Severe drought may have ended an empire 3,000 years ago, study claims
Hittites were one of the most prominent civilizations in central Anatolia around the 1300s BC. A recent study published today has shown that a devastating drought in 1198–1196 contributed to the end of the Hittite empire.
The study’s lead author Sturt W. Manning and his team worked on whether a similar climate change event could bring the end of the Hittites, as did to other Bronz Age civilizations.
As per the study, thinner tree rings indicate drier years since less water typically results in slower tree growth. Secondly, using a technique called carbon-13 stable-isotope analysis on tree samples, it is possible to pinpoint drier periods by looking for higher-than-average levels of 13C, which is a gauge of the relative abundance of 13C to 12C isotopes in the samples.
The authors also looked at samples for cellular structural alterations in severe drought. The results from these data types were correlated, and Manning and the team could compare them to the continuous annual historical sequence of Gordion tree rings.
It was drier than average
According to the authors’ findings, the thirteenth and tenth centuries BC were drier than average, and the years 1198–1196 BC had a severe three–year drought. These dates are intimately related to the Hittite Empire and correlate to the turbulent time documented towards the end of the Bronze Age.
The authors emphasized how dry and prone to drought central Anatolia was. As shown by the enormous grain silos that were a common sight in central Hittite cities and the development of extensive water infrastructure projects, such as dams, that picked up steam in the thirteenth century BC, communities living in such landscapes developed coping mechanisms for the years with inadequate rainfall.
The abandonment of Hattusa (capital) during the latter decades of the Hittite Empire is one of the numerous mysteries of Hittite research. The causes for Hattusa’s abandonment have been discussed in the absence of archaeological evidence supporting the city’s destruction by battle or conquest, with climatic change and the ensuing droughts and famines being one of the contenders.
Source: Interesting Engineering
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Severe drought may have ended an empire 3,000 years ago, study claims