Disaster That Struck The Ancients

The pharaohs of the Egyptian Old Kingdom had built the mightiest legacy of the ancient world - the pyramids at Giza. But after nearly a thousand years of stability, central authority disintegrated and the country collapsed into chaos for more than a 100 years.

What happened, and why, has remained a huge controversy. But Professor Fekri Hassan, from University College London, UK, wanted to solve the mystery, by gathering together scientific clues.

His inspiration was the little known tomb in southern Egypt of a regional governor, Ankhtifi. The hieroglyphs there reported "all of Upper Egypt was dying of hunger to such a degree that everyone had come to eating their children".

Dismissed as exaggeration and fantasy by most other Egyptologists, Fekri was determined to prove the writings were true and accurate. He also had to find a culprit capable of producing such misery.

"My hunch from the beginning was that it had to do with the environment in which the Egyptians lived." Fekri felt sure the Nile, the river that has always been at the heart of Egyptian life, was implicated.

He studied the meticulous records, kept since the 7th Century, of Nile floods. He was amazed to see that there was a huge variation in the size of the annual Nile floods - the floods that were vital for irrigating the land.

But no records existed for 2,200BC. Then came a breakthrough - a new discovery in the hills of neighbouring Israel. Mira Bar-Matthews of the Geological Survey of Israel had found a unique record of past climates, locked in the stalactites and stalagmites of a cave near Tel Aviv.

What they show is a sudden and dramatic drop in rainfall, by 20%. It is the largest climate event in 5,000 years. And the date? 2,200 BC.
As Israel and Egypt are in different weather systems, Fekri needed evidence of some worldwide climate event to link this to the collapse of the Old Kingdom. And the evidence came out of the blue.

Geologist Gerard Bond, of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, US, looks for climate evidence in the icebergs of Iceland. As they melt on their journey south, they leave shards of volcanic ash on the ocean floor.

How far they travelled before melting tells him how cold it was. Cores of mud from the ocean floor revealed to him regular periods of extreme cold - mini ice ages - in Europe every 1,500 years, and lasting 200 years. And one mini ice age occurred at 2,200 BC.

Gerard's colleague, Peter deMenocal, looked at climate records for the rest of the world at exactly the same time. From pollen records to sand, the story was the same - a dramatic climate change from Indonesia to the Mediterranean, Greenland to North America.

Scientists were confirming everything Fekri believed - severe climate change causing widespread human misery 4,200 years ago, misery we are only now learning about for the first time.

Back in Egypt, Fekri wanted to put the last piece of the puzzle in place. He wanted direct evidence of this severe climate change in the Nile. And he found it drilling cores in a large lake that had been fed by a tributary of the Nile in ancient times.

He discovered in the critical period, as the Old Kingdom collapsed, the lake had dried up completely - the only time in the whole history of this lake that this had happened. At last, Fekri felt he had proved that the writings on Ankhtifi's tomb were really true. It was nature that had driven people to desperation.

OK!! OK!! I surrender!! Five years later and I still get replies bashing this response. Fine. Fine. Fine. Fine. Fine. I admit to not knowing what I was talking about. I was young! I made a mistake!! I'm sorry!!! Five years is a long time ago already!!! I've paid my debt to freeperdom. I've moved on. I'm sorry!! Time to forgive and forget! It's Christmas! Can't we all just get along??!!

No. You are doomed to wear this albatross around your neck as long as there is electricity powering the Internet. Your mistakes never, ever, go away. Worse than herpes.

CAN'T ANYONE WRITE SENTENCES BETTER THAN THIS MONSTROSITY ANYMORE??

Had you been schooled in a tradition that included Latin grammar, you would have known that this is a perfectly reasonable classical construction. It is called the ablative absolute.

If you are going to be a compulsive grammarian, then you need to understand the rhetorical tradition underlying the sentence construction employed by the classically educated world, a world that has sadly shrunk to such a state that someone like you can post something like this, calling himself a compulsive grammarian, and get away with it.

None of us are perfect, but when you take out a sword and wield it, ensure it has not been dulled by time and ignorance.

Let me get this straight. You're defending substandard English at the same time that you're calling ME ignorant?

I don't understand your "underlying rhetorical tradition" argument. A dangling modifier is simply an illiteracy in modern English usage.

It really doesn't matter how Ovid used to phrase it because--news flash--HE WASN"T WRITING IN ENGLISH. I write English.

a fine bunch o' topics from the "ancientegypt", "egypt", and "cleopatra" keywords:

Not sure I'll get the joke right, but I'll try.

Mr. H has problems in the bedroom, so after trying all the regular doctors he tries a witch doctor. The witch doctor mixes up a potion, does some chants and tells him when it is time to perform in bed , count “1,2,3”.

When you are done, and no longer than 4 hours, count “1,2,3,4” to stop the erection. But then you have to wait 12 hours before you can go at it again.

He quickly drives home, tells his wife that he is finally cured and to get into bed. His wife of course is also exited and hops into bed. The man splashes on some extra cologne, and then says “1,2,3”.

The wife hears and asks “Honey, what is the 1,2,3 for?”

So the rule is, don't end your sentences with a preposition,
.
.
.
as it leaves you with a dangling participle.

Fascinating. Great find.

Here’s the culprit:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umm_al_Binni_lake

If you look around the area there are other similar depressions. The impact craters appear to indicate the objects came from the NE, perhaps an asteroid which broke-up prior to impact?

A drought would of course occur after an impact event. I’ve been in that part of Iraq and the land is as flat as a pool table from formerly being a shallow sea. Any large, circular depression would be very suspect as it is not natural to the sedimentary seabed of a shallow, sand-blown ocean like the gulf.

There are two circular depressions near Umm Al Binni which are 20 miles in diameter.

OK!! OK!! I surrender!! Five years later and I still get replies bashing this response. Fine. Fine. Fine. Fine. Fine. I admit to not knowing what I was talking about. I was young! I made a mistake!! I’m sorry!!! Five years is a long time ago already!!! I’ve paid my debt to freeperdom. I’ve moved on. I’m sorry!! Time to forgive and forget! It’s Christmas! Can’t we all just get along??!!
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No. You are doomed to wear this albatross around your neck as long as there is electricity powering the Internet. Your mistakes never, ever, go away. Worse than herpes.

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Truly, this is a thread which keeps on giving! Thanks.

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