Climate change in antiquity: mass emigration due to water scarcity

EurekAlert! ^ | January 25, 2021 | University of Basel, media contact Reto Caluori

[SunkenCiv]

The absence of monsoon rains at the source of the Nile was the cause of migrations and the demise of entire settlements in the late Roman province of Egypt...

The oasis-like Faiyum region, roughly 130 km south-west of Cairo, was the breadbasket of the Roman Empire. Yet at the end of the third century CE, numerous formerly thriving settlements there declined and were ultimately abandoned by their inhabitants. Previous excavations and contemporary papyri have shown that problems with field irrigation were the cause. Attempts by local farmers to adapt to the dryness and desertification of the farmland - for example, by changing their agricultural practices - are also documented.

Basel professor of ancient history Sabine R. Huebner has now shown in the US journal Studies in Late Antiquity that changing environmental conditions were behind this development. Existing climate data indicates that the monsoon rains at the headwaters of the Nile in the Ethiopian Highlands suddenly and permanently weakened. The result was lower high-water levels of the river in summer. Evidence supporting this has been found in geological sediment from the Nile Delta, Faiyum and the Ethiopian Highlands, which provides long-term climate data on the monsoons and the water level of the Nile...

In the third century CE, the entire Roman Empire was hit by crises that are relatively well documented in the province of Egypt by more than 26,000 preserved papyri (documents written on sheets of papyrus). In the Faiyum region, these include records of inhabitants who switched to growing vines instead of grain or to sheep farming due to the scarcity of water. Others accused their neighbors of water theft or turned to the Roman authorities for tax relief. These and other adaptive strategies of the population delayed the death of their villages for several decades.

[SunkenCiv]

from deep in the archives:

Caves reveal clues to UK weather
by Tom Heap

At Pooles Cavern in Derbyshire, it was discovered that the stalagmites grow faster in the winter months when it rains more. Alan Walker, who guides visitors through the caves, says the changes in rainfall are recorded in the stalactites and stalagmites like the growth rings in trees. Stalagmites from a number of caves have now been analysed by Dr Andy Baker at Newcastle University. After splitting and polishing the rock, he can measure its growth precisely and has built up a precipitation history going back thousands of years. His study suggests this autumn's rainfall is not at all unusual when looked at over such a timescale but is well within historic variations. He believes politicians find it expedient to blame a man-made change in our weather rather than addressing the complex scientific picture.

I like that closing sentence -- "future decision-making could be made based on scientific data and not on political expediency". I wouldn't count on it, but that would be great.

[silent majority rising]

They shouldn’t have been driving gas powered chariots and allowing their camels to fart so much.

[butlerweave]

before they invented Wells , Africa still has a problem understanding Wells

[Spok]

So climate change occurs without burning fossil fuels? Never saw that coming!

[metmom]

It doesn’t take “climate change”.

Just a year or two of bad weather can do it.

[BenLurkin]

Sink their boats. Shoot down their planes. Plant landmines ahead of their invading columns.

It’s for the children.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Hell, the illegals already drank Lake Mead and Lake Powell dry. Americans are about to start paying for illegal immigration. I don’t know what the hell the Snowflakes were taught in “college” that made them think America could support the entire population of the western hemisphere.

[Tell It Right]

This begins what's known as the Dark Age cooling period. If you define the Dark Age as the fall of the western Roman empire, the begin date is around AD 376. If by "Dark Age" you're talking about the cooling period that followed the Roman Warm Period, the begin date is closer to AD 300 -- when average temps topped out and started gradually declining. Some say it was closer to AD 270, some say more like AD 300.

That's when crop yields started going down, rain patterns were harder to predict, and plagues went up. Don't let the warmageddonists fool you. Life during the cooling periods suck. Life during the warming periods are great times to be alive (at least as far as climate science goes). However much longer the Modern Warm Period lasts, we should be glad we live in it.

[bitt]

p

[entropy12]

It was camel farts in Egypt causing global warming during Roman empire.

But seriously, much more potent global warming followed last ice age, dissolving miles high glaciers forming the Great Lakes.

[entropy12]

Next ice age will kill 1000 times more humans than anything global warming can. Ice age repeats 15000 to 30000 year intervals. If humans can postpone next ice age arrival by just 100 years, think of all the lives saved.

[Blood of Tyrants]

You can’t count on the “scientists” to not be political tools anymore. Evidence Covid 19.

[SMARTY]

“...Next ice age will kill 1000 times more humans...”

Because there are so many MORE humans, now???

[small farm girl]

Yes, but also, if my zone 5 in New England turned into a 6 or 7 or 8, it would be a real season extender and I could grow much more food. If we were to experience the 2 degree decrease in mean average temps as happened during the little ice age, that would mean shorter to no growing season. That would be devastating, as it was for the European grain growers in 1300s and on, etc. So yes, global cooling potentially MUCH worse than global warming.

[entropy12]

Comparing how many humans will die TODAY if global temps increased by 2 deg Fharenheit versus if ice age started today with global temps plummeting 5-10 deg F.

[SunkenCiv]

The Drought and Droughts keywords, processed, sorted, duplicates out, then hand-edited, what fun. ;^) The Sahara keyword has some more I'm sure, like "early humans crossed the Sahara in the rain".

• Droughts in the sixth century paved the way for Islam [06/19/2022]
• Getting to the root of corn domestication; knowledge may help plant breeders [05/23/2022]
• How climate change caused the world's first empire to collapse [01/07/2019]
• The Best Radiocarbon-dated Site in Recent Iberian Prehistory [sudden end] [07/15/2018]
• Drought in Ireland Leads to Discovery of Neolithic Henge [07/12/2018]
• 4,000-year-old Sumerian port found in southern Iraq [03/22/2018]
• Lake Sediments Record Climate Change At Cahokia [02/15/2017]
• Cosmic Cycles, not Carbon Dioxide, Control Climate [01/24/2016]
• Did Egypt's Old Kingdom Die -- or Simply Fade Away? [12/28/2015]
• Ancient civilization: Cracking the Indus script [10/21/2015]
• DNA carries traces of past events meaning poor lifestyle can affect future generations [06/04/2015]
• Enjoy water? You're drinking dinosaur pee [05/29/2015]
• Ancient megadrought entombed dodos in poisonous fecal cocktail [04/30/2015]
• DNA can't explain all inherited biological traits, research shows [04/03/2015]
• Before they left Africa, early modern humans were 'culturally diverse' [08/21/2014]
• Violence and climate change in prehistoric Egypt and Sudan [07/21/2014]
• Mysterious Earthen Rings Predate Amazon Rainforest [07/10/2014]
• Climate change caused empire's fall, tree rings reveal [05/31/2014]
• Downfall of Ancient Greece Caused by 300-Year Drought [10/25/2013]
• Study Confirms Ancient River Systems in Sahara 100,000 Years Ago [09/12/2013]
• The Ghost Empire - Climate Change, Global Warming, Drought and Desertification [06/09/2013]
• Drought May Have Killed Sumerian Language [12/05/2012]
• 200-year-long drought may have killed Sumerian language [12/05/2012]
• EARTH was a BAKING LIFELESS DESERT for 5 MILLION years [10/19/2012]
• Climate and Drought Lessons from Ancient Egypt [08/18/2012]
• Drought Doomed Ancient City of Angkor [01/04/2012]
• UA scientists find evidence of Roman period megadrought (in US, not Rome) [11/04/2011]
• Ancient Egypt was destroyed by drought, discover Scottish experts [08/04/2011]
• Ancient City Mysteriously Survived Mideast Civilization Collapse [07/30/2011]
• Were Some Ancestral Puebloan People the Victims of Ethnic Conflict? [09/27/2010]
• Geology Picture of the Week Extra: GoogleEarth searcher finds pristine impact crater in Egypt [07/23/2010]
• Giant stone-age axes found in African lake basin [09/12/2009]
• The Green Sahara, A Desert In Bloom [10/03/2008]
• New climate record shows century-long droughts in eastern North America [08/28/2008]
• New climate record shows century-long droughts in eastern North America [08/19/2008]
• Once Lush Sahara Dried Up Over Millennia, Study Says [05/08/2008]
• Sahara dried out slowly, not abruptly: study [05/08/2008]
• Bedouin Culture In Egypt Dying In Drought [07/11/2007]
• Comets And Disaster In The Bronze Age [04/30/2007]
• Space Data Unveils Evidence of Ancient Mega-lake in Northern Darfur [03/29/2007]
• Climate Key To Sphinx's Riddle [01/08/2007]
• Drought NOT Caused by Global Warning [01/01/2007]
• Sahara Desert Was Once Lush and Populated [07/20/2006]
• IN DEPTH: Dead sea? [02/23/2003]
• African Ice Core Analysis Reveals Catastrophic Droughts, Shrinking Ice Fields, Civilization Shifts [10/18/2002]
• Comets,Meteors & Myth: New Evidence For Toppled Civilizations And Bibical Tales [08/11/2002]
• Meteor Clue To End Of Middle East Civilisations [01/03/2002]
• Disaster That Struck The Ancients [12/08/2001]

[AZJeep]

The whole Sahara used to be inhabited.
And now, thank to “climate change” is greening again!

[SunkenCiv]

Some more from the Drought and Droughts keywords, with the emphasis on climate panic porn / gaslighting / global warming hoax.

• US Western Megadrought Worst In 1,200 Years, Scientist Warn [02/18/2022]
• West megadrought worsens to driest in at least 1,200 years [02/15/2022]
• Mega Droughts and Other Climate Scare-Tactics [02/16/2015]
• NASA Study Finds 1934 Had Worst Drought of Last Thousand Years [10/14/2014]

  ---

• Prince Charles blames the Syrian War on Climate Change. He has a Point [TIC] [11/24/2015]
• Susan Rice Blames Climate Change For Conflict in Syria [10/15/2015]
• Iranian commander accuses Israel of stealing Iran's CLOUDS and causing a drought [07/02/2018]
• Egyptian researchers developed a cost-effective method for cleaning saltwater in just minutes [09/09/2015]

  ---

• Israel to top up Sea of Galilee after years of drought [06/12/2018]
• Israel To Double Water Supply To Jordan As Syrian Refugee Crisis Worsens [12/15/2016]
• Artificially produced water delivers Israel from drought [05/30/2015]
• The world's largest and cheapest reverse-osmosis desalination plant is up and running in Israel. [05/10/2015]
• Israel no longer worried about its water supply, thanks to desalination plants [04/05/2015]
• Over and drought: Why the end of Israel's water shortage is a secret [02/01/2014]
• Over and drought: Why the end of Israel's water shortage is a secret [desalination creates surplus] [02/01/2014]

  ---

• Israel brings water to feckless California [01/11/2016]
• Israel's Drought Lessons for California [11/17/2015]
• Israel Bringing Its Years Of Desalination Experience To California [06/17/2015]
• California drought: What would Israel do? [05/22/2015]

  ---

• Desalination Gains Gov. Brown's Support for Long-Term Drought Relief [04/06/2015]
• California: Desalination Plants May Be State's Only Solution Despite Environmental, Energy Concerns [08/02/2014]

  ---

• Why Are 96,000,000 Black Balls on This Reservoir? [05/11/2019]
• Cal Gov Brown admits Trump was right about cause of the fires; calls to ease logging restrictions [11/22/2018]
• How Governor Brown, Liberal CA Dems, and Bloated Federal Agencies Are to Blame for CA's Wildfires [11/21/2018]
• Zinke blames lawsuits by 'radical environmentalists' for creating more wildfires [11/20/2018]
• Loggers support Trump's claim that wildfires caused by 'poor forest management' [11/19/2018]
• Loss of Water During California Drought Caused Sierra Nevada to Rise: Study [12/13/2017]
• Huge Aquifers Discovered Deep Under Drought-Stricken California [06/28/2016]
• California of the Dark Ages [02/01/2016]
• The grass IS greener in Hollywood: Aerial photos expose how [J Lo and Streisand] waste water... [05/10/2015]
• Brown: 'Some People Have a Right to More Water Than Others' [04/05/2015]
• NASA Scientist Warns "California Has One Year Of Water Left" [03/13/2015]
• California drought and climate warming: Studies find no clear link [09/29/2014]
• Leftist Lawmakers and Enviro-Extremists Created CA Water Crisis [09/17/2014]
• California drought: 'May have to migrate people'[out of the State] [08/02/2014]
• Feinstein: Enviros no help on California drought [05/15/2014]
• California's Drought Isn't Due To Global Warming, But Politics [02/15/2014]

  ---

• Huge icebergs could be towed from Antarctica to Cape Town to solve South African drought crisis [04/30/2018]
• Cape Town May Dry Up Because of an Aversion to Israel [02/22/2018]
• Israel Wants to Assist Drought-Stricken Cape Town, BDS Says No [02/13/2018]
• Panic And Blame As Cape Town Braces For Water Shut-Off [01/24/2018]

  ---

• Mapping tree density at a global scale [09/03/2015]
• Scientists undercount trees by 2.6 trillion, but assure us animals going extinct [09/03/2015]
• 'Settled Science' chronicle: world has 7.5 times more trees than previously believed [09/03/2015]
• World Has Many More Trees Than Previously Thought, New Report Says [09/02/2015]
• Three trillion trees: Study finds there are 7.5 times more trees than previously believed [09/02/2015]

[SunkenCiv]

• Another global warming catastrophe: the Sahara Desert is actually getting greener [06/03/2015]
• The Green Sahara, A Desert In Bloom [10/03/2008]

  ---

• Study Confirms Ancient River Systems in Sahara 100,000 Years Ago [09/12/2013]
• Stone Age humans crossed Sahara in the rain [11/12/2009]
• Once Lush Sahara Dried Up Over Millennia, Study Says [05/08/2008]
• Sahara dried out slowly, not abruptly: study [05/08/2008]
• Sahara Desert Was Once Lush and Populated [07/20/2006]
• Scientists Explore Lakefront Property, in the Sahara [02/01/2004]

[SunkenCiv]