Rise of Mankind 2.9 discussion

[Snofru1]

You forgot the +50% culture boost.

I would also add a much reduced revolution index - the Pyramids made Egypt much more stable, huge joined projects tend to unify the people.

 

[twjr]

I would also add a much reduced revolution index - the Pyramids made Egypt much more stable, huge joined projects tend to unify the people.

That or the slavery that tended to be used to build them got all bitter and twisted about it.

Okay. Tell me if you find out the magazine.

If I remember rightly from my 100 level geography class widespread and unsustainable deforestation also played a role in their downfall. Once they had chopped down all the trees they were unable to make any more good canoes and as the older ones broke or were lost at sea they lost some of their ability to fish.

Of course I did this paper like 5 years ago now so I could be thinking of a totally different society. But I am sure I remember something about pollen records on the islands showing that in the not too distant past there were extensive forests.

 

[civ_king]

That or the slavery that tended to be used to build them got all bitter and twisted about it.



If I remember rightly from my 100 level geography class widespread and unsustainable deforestation also played a role in their downfall. Once they had chopped down all the trees they were unable to make any more good canoes and as the older ones broke or were lost at sea they lost some of their ability to fish.

Of course I did this paper like 5 years ago now so I could be thinking of a totally different society. But I am sure I remember something about pollen records on the islands showing that in the not too distant past there were extensive forests.

 

[zappara]

That or the slavery that tended to be used to build them got all bitter and twisted about it.

Actually the most recent archeological findings indicate that it wasn't slaves that built the Pyramids but the egyption farmers and workers - it was sort of national service for them during the time when they weren't needed on the farms.

Until recently, however, the fabulous art and gold treasures of pharaohs like Tutankhamen have overshadowed the efforts of scientific archaeologists to understand how human forces—perhaps all levels of Egyptian society—were mobilized to enable the construction of the pyramids. Now, drawing on diverse strands of evidence, from geological history to analysis of living arrangements, bread-making technology, and animal remains, Egyptologist Mark Lehner, an associate of Harvard’s Semitic Museum, is beginning to fashion an answer. He has found the city of the pyramid builders. They were not slaves.

The surprises were just beginning. Faunal analyst Richard Redding, of the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History, identified tremendous quantities of cattle, sheep, and goat bone, “enough to feed several thousand people, even if they ate meat every day,” Lehner adds. Redding, who has worked at archaeological sites all over the Middle East, “was astounded by the amount of cattle bone he was finding,” says Lehner. He could identify much of it as “young, under two years of age, and it tended to be male.” Here was evidence of many people—presumably not slaves or common laborers, but skilled workers—feasting on prime beef, the best meat available.

Lehner currently thinks Egyptian society was organized somewhat like a feudal system, in which almost everyone owed service to a lord. The Egyptians called this “bak.” Everybody owed bak of some kind to people above them in the social hierarchy. “But it doesn’t really work as a word for slavery,” he says. “Even the highest officials owed bak.”

Read the whole article: http://harvardmagazine.com/2003/07/who-built-the-pyramids. I've recently watched documentary which was telling the same things.

 

[JanissaryRush]

Historically the impact of natural disasters were huge, the black death killed 40% of all of Europe. Many other plagues have killed significant percentages of many countries populations. Droughts ravaged large regions.

The disasters in the game are insignificant. A few improvements destroyed, a forest fire, lost your built up food in one city.

It would be nice to have an option to turn on historical realistic disasters. Plagues that would ravage large regions, killing 10-40% of entire populations. The more unhealthy and bigger the cities the more that die.

Famines that affect small to large regions, reducing 10-50% of food production for a few turns. If it doesn't affect all your empire, you could have option to ship all your extra food to those cities for a fee per turn.

In modern times the effects of these are reduced.

In modern times you could have occasional depressions, where GDPs are reduced 10-30% for a number of turns.

 

[twjr]

Actually the most recent archeological findings indicate that it wasn't slaves that built the Pyramids but the egyption farmers and workers - it was sort of national service for them during the time when they weren't needed on the farms.





Read the whole article: http://harvardmagazine.com/2003/07/who-built-the-pyramids. I've recently watched documentary which was telling the same things.

Interesting looking article. I will read it a bit more thoroughly later. But I guess it doesn't surprise me that they weren't slaves. As the article says it is really the Judeo-Christian's that have presented that view. The Bible isn't especially flattering of the Egyptians, I guess they were just jealous they weren't part of the Egyptian society.