Third Millennium Bc Climate Change and Old World Collapse: Its Impacts on the Old World Social Systems (Nato a S I Series Series I, Global Environmental Change)
Third Millennium Bc Climate Change and Old World Collapse: Its Impacts on the Old World Social Systems (Nato a S I Series Series I, Global Environmental Change) – Review
An notable group of papers by experts in archeology, social geography, history, geophysics, paleoclimatology, etc. on the possible roll of major climate changes in the roughly immediate end of the Akkadian Empire, the Old Kingdom in Egypt, the Harappan civilization and different places inbetween. I am not an expert in any of the disciplines listed, but I even found many of the papers interesting. The overall conclusion – that abrupt climate change was the explanation for the end of civilizations from Anatolia to the Indus – appears to be well supported. I have two reservations. First, if you don’t know anything about Bronze Age history, you will be dropped frequently starting at page 1. Second, most of the papers are written by experts for experts, and a reader without previous knowledge of rather arcane technical specialties will have difficulty understanding some of the papers.