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Silver denarii coins played a crucial role in Roman inflation and the collapse of the Roman empire. Source: Glevalex / Adobe Stock

The Devaluation of Rome: Roman Inflation and the Demise of the Empire

Inflation is a common economic phenomenon that can have a significant impact on the stability of a country's economy and social structures. This was certainly true for the Roman Empire, which...
Angkor Wat, Cambodia. Source: mikefuchslocher / Adobe Stock.

Angkor: A Once-Flourishing Civilization Doomed by Environmental Destruction (Video)

The ancient city of Angkor in Southeast Asia was once a thriving metropolis, home to the Khmer civilization and their massive temple complex, Angkor Wat. However, despite its grandeur, the city's...
Hattusa, the capital of the Hittite Empire before its collapse. Source: Suat/Adobe Stock

The Role of Severe Drought in the Collapse of the Hittite Empire

A study of juniper tree-ring samples from central Turkey, along with other dating methods, shows that a climate crisis in the form of a severe drought in 1198–1196 BC, played a major role in the...
‘Destruction’ from Thomas Cole’s ‘The Course of Empire.’ Representation of a city destroyed in the Late Bronze Age Collapse. Source: Public domain

Civilization's Midnight: The Late Bronze Age Collapse

To the layman who is educated in the Euro-Centric tradition, history stops at the Greeks. We are all familiar with the militaristic ferocity of the Spartans and the open atmosphere of discourse in...
Easter Island. Source: Aliaksei / Adobe Stock

Easter Island and the Mysteries of the Moai

Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui , is a remote Chilean island a few thousand kilometers west of South America in the Pacific Ocean. Described as an archaeological Disneyland, the island has...
Catastrophic Collapse: When Historic Good Governments Turned Bad

Catastrophic Collapse: When Historic Good Governments Turned Bad

A new anthropological study provides a strong message about what happens when social contracts are broken by a previously good government – the government and the society collapses – hard...
Remains of inner gatehouse (left) and barbican to Lewes Castle (right). Source: ArildV / CC BY-SA 4.0

Lewes Castle Wall Collapses Leading to Search for Casualties

A section of a medieval castle’s wall has collapsed in Britain . The rubble of the centuries-old wall fell into neighboring houses. Emergency services are at the site and they are searching for...
The famous Lions Gate into the hill fortress where Mycenaean armies originated.

The Fall of a Civilization: The Mysterious Collapse of the Mycenaean Bronze Age

"In most cases, collapse results from multiple, 'cascading' stress factors—politico-economic, demographic, and sociocultural as well as environmental…relational aspects, arguing that factors such as...
Castillo fortress at sunrise. Do trophy skulls help explain the collapse of the once great empire? Maya Source: soft_light / Adobe Stock

Trophy Skulls Provide New Clues In Explaining the Collapse of the Maya

Gabriel D. Wrobel / The Conversation Two trophy skulls , recently discovered by archaeologists in the jungles of Belize , may help shed light on the little-understood collapse of the once powerful...
Digitized image of the Komkom Vase.

Hieroglyphic Vase Reveals Amazing Insights into Maya and Eventual Collapse of Civilization

The discovery of an ancient Maya vase painted with hieroglyphs is the longest Pre-Columbian text ever found in Belize and is offering new information about this once powerful civilization including...
Honduras Mayan city ruins in Copan. The picture presents detail of decorating walls of the temple.

The Maya’s Mystifying Collapse – Has the Truth Finally Been Uncovered?

Did the longstanding mystery of what caused the downfall of the Maya - of one of the ancient world's great civilizations – just get solved? Nothing is mightier than an empire at its peak. Great...
Maya ruins surrounded by lush green vegetation of the current climate.

New Scientific Proof Emerges for the Cause of the Downfall of the Maya Civilization

The severity of drought conditions during the demise of the Maya civilization about one thousand years ago has been quantified, representing another piece of evidence that could be used to solve the...
Archaeologists Uncover New Clues on the Collapse of the Maya Civilization

Archaeologists Uncover New Clues on the Collapse of the Maya Civilization

Using the largest set of radiocarbon dates ever obtained from a single Maya site, archaeologists have developed a precise timeline that clarifies patterns leading up to two major collapses of the...
The pyramid of El Castillo, Temple of Kukulkan in Chichen Itza, Mexico.

1,000-year-old Maya pyramid might collapse into sacred ancient sinkhole in Mexico

An enormous, 1,000-year-old temple in Mexico is sitting precariously over a deep sinkhole and experts worry that the entire pyramid may eventually collapse. The famous El Castillo (the Castle) is a...
Honduras Mayan city ruins in Copan

New research reveals clues into downfall of Maya civilization

A new study that examined minerals from the famous underwater cave in Belize, known as the Blue Hole, discovered evidence for an extreme drought between 800 and 900 AD, which corresponds to the time...
The twin seated Colossi of Memnon, statues of Amenhotep III, on the west back of Luxor, Egypt

Colossal standing Pharaoh Amenhotep III returned to splendor in Luxor, Egypt after toppled by ancient earthquake

An ancient Pharaoh is back on his feet after 3,000 years at Egypt’s famous temple city of Luxor. On Sunday archaeologists unveiled the restored, 12.9-meter (43ft) standing statue of Amenhotep III at...
Chaco Canyon

Unravelling the mystery of the Chaco Canyon culture collapse

For over 2,000 years, ancient Pueblo peoples occupied a vast region of the south-western United States. Chaco Canyon, a major centre of ancestral Pueblo culture between 850 and 1250 AD, was a focus...
Tunnels in Rome

Scientists to Map 'Secret' Labyrinth of Roman Subterranean Tunnels

As tourists wonder the streets of Rome and flock to the incredible sites of the Colosseum and Roman Forum, few of them realise that beneath their feet lies something even more ancient – a maze of...
 Hala Sultan Tekke

Climate Change may have Caused Collapse of Civilizations in Late Bronze Age

New research published in the journal Plos One has shown that climate change occurring towards the end of the 13 th century BC may have caused the collapse of the Eastern Mediterranean civilizations...