I'll be picking up this issue of Archaeology Magazine

[james_davis_nicoll]

Diamond on the Carpet

Archaeologists think Guns, Germs, and Steel author Jared Diamond misrepresents the downfall of ancient civilizations to score points for today's environmental movement. What does their criticism of the Pulitzer Prize winning biologist tell us about his biases, and how does it reveal their own?

Nicked from talheres

Comments

[malada.livejournal.com]

They left? Well, maybe some of them left when the last supply boats pulled out but if I remember my archeology they found human remains _inside_ buildings; remains of people who - by their bones - didn't seem well fed.

Some stayed - they died. The natives continued to thrive.

-m

`native'

[(Anonymous)]

Not, in point of fact, the natives. Inuit and Viking arrived at the same time, if I remember correctly.

-- Keir

[tavella.livejournal.com]

Also, there's the question of *how* they could leave; they didn't have much ship-building capacity towards the end.

[carloshasanax.livejournal.com]

It wasn't a lost colony. It was an infrequently visited colony. There's a difference.

[tavella.livejournal.com]

Not a whole lot of difference if ships only visit every few years; there simply isn't the capacity to evacuate.