Role of climate in the rise and fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire

Abstract

Climate change played an important causal role in the expansion and collapse of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.

Beyond megadrought and collapse in the Northern Levant: The chronology of Tell Tayinat and two historical inflection episodes, around 4.2ka BP, and following 3.2ka BP

“…Here too, a direct association between various reconstructions of 13 th -10 th centuries BCE climatic crisis in the eastern Mediterranean and Near East (e.g. [ 3 , 20 – 23 , 26 , 43 , 162 – 164 ]) and the trajectory of development at the site of Tell Tayinat is difficult to discern. The decline of the Late Bronze Age settlement of Tell Atchana begins at least a century earlier than the proposed major crisis that occurs ca.…”

“…Much recent scholarship has focused on identifying apparent periodic episodes of substantial and longer-lasting drought–so-called megadroughts–which arguably appear to correlate, at least approximately in temporal terms, with episodes of major collapse, change, or reorientation in human civilization in various regions of the world [ 1 – 3 ]. Whether mere approximate contemporaneity is indicative of explanation is another question, and recent discussions of social responses to climatic change have highlighted the unpredictability and variability of possible outcomes, precluding a simplistic association between environmental change and societal collapse [ 4 – 11 ].…”

“…The potential importance of such historically relevant climate forcing episodes, both in explaining history, but also as laboratory of current and future relevance, should not be overlooked–and this general topic has been the subject of much recent research, as in other regions, in the Mediterranean-Near East (e.g. [ 1 – 3 , 16 – 23 ]), but also debate (e.g. [ 4 – 11 , 24 ]).…”

“…[ 16 – 23 , 25 , 26 ]). In each instance, there is purportedly a multi-century episode of collapse, then general hiatus and transformation before a subsequent return to ‘high’ civilization—the Middle Bronze Age (the Middle Kingdom in Egypt, the Old Babylonian period in Mesopotamia) from around 2000/1900 BCE for the first, and the Iron Age ‘renaissance’ from the 9-8 th centuries BCE for the second (the latter perhaps linked to a major solar irradiance minimum and climate shift [ 3 , 27 , 28 , ref. 29 pp.…”

Holocene Monsoon Change and Abrupt Events on the Western Chinese Loess Plateau as Revealed by Accurately Dated Stalagmites

“…The Earth's climate system during the Holocene has been marked by a series of globally extensive centennial‐scale climate anomalies such as the 2.8, 4.2, 5.5, 8.2, and 9.3 ka events (e.g., Bond et al, 1997; Mayewski et al, 2004). Some of these events occurred at rapid rates with large amplitudes, which may have caused disastrous consequences, seriously affecting the prehistoric human society development (e.g., Carolin et al, 2019; Sinha et al, 2019; Weiss et al, 1993). In‐depth studies of the timing, duration, and structure of these events in different regions are of great significance for a better understanding of their causative mechanisms (Bond et al, 2001; Wanner et al, 2011), which is an important basis for predicting future climate change under the global warming.…”