• Jay@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Spiders?

    Or more likely could it be when the occupants die, instead of someone new moving in they torch the place and start over?

    Edit: nevermind, they suggested that further down in the article.

    • imgonnatrythis@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, spiders seemed like the obvious answer to me. I would have also accepted centipedes.

  • AA5B@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Huh. I was expecting they did it to destroy contagion, but that’s not in the article

  • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Interestingly, Japan does this now. They tear down and rebuild wooden houses about every 20 years and concrete every 30. But the cause for Japan is earthquakes which I don’t think would apply much here.

  • bleistift2@feddit.de
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    1 year ago

    […T]hey have discovered evidence of numerous ancient civilizations on the planet, all destroyed by fire, with the collapses occurring about 2,000 years apart. […E]arlier civilizations on Lagash were destroyed by people who went insane during previous [solar] eclipses and, desperate for any light source, started large fires that destroyed cities.

    – Extract from the plot summary of “Nightfall” by Isaac Asimov, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightfall_(Asimov_novelette_and_novel)