Severe multi-year drought coincident with Hittite collapse around 1198-1196 BC.

ABSTRACT: The potential of climate change to substantially alter human history is a pressing concern, but the specific effects of different types of climate change remain unknown. This question can be addressed using palaeoclimatic and archaeological data. For instance, a 300-year, low-frequency shift to drier, cooler climate conditions around 1200 BC is frequently associated with the collapse of several ancient civilizations in the Eastern Mediterranean and Near East^1-4. However, the precise details of synchronized climate and human-history-scale associations are lacking. The archaeological-historical record contains multiple instances of human societies successfully adapting to low-frequency climate change^5-7. It is likely that consecutive multi-year occurrences of rare, unex

SUBMITTER: Manning SW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9946833 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature