Posted on 02/09/2023 5:51:26 AM PST by FarCenter
The Hittite Empire emerged around 1650 BC in semi-arid central Anatolia, a region that includes much of modern Turkey. For the next five centuries, the Hittites were one of the major powers of the ancient world, but around 1200 BC, the capital at Hattusa was abandoned and the empire was no more.
...
Manning and Sparks combined their labs to scrutinize samples from the Midas Mound Tumulus at Gordion, a human-made 53-meter-tall structure located west of Ankara, Turkey. ... But equally important are the juniper trees -- which grow slowly and live for centuries, even a millennium -- that were used to build the structure and contain a hidden paleoclimatic record of the region.
The researchers looked at the patterns of tree-ring growth, with unusually narrow rings likely indicating dry conditions, in conjunction with changes in the ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-13 recorded in the rings, which indicate the tree's response to the availability of moisture.
Their analysis finds a general shift to drier conditions from the later 13th into the 12th century BC, and they peg a dramatic continuous period of severe dryness to approximately 1198-96 BC, plus or minus three years, which matches the timeline of the Hittite's disappearance.
"We have two complementary sets of evidence," Manning said. "The tree-ring widths indicate something really unusual is going on, and because it's very narrow rings, that means the tree is struggling to stay alive. In a semi-arid environment, the only plausible reason that's happening is because there's little water, therefore it's a drought, and this one is particularly serious for three consecutive years. Critically, the stable isotope evidence extracted from the tree-rings confirms this hypothesis, and we can establish a consistent pattern despite this all being over 3,150 years ago."
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
Thanks FarCenter, nice twofer. Blam, Sturt Manning.
Cline did a long Twitter thread yesterday on the significance of the Nature article:
https://twitter.com/digkabri/status/1623504832320442375?s=20&t=X67jvzvK1_7rwIlR4jgZ_Q
Would that be the drought that caused the famine in Canaan and Jacob and sons moved to Egypt where Joseph was Governor?..............
I’ve seen various iterations of this talk and agree this one is pretty good summary and covers all the bases of his hypothesis.
Sure, but the hypothesis is dead wrong, as is his timeline.
No.
Before or after?...................
This three year drought was long after.
Yes, this is a very informative presentation.
SunkenCiv, are you saying Eric Cline’s timeline is all wrong? If so, where and by how much? Does it affect his basic accounting of the “Collapse,” which seems to be well accepted by the academic community? AND, what exactly is Cline’s, hypothesis? To the extent he expounds a hypothesis, isn’t it simply that there were multiple causes of this great 12th Century BC disruption?
I have a general knowledge of this area of antiquity, however, my curiosity outweighs my knowledge. Your comments and opinions are wanted.
Oldplayer
Good link. Interesting. Thanks.
The Pago volcanic eruption at 1370±100 BC, is a possible cause of global cooling and drought. Although it appears to be too early, the dating is not very precise. It was a VEI 6 eruption with a volume of 30 cubic kilometers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pago_(Papua_New_Guinea)
Hekla in Iceland has also been proposed, but it is later, quite a bit smaller, and not near the equator.
Nice.
That’s what I was thinking of when I said every state should have one.
There was one in Louisiana that we used to go to when I was young.
But I think the song was written about one in California. Not sure how many others there are.
thanks for this post. the book was great and i didnt know this lecture was out there
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