re: #212 A hollow voice says NOW drain that swamp!

The Greeks were overrun by Romans (barbarians? dunno), and current thinking is that the Romans became vulnerable because of waves of plagues. Their civilization wasn’t wiped off the face of the earth, although it suffered a major setback. The Mayans were probably done in by overpopulation — with no way to import or export food (no domestic animals), they had no choice but to starve in place. But their descendents are still around.

People are around but not their civilizations. In some cases, the knowledge they acquired was preserved so later societies could eventually rebuild using that information. Mayans (and all New World civilizations) were handicapped by not having horses.