Classic civilisations collapsed due to climate change

Should we allow history to repeat?

At present times when we can feel the abrupt change of seasons , a historical perspective at how climate change really affects us and how lethal the situation can become.

In barely six months since a group of scientists and archaeologists found that the Indus Valley Civilization had collapsed due to monsoon hiatus that resulted in prolonged drought, a new study came out with evidences confirming that the ancient civilisation of Mesopotamia too had collapsed due to years of drought resulted by climate change.

A study made by team of German researchers observed that “influence of climate on agriculture is believed to be a key factor in the rise and fall of societies in the Ancient Near East.”

Headed by Dr. Simone Riehl of Tübingen University’s Institute for Archaeological Science and the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, the objective of the German Research Foundation-backed project was to find out the influence climate had on agriculture in early farming societies.

As part of the study, the team analysed 1037 samples of ancient grains of barley, between 12,000 and 2500 years old, from 33 locations across the Fertile Crescent to ascertain if they had had enough water while growing and ripening.

"Climate change is real and happening in India. These issues have a direct impact on our daily lives and it is necessary that we start taking measures to address the issue,”

By comparing the ancient grain samples with modern samples from 13 locations in the former Fertile Crescent, Riehl and her team measured the grains’ content of two stable carbon isotopes, C-12 and C-13 to collect information on the availability of water while the plants were growing.

By Basudev Mahapatra

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