better than the Akkadian Empire" when people say global warming is nbd
omfg, that chest hair is incredible!
3:30 that bit is definitely on purpose
Don't forget Egypt, which collapsed when unfortunate weather/climate ruined harvests during the reign of Cleopatra, who became the last pharaoh, despite trying to save the economy through dynastic marriages to the first Roman emperors .
What weirds me out is the frozen structure in the valley north-west of Mount Everast (on the chinese side). Satellite image on google maps shows giant frozen structures that look like ankor wat temple spires.
Akkadians. Not to be confused with Acadians.
Or Cajuns-
Hi SciShow, that's a great video with a "look at what climate change can do to a civilization" focus. What strikes me is (except for greenland) the alterning pattern of flood and drought. Indeed, we start seeing these around mediterranean see, california (latitude close to Khmer former capital city) etc... also, last research in agroforestry (ex: syntropic agroforestry) strongly indicates water can be planter by planting more trees. Reversing this logic, you should get with a growing population, rising deforestation issues, drought and flood with landslides (tress also hold the ground with their root systems). What do you think?
Also the Indus Valley civilisation?
You could also mention the Crete civilization which was likely destroyed by earthquakes.
Man, what a shame it would be if our civilization collapsed ...
Not from many other plants and animals point of view.
Might the drought that destroyed the Akkadian Empire have been the result of intensive plowing of fields and overgrazing of pastures to feed their empire, creating massive soil erosion and loss of fertility due to destructive agricultural practices and perhaps also deforestation to meet the lumber demands of the same empire?
I'm curious about the degrees -1.5 celcius, how is that a large enough drop that couldn't be easily adapted to? It really doesn't sound like much. Please don't mock me if it's a stupid question 😊
An average temperature drop of 1.5 degrees celsius can have major ramifications at the extremes. The yearly winter cold might have varied within a range that was normally manageable, with some years being barely surviveable. After the average drops by even just a little bit, a winter that would have been just barely manageable gets pushed over the edge to being devastating and the following summer doesn't get warm enough to recover from the damage it does.
@@ValentineRogueOne thing that is especially noticeable is the shortening of the growing season for plants. A small temperature swing could reduce the season by weeks, reducing crop yields enough to cause a famine under the right circumstances.
The earth is bigger than most people can realistically grasp. It takes a lot of change just for such a small part of it as greenland to have its overall average temperature decrease by 1.5°C.
A more human scale example is imagine you're heating a really big pan on a fire, but you only let the edge touch the flames. You would have to wait quite long for the whole pan to heat up to a temperature you can cook with. But by the time that happens the area near the edge you're heating is already red-hot.
That difference could make the growing season 2 weeks shorter, and then you don't have food.
What I find interesting is that 1.5 degrees change was the ideal limit (with regard to global warming) for us, which we are not likely to achieve.
It highlights how much better (more resilient) we are at dealing with temperature changes now than in the past.
Though, the difference is in the opposite direction for us, which may make the comparison less accurate/relevant.
My question would be, why don't we use estimated local temperatures (and the extent) as a complimentary value? This would give the average person a much better idea of what these average temperature measurements mean for them.
2:49 You spelled Angkor Wat wrong. I only noticed because you spelled it right immediately after.
They learned
Im sure I read somewhere that if the Greenland (Christian) Norse hadnt been too arrogant to listen to the local original inhabitants they could have survived.
Probably
Jared Diamond's excellent book "Collapse"-
Usually civilizations first collapse from inside! Then other people come in and take over! But what happened to the people! Their descendants are still there = but may have bred with others!
Modern Europe
And they had lunch also, with those new people, so they have bread with others-
@@TaLeng2023 Who replaced the ancient brown skinned Europeans?
@@maipai101 lol. If they're brown then they're not native there. They're not even adapted to lower light level compared to what we would have in the savannas.
@@TaLeng2023 you might want to look up the oldest Europeans. You seem to be behind on information.
We're next! Go 2024!
😂
We had a good run :3
They'll remember us. We left a LOT of trash
I'll miss you guys. 😢
😄😭
The Earth is like a Cake , every layer has a story to tell , the Grand Canyon's rock layers dates back to millions of yrs back , some say 2 billion yrs , the polar ice cylinders cores, have air bubbles which tells us about the air dating back to 800,000 yrs .
Oxygen isotopes survive fossilization? cool
Shout-out to Fall of Civilizations, he has an excellent episode on the fall of Ankor
Further proof of why humanity needs to develop environmental adaptation technology. Nature has been mercilessly producing the kinds of climate changes that wipe out whole biospheres, let alone species and civilizations. While human actions can make things worse, if we want to keep our favorite species (including our own) alive, we need to develop the tech necessary to keep our planet habitable. In the future, we may be bioengineering more species than food crops to adjust to the environment.
Realistically none of our current or pipeline technology is going to be enough. 1.5degC is an average over the whole planet over time. It mostly represents swings with some permanent changes.
Just be ready for all the environmental refugees; the people from the first two examples went somewhere and it'll happen again.
twas the hogs what done em in
You called the Akkadians the 'first' empire, but as I recall the first were the Sumerians (who the Akkadians later conquered) followed closely by the Egyptians.
It made me question everything else such an obvious mistake
@@200555280It’s not a mistake. Sumer was a group of city-states, not an Empire, and Egypt was a kingdom. While the exact differences between empires and kingdoms are somewhat arbitrary, generally the Akkadian Empire is considered the first actual “Empire”.
At 2:52 the picture says ankgor but the next slide it says angkor :)))
If you say em fast they sound the same-
aorund 1300 a greenlander with a lumber load was lost and stranded on iceland, He told them he got the lumber from markland, mayhaps some moved, trying america once more?
The Grennland Norse also died off because they were not prepared to mimic the Inuit life style - who obviously kept occupying the region uniterrupted despite the climate. I recommend Jared Diamond's "Collapse".
🌈❤❤
Totally coo
…
Hey now you’re an all star
2:55 or 2:57
LOL who messed up the name
I hate the use of "BCE" and "CE" it sounds so similar it is confusing.
The "B" means before, so simple-
4:08, not a great graphic guys, 17 tree rings between 1300 and 1350. The point is well made though.
Wonder what they'll come up with for Roanoke.
Regional, natural fluctuations in climate has been the downfall of many regional civilizations. But regional, human caused climate change has been the downfall of many other regional civilizations, especially if there is a failure to migigate, or adapt to, such changes. But what happens when this occurs on a global scale (like, maybe, now)?
Fun fact: Greenland was settled by Vikings even before current native Greenlanders
Noice
Which cultures? Let me know in the title and maybe I’ll watch. Click bait is not the answer.
🤦♂🤦♂🤦♂🤦♂
The answer is climate change? **Pretends to be shocked**
I'm surprised there is no written documentation of what happened in Cambodia.
Let's completely forget about how European settlers destroyed two civilizations in South America, the Inca and the Maya.
And they replaced it with them Better non human sacrificing civilizations.
And this platform exists because of that.
Also not relevant here.
Asians tried to destroy europe with bubonic plague.
We came back stronger.
@@blazer9547 you are pissed off exactly like a settler would get pissed off.
7 comments?
Iirc those greenland bugs were found on the remains of the family who had starved in the abandoned settlement, including their dog. Pretty dark.
why use religious timeline
Lol imagine a historian searching for the truth of what happened to the Greenland Norse passionately falling in love with a biologist that simply says "well, have you thought about testing the oxygen isotopes in the bug fossils of that area for insight into the climate at the time?" *jaw on the floor* "marry me"
🔬 Hey SciShow Team! 🚀 Your exploration of the wonders of science has been nothing short of mind-blowing, and I'm a huge fan of the knowledge you share. 🌌
I've been thinking about how incredible your visuals would be in even higher definition. Have you considered uploading your videos in 4K resolution? The microscopic details and vast expanses of the universe you cover deserve to be showcased in the highest quality possible.
Not only would 4K provide a visually stunning experience for your viewers, but it could also amplify the educational impact of your content. It's like bringing the laboratory or observatory right into our living rooms with unparalleled clarity.
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So the world temp was changing through our history, well before industrialization. Got it.
Now we are changing the climate more than ever since humanity has been on earth. Will we go the way of the dinosaurs?
"I'm gonna go get the papers, get the papers."
The history of climate 💦☂️🌂
7:17 Resilient? I think they weren't dumb enough to try to live in a frozen wasteland and just moved.
Tell Leilan made the mistake of taking on Captain Janeway.
Are you telling us there was climate change back when there was no man made pollution ?
Of course, just not as drastic.
Sure was--just that man's pollution is speeding things up dramatically.
The Akkadians were NOT the first empire of Mesopotamia. They were preceded by the Sumerians, from whom they learned a great deal.
The Sumerians weren't an empire though. They were the first Mesopotamian society, but they weren't united.
😂😂😂
Please read up more about the Sumerians. Sumer was just a region of states, not one cohesive political structure - they were not an empire.
Khmer is pronounced "Kh-mai" by natives.
My guess b4 watching climate change
we're not in Kansas anymore.
All the climate change deniers going “see! Climate change has always been around. It’s not us!”
I thought the Akkadiam Empire was a thing of non-fiction. Idk if that's cuz of how mystery they seem people have put them in non-fiction or my ignorance
My brain tells me that you are either a pirate or a blacksmith… that’s enough rpgs for me
The Norse of Greenland were a small settlement, not a whole civilization. Also, don't you think that, blaming climate change for the downfall of those settlements, way before the use of fossil fuels kinda gives ammo to big oil and climate change deniers?
" blaming climate change for the downfall of those settlements, way before the use of fossil fuels kinda gives ammo to big oil and climate change deniers?" - No. First off, the professional deniers work for money and don't care about arguments about civilization. Secondly, their marks want to be misled and don't really care to learn real science anyway. Thirdly, emphasizing how dependent human civilizations are on the climate will matter to those who care.
For instance, Julius Caesar was murdered by 30 of his friends because of a volcano because the volcano famine
no he wasnt. Roman writers described unusual weather and famines in the years following Julius Caesar's assassination in 44 BCE
The Akkadians were not the first civ in Mesopotamia. That would be the Sumerians.
You may have misunderstood the video. They stated the Akkadians were the first Mesopotamian EMPIRE, not civilisation, which is correct.
Simple answer is, they became irrelevant.
We all know the Akkadian Empire was brought down by The Scorpion King.
That sucked
Did the First Nations people of Greenland survive the little ice age or did Greenland have to recolonize from the people who lived in northern Canada, Alaska and Siberia. Why do the citizens of Greenland have Danish passports ?🤷🏼♀️🌟🍀🌟👍👍👍🌺🌟🌺🖖🖖🖖👋🏻🧝🏼🤚🏻
For the last question, Greenland is part of Denmark. It’s not its own country.
@@zacklyons1284 Greenland like Canada who won its goal to be totally independent in the last century has the goal to be totally independent in this one . Even though having a Danish passport makes travel to Europe easier. I did a bit of research plus watch Q on UA-cam 😇🖖🧝🏼👍
The First Nations people survived.