Posted on 12/05/2008 6:43:34 PM PST by SunkenCiv
The decline of the Roman and Byzantine empires in the Eastern Mediterranean more than 1,400 years ago may have been driven by unfavorable climate changes. Based on chemical signatures in a piece of calcite from a cave near Jerusalem, a team of American and Israeli geologists pieced together a detailed record of the area's climate from roughly 200 B.C. to 1100 A.D. Their analysis, to be reported in an upcoming issue of the journal Quaternary Research, reveals increasingly dry weather from 100 A.D. to 700 A.D. that coincided with the fall of both Roman and Byzantine rule in the region... Using oxygen isotope signatures and impurities -- such as organic matter flushed into the cave by surface rain -- trapped in the layered mineral deposits, Orland determined annual rainfall levels for the years the stalagmite was growing, from approximately 200 B.C. to 1100 A.D...the Eastern Mediterranean became drier between 100 A.D. and 700 A.D., a time when Roman and Byzantine power in the region waned, including steep drops in precipitation around 100 A.D. and 400 A.D... Their detailed climate record shows that the Eastern Mediterranean became drier between 100 A.D. and 700 A.D., a time when Roman and Byzantine power in the region waned, including steep drops in precipitation around 100 A.D. and 400 A.D. "Whether this is what weakened the Byzantines or not isn't known, but it is an interesting correlation," Valley says... The team is now applying the same techniques to older samples from the same cave. "One period of interest is the last glacial termination, around 19,000 years ago -- the most recent period in Earth's history when the whole globe experienced a warming of 4 to 5 degrees Celsius," Orland says.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.wisc.edu ...
IMO most if not all empires fell and migrations out of Africa were due to climate changes that exacerbated conditions such as lack of plant food and game; increased pestilence and disease.
Salting the fields and cutting all the trees didn't help (CO2 reduction).
Disaster That Struck The Ancients
BBC | 7-26-2001 | Fekri Hassan
Posted on 12/08/2001 2:51:43 PM PST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/586511/posts
The Cold Snap That Civilised The World
The Telegraph (UK) | 2-22-2002 | David Derbyshire
Posted on 02/23/2002 2:33:42 PM PST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/633991/posts
Archaeologists Unearth 1,700 Year-Old Canal System Near Lake Okeechobee (Florida)
Sun- Sentinel | 6-6-2002 | Rhonda Miller
Posted on 06/07/2002 2:13:56 PM PDT by blam
Edited on 09/03/2002 4:50:36 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/696466/posts
The Dark Ages: Were They Darker Than We Imagined?
The Universe | 9-1999 | Greg Bryant
Posted on 06/08/2003 10:31:29 PM PDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/925578/posts
Drought That Destroyed A Civilisation
The Herald (UK) | 11-11-2003 | Martin Willians
Posted on 11/16/2003 11:05:23 AM PST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1022897/posts
Smithsonian Scientists Connect Climate Change, Origins Of Agriculture In Mexico
Eureka Alert | 6-1-2007 | Dolores Piperno
Posted on 06/02/2007 1:52:29 PM PDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1843791/posts
New Work Shows Shawnee Lookout Site to Be Ancient Water Works, Not a Fort (Not full title)
University of Cincinnati | Sep 12, 2008 | Carey Hoffman
Posted on 09/12/2008 10:01:30 AM PDT by decimon
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2080920/posts
Monsoon link to fall of dynasties[China]
BBC | 06 Nov 2008 | BBC
Posted on 11/07/2008 8:53:13 AM PST by BGHater
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2127932/posts
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Correlation does not equal causation.
From what little I know, which aint much at all, on the subject of ancient timey type farming...
Do What Great Great Great Great Grandaddy Did was the height of technical advance at the time.
Primitive farming techniques would be grossly affected by even small changes in weather patterns.
Seems to me that it’s rather amazing that civilization collapse events weren’t even more common than they were.
Whatttt????
I wholeheartedly agree. European society grew during the Medieval warming, and then literally fell to pieces during the sudden onset of cooling that followed (the “Little Ice Age”).
Of course, the photo doesn’t show the other barrel, inside the manhole, catching the ‘shine...
People move. How the hell do they think the USA got populated cross country.
The Black Plague did a lot to reduce productive populations also
Scientists Show That Vegetation Conditions Drive The North Africa DroughtWilliam Lau, a Goddard Space Flight Center (Greenbelt, Md.) atmospheric scientist... along with UCLA atmospheric scientists Ning Zeng and David Neelin, found that the addition of vegetation to climate computer models proved to be the missing link in what was driving the drought... changing sea surface temperatures couldn't account for much of the drought at all... another factor -- soil moisture -- ...was only enough to account for a drought half as severe as what actually happened in the Sahel. Finally, the team added natural vegetation to the model and found that the natural vegetation interacts significantly with climate, and in the case of the Sahel drought, caused enhanced drying... Also, since plants transpire by losing water through their leaves, less vegetation decreases humidity. The loss of a direct moisture supply means less rainfall, which causes weaker circulation, dampening the monsoon season... Lau said that the new model including natural vegetation changes is a much better reflection of what the Sahel region actually experienced. And it suggests that without the addition of man-made landscape changes, the climate system is fully capable of generating this devastating type of drought.
ScienceDaily
November 24, 1999
Adapted from materials from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
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Yep. That’s what I thought you said.
BINGO!
More than likely this was coincident with the moral degradation of these societies.
:’) I guess I just ignored the obvious.
Ah. What YOU said! ;o]
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