Population boom, droughts contributed to collapse of ancient Assyrian Empire

Phys Spam Org ^ | November 05, 2014 | unattributed

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In the 9th century BC, the Assyrian Empire of northern Iraq relentlessly started to expand into most of the ancient Near East. It reached its height in the early 7th century BC, becoming the largest of its kind in the Near East up to that time. The Assyrian Empire's subsequent quick decline by the end of the 7th century has puzzled scholars ever since. Most ascribe it to civil wars, political unrest, and the destruction of the Assyrian capital, Nineveh, by a coalition of Babylonian and Median forces in 612 BC....

Recently published paleoclimate data show that conditions in the Near East became more arid during the latter half of the 7th century BC. During this time, the region also experienced significant population growth when people from conquered lands were forcibly resettled there. The authors contend that this substantially reduced the state's ability to withstand a severe drought such as the one that hit the Near East in 657 BC. They also note that within five years of this drought, the political and economic stability of the Assyrian state had eroded, resulting in a series of civil wars that fatally weakened it...

Schneider and Adalı further draw parallels between the collapse of the Assyrian Empire and some of the potential economic and political consequences of climate change in the same area today... On a more global scale, they conclude, modern societies can take note of what happened when short-term economic and political policies were prioritized rather than ones that support long-term economic security and risk mitigation.

...adds Selim Adalı. "We, however, have no such excuses, and we also possess the additional benefit of hindsight. This allows us to piece together from the past what can go wrong if we choose not to enact policies that promote longer-term sustainability."

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;’)

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Immanuel Velikovsky
The Assyrian Conquest

• Introduction

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• Part I: The Time Of Isaiah
  • When the House of Akhnaton Died Out
  • The Sequence of Dynasties
  • The Libyans in Egypt
  • Libyan and Ethiopian Art & Culture
  • Jeroboam II and Osorkon II
  • Revolutions in Egypt and Israel
  • The Last Kings of Israel
  • Pharaon So
  • The End of Samaria
  • The Conquest of Ashdod

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• Part II: The Assyrians In Egypt
  • Sennacherib: the Year - 701
  • Sethos
  • The Three Brothers
  • Queen Twosre
  • Haremhab Appointed to Administer Egypt
  • Haremhab Crowned
  • Haremhab's Great Edict
  • Haremhab's Contemporaries
  • The Later Campaigns of Sennacherib
  • The Siloam Aqueduct
  • The Reign of King Hezekiah
  • Sennacherib's Last Campaign
  • Political Turmoil Around - 687
  • Essarhaddon's Reconquest of Egypt

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• Part III: Seti The Great
  • From Nineveh to Ni
  • Dakhamun
  • The Sack of Thebes
  • Necho I
  • The First Greeks in Egypt
  • Seti Becomes an Ally of Assurbanipal
  • The End of Nineveh

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