From ChatGPT:

Several Indigenous civilizations in the Americas had their written records deliberately destroyed, while others relied heavily on oral knowledge that disappeared when communities were decimated. Here’s a clear breakdown of both types:

Civilizations Whose Records Were Intentionally Destroyed

Aztec (Mexica) Empire

• Type of records: Pictorial and glyphic codices on history, astronomy, tribute, law, and religion.
• Destruction: After the conquest, Spanish authorities, most famously Bishop Juan de Zumárraga and later Diego de Landa, burned almost all Aztec codices as “idolatrous.”
• Survival: Fewer than 20 pre-conquest or early-contact codices survive.

Maya Civilization

• Type of records: Highly developed writing system; texts on astronomy, mathematics, calendars, history, and ritual.
• Destruction: Inquisition-era clerics burned “thousands” of books and idols; Diego de Landa’s auto-da-fé in 1562 is the most notorious.
• Survival: Only four confirmed pre-conquest Maya codices remain (Dresden, Madrid, Paris, Grolier).

Mixtec Civilization

• Type of records: Rich pictographic histories of dynasties, genealogies, wars, religious rituals.
• Destruction: Many codices lost to Spanish burnings and suppression of Mixtec priest-scribes.
• Survival: A few extraordinary codices remain (Codex Zouche-Nuttall, Codex Vindobonensis).

Inca Empire (Tawantinsuyu)

• Type of records: Not written in books, but quipus—complex knotted-string recording systems for census, tribute, calendrics, and possibly narrative information.
• Destruction: Colonial authorities destroyed many quipus, and forced conversion efforts suppressed quipu-keepers (khipukamayuqs).
• Survival: ~1,000 quipus remain, but most without context.

Taíno (Caribbean)

• Type of records: Primarily oral, but also ceremonial carvings (zemis), sacred objects, and chronicled songs.
• Destruction: Spanish campaigns wiped out most of the population within decades; much material culture was destroyed or lost.

Muisca (Colombia)

• Type of records: Mostly oral histories and sacred textiles and objects.
• Destruction: Spanish suppression of temples and ceremonial items erased much of their intellectual heritage.

Civilizations Whose Knowledge Faded With Their Communities

These relied heavily on oral traditions or fragile local materials. When communities were devastated by disease, enslavement, and forced assimilation, their knowledge systems could not survive intact.

Mississippian Cultures (e.g., Cahokia)

• No writing system; history was preserved orally.
• Collapse accelerated by population loss after contact, long before written ethnography could record their traditions.

Ancestral Puebloans, Hohokam, Mogollon

• Sophisticated sciences (astronomy, hydrology, architecture) maintained through oral knowledge.
• Much was lost after displacement, missionization, and cultural fragmentation.

Wari, Tiwanaku (pre-Inca Andes)

• No writing system; relied on knot-based or symbolic systems.
• Knowledge of state organization and ritual life vanished after the societies collapsed long before Spanish arrival, and then post-contact disruptions erased remaining memories.

Nahua, Zapotec, Purepecha, and many others

• These groups had writing or semi-writing systems, but much of what we know today survives only in fragments because:

  • manuscripts were burned,
  • priestly classes were suppressed,
  • or oral lineages were broken.

The Scale of Loss

Across the Americas, scholars estimate:

• hundreds of languages vanished, each carrying unique worldviews and knowledge systems;
• countless scientific, agricultural, ecological, and medical traditions were lost or fragmented;
• many civilizations’ histories and lineages were erased or only partially reconstructed through archaeology.

It truly was a civilizational-scale knowledge collapse—yet also a story of survival, because many Indigenous peoples continue to preserve, revive, and rebuild these traditions today.