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This volume compares two of the most famous cases of civilizational collapse, that of the Roman Empire and the Classic Maya world. First examining the concept of collapse, and how it has been utilized in the historical, archaeological and anthropological study of past complex societies, Storey and Storey draw on extensive archaeological evidence to consider the ultimate failure of the institutions, infrastructure and material culture of both of these complex cultures.
Detailing the relevant economic, political, social and environmental factors behind these notable falls, Rome and the Classic Maya contends that a phenomenon of "slow collapse" has repeatedly occurred in the course of human history: complex civilizations are shown to eventually come to an end and give way to new cultures. Through their analysis of these two ancient case studies, the authors also present intriguing parallels to the modern world and offer potential lessons for the future.
List of contents
1 The Concept of Slow Collapse
2 The "Flood" of Catastrophe Books and Rethinking the Concept of Collapse
3 Introduction to the Case Studies: The Archaeological Evidence
4 The Political Economy of Collapse
5 The Political Dimension of Collapse
6 The Social Dimension of Collapse
7 The Environmental Dimension
8 The Validity of the Concept of "Slow Collapse" and Human Resilience
About the author
Rebecca Storey is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Houston, who has been teaching anthropology for 30 years. Trained in both biological anthropology and archaeology, she received her Ph.D. from the Pennsylvania State University. Her research has specialized on the Precolumbian civilizations of Teotihuacan and the Classic-period Maya sites of K'axob and Copan, especially on the skeletal remains that provide information about health and lifestyle not available from other kinds of archaeological data. The Classic Maya collapse is an important focus of her research, as both K'axob and Copan were abandoned as part of this phenomenon. Glenn Reed Storey is Associate Professor of Classics and Anthropology at the University of Iowa. He has degrees from Columbia University and Oxford University and a doctorate from Penn State University in anthropology. He teaches a wide range of courses, ranging from Beginning Classical Greek to Anthropology and Contemporary World Problems. His research has focused on the Roman economy and demography, while carrying out excavations at the site of Gangivecchio, a Greco-Roman site in Sicily, in tandem with investigations using ground penetrating radar.
Summary
In this detailed comparative study, Rebecca and Glenn Storey examine the cultural changes marking the fall of two well-known ancient complex societies: the Classical Maya and the Ancient Roman Empire. Utilizing the concept of slow collapse, the authors show how the two experienced comparable problems that ultimately led to the parallel processes of decline despite their cultural dissimilarities.
