
Contents
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Mesopotamia dries: The rise and decline of the Akkadian civilization Mesopotamia dries: The rise and decline of the Akkadian civilization
-
Cities evolve: Infectious diseases, writing, and bronze Cities evolve: Infectious diseases, writing, and bronze
-
Climates and life in the Indus Valley Climates and life in the Indus Valley
-
Eastern Mediterranean: Late Bronze Age collapse and the Sea Peoples Eastern Mediterranean: Late Bronze Age collapse and the Sea Peoples
-
The Sea Peoples The Sea Peoples
-
Concluding remarks Concluding remarks
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
6 Eurasian Bronze Age Unsettled Climatic Times
Get access-
Published:February 2017
Cite
Abstract
The Story Now Moves beyond the mid-Holocene. By around 4000 B.C.E., viable agrarian settlements had appeared in many parts of the world. Not only could larger populations be supported, but surplus food produced by toiling farmers enabled the differentiation of labour and social status. Settlements expanded, made trading connections, and formed larger collective polities. Hierarchical authority and power began to replace horizontal flows of local information and decision-making. The vagaries of climate, however, lurked on the horizon. Agrarian societies, with their increasing dependence on harvest staples, were painting themselves into a corner. Also, as populations grew and settlements coalesced, mutant strains of animal-hosted microbes that made a successful crossing from livestock or urban pests to humans took advantage of larger, intermingling host populations. A few of these adventurers, such as the measles virus, not only initiated new epidemics but continued circulating, between outbreaks, as endemic “crowd diseases.” Measles, a microbial success story, is still with us today. The advent of property, food stores, and occupied land in nearby populations stimulated both war and conquest, each having diverse, debilitating, and often bloody consequences for health and survival. Climatic conditions in Sumer, sitting at the meteorological crossroads of the Middle East, began changing about 3600 B.C.E., one-third of the way into the fourth millennium B.C.E. . There was a general cooling and drying in the northern hemisphere as the first phase of the Holocene Climatic Optimum waned and as the Icelandic Low and Siberian (Asiatic) High circulations intensified, funnelling colder air southwards. Rainfall declined in southern Mesopotamia, compounded by a southerly drift of the rain-bearing Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone and the regional monsoon. Further west, the Sahara was changing from green to brown, and Egyptian agriculture was faltering. As rainfall declined and arrived later in the year, farming became more difficult; farmers now needed to make a year-round effort, with double-cropping and shorter fallow periods. By extending their irrigation systems, the Sumerians compounded another problem: several centuries of overirrigation and deforestation had already begun to turn the soil saline.
Sign in
Personal account
- Sign in with email/username & password
- Get email alerts
- Save searches
- Purchase content
- Activate your purchase/trial code
- Add your ORCID iD
Purchase
Our books are available by subscription or purchase to libraries and institutions.
Purchasing informationMonth: | Total Views: |
---|---|
October 2022 | 2 |
March 2023 | 2 |
June 2023 | 1 |
November 2023 | 1 |
January 2024 | 19 |
February 2024 | 11 |
March 2024 | 4 |
May 2024 | 3 |
June 2024 | 4 |
July 2024 | 1 |
October 2024 | 2 |
February 2025 | 3 |
March 2025 | 1 |
Get help with access
Institutional access
Access to content on Oxford Academic is often provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. If you are a member of an institution with an active account, you may be able to access content in one of the following ways:
IP based access
Typically, access is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses. This authentication occurs automatically, and it is not possible to sign out of an IP authenticated account.
Sign in through your institution
Choose this option to get remote access when outside your institution. Shibboleth/Open Athens technology is used to provide single sign-on between your institution’s website and Oxford Academic.
If your institution is not listed or you cannot sign in to your institution’s website, please contact your librarian or administrator.
Sign in with a library card
Enter your library card number to sign in. If you cannot sign in, please contact your librarian.
Society Members
Society member access to a journal is achieved in one of the following ways:
Sign in through society site
Many societies offer single sign-on between the society website and Oxford Academic. If you see ‘Sign in through society site’ in the sign in pane within a journal:
If you do not have a society account or have forgotten your username or password, please contact your society.
Sign in using a personal account
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. See below.
Personal account
A personal account can be used to get email alerts, save searches, purchase content, and activate subscriptions.
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members.
Viewing your signed in accounts
Click the account icon in the top right to:
Signed in but can't access content
Oxford Academic is home to a wide variety of products. The institutional subscription may not cover the content that you are trying to access. If you believe you should have access to that content, please contact your librarian.
Institutional account management
For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.