Climate Changes Affect Ancient Civilizations
Drought more than politics and war may have undermined several ancient civilizations , leaving them vulnerable to internal stability and external conquest.
As contemporary societies grapple with climate change that may dramatically affect the ebb and flow of civilizations, historians of various specialties look back at ancient civilizations, postulating that historical climate changes may have played a more significant part in the rise and fall of early empires. While some of these changes may have been catastrophic, such as the Greek Dark Ages, c 1200-800 BCE, others were part of drawn out patterns like the affects of climate change during second and third century Imperial Rome. Drought and subsequent famine may have played a larger role in power shifts in the ancient world then previously noted.
The Ancient Near East
Akkad, the first great empire in Ancient Mesopotamia, was founded by Sargon the Great, described as “one of the outstanding figures of the ancient world.” His empire fell after 200 years with the invasion of the Gutians, barbarians that descended upon the Tigris and Euphrates region from the northern highlands. Elizabeth Kolbert, who has written a book on climate change, states that “scholars blamed the empire’s fall on politics.” According to Kolbert, however, a more plausible direct reason for the Akkadian collapse “was caused by a devastating drought.”
Kolbert gives similar examples of how “shifts in rainfall” destabilized other civilizations such as the Egyptian Old Kingdom and, in the Americas, the Maya and the Tiwanacu in Peru. In the Genesis account describing how the Israelites migrated to Egypt (chapter 42ff), famine had gripped Canaan and Jacob sent his sons to buy grain in Egypt. The uncorroborated story does highlight the fact that, for the most part, Egyptians could predict the flow of the Nile and were thus able to prepare for the expected periods of famine.
Some scholars speculate that the famine mentioned in Genesis coincided with Egypt’s Second Intermediate Period that included the Hyksos invasion across the Sinai, perhaps prompted more by the lure of grain than other riches. Famines often precipitated population shifts, affecting longer, established civilizations. The Hyksos changed the direction of Egyptian history, resulting in the New Kingdom and Egyptian imperialism.
The Mediterranean
The Greeks always possessed a fragile agricultural economy reflecting irregular rainfall. Yet around 1200 BCE, catastrophic events destroyed the Mycenaean civilization. Widespread famine engulfed the land, desperate inhabitants took to the sea in search of better conditions, and much of Greece returned to a primitive culture. The event may have been sparked by significant volcanic activity in the Aegean Sea that blocked the sun, affecting an already weak agricultural base.
Trade and commerce was disrupted, affecting also the Hittites and the Minoans. Within this calamity, barbarians entered Greece from the north. Like the Gutians, the Dorians benefited from internal instability and weakness attributed, in part, to severe climate changes.
Much later, beginning in the mid-second century AD, climate change again affected a great empire – the Romans. Soil erosion, deforestation, and changes in rainfall patterns disrupted grain shipments to Rome and affected other provincial agrarian enterprises. This is often one of several reasons advanced for the so-called “fall of Rome.”
The importance of water in the Ancient Near East, much as it is today, played a dominant role in the survival of civilizations. The evolution of siege warfare, for example, greatly perfected by the Assyrians, included the elimination of any water source into the city under siege. Herodotus recounts that when Sennacherib attacked Jerusalem, he dried up the river, an action that might have backfired because his actions increased the rodent population which proceeded to destroy his soldier’s weapons.
Climate and Civilization
As scholars delve into the past to assess the impact of climate on ancient civilizations, they may produce models that can be used today. Contemporary climate changes may also precipitate major population shifts and affect national economies, particularly those heavily dependent upon agriculture and herding, much as happened centuries ago.
Sources:
C. E. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament Vol. I, (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, no date given).
Elizabeth Kolbert, “Outlook: Extreme,” National Geographic, April, 2009, pp 60-61. See also Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change (Bloomsbury, 2006).
Samuel Noah Kramer, Cradle of Civilization (Time Incorporated, 1967).
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