The Olmec collapse: La Venta is abandoned
Mesoamerica's first civilization empties for centuries
By about 400 BC the major Olmec centres, La Venta among them, had been abandoned, and the population of the eastern Olmec heartland dropped sharply. The likely cause was environmental change — rivers shifting course and silting up, perhaps after earthquakes or eruptions; within a few centuries successor cultures took hold on the fringes.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 4th century BC
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 415 BC–413 BC The Athenian Sicilian Expedition — 15 years earlier
- c. 387 BC Plato founds the Academy — 13 years later
Asia
- 403 BC The Partition of Jin opens the Warring States — 3 years earlier
Alive at the time
- Socrates (aged 70)
- Plato (aged 28)
- Hippocrates (aged 60)
- Democritus (aged 60)
- Aspasia (aged 70)
- Mozi (aged 70)
- Antisthenes (aged 45)
- Diogenes of Sinope (aged 12)