For five centuries it was a great power
A new investigation, focused on the climatic evolution of the Anatolian peninsula, studies the effect of changes in climate on the collapse of this and other ancient civilizations of the eastern Mediterranean around the year 1200 BC.
For five centuries the Hittites were one of the great powers of the ancient world. From their capital, Hattusa, they built an empire with multiple political and economic connections in the Near East and the eastern Mediterranean. But come the year 1170 BC, this civilization had disappeared, the same as its Mycenaean contemporaries, while Assyria and Egypt fragmented or reduced their area. Furthermore, in the case of the Hittites, unlike other contemporary kingdoms, they barely left a trace in the memory of the peoples who later occupied their lands and until the second half of the 19th century it was a civilization forgotten by history.
The cause of its sudden disappearance has been the subject of debate among experts, with several possible explanations such as changes in military technology, migrations, climate changes, epidemics, or the arrival of a mysterious civilization from the central Mediterranean, to the have been called the Sea Peoples. In fact, many researchers today consider the idea of a “perfect storm” more likely: a confluence of various factors that led to the fall of the ancient kingdom.
New research, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, suggests that severe changes in climate may have pushed its population, accustomed to life in an arid region in present-day Turkey, beyond its limits of adaptation. In particular, point to a great drought that occurred in central Anatolia between the years 1198 and 1196 BC.”A third consecutive year of drought is particularly rare and was very severe in the pre-modern world. It would undermine both political power, through the lack of food, the need for taxes to support the elite or the impossibility of feeding the army, as well as religious power, since call into question divine authority since clearly the gods have abandoned the people and rejected the current rulers,” says Sturt Manning, a professor of archeology at Cornell University in the US.
Even so, many questions remain about the precise relationship of changes in climate and historical events. “The Hittite collapse comes from the top: from the ruling system, the High King, the capital (home of the gods), the bureaucracy, etc.”, adds Manning. “Besides, the situation would offer opportunities to his enemies.” The episode falls within a 300-year period in which the climate of the Mediterranean region became drier and colder, a fact that is now associated with the end of several ancient civilizations that marked the end of the Bronze Age in the East. next. A study published in 2013 by French researchers in the journalPlos Onebased on the analysis of pollen grains found in sediments of a salty lake in Larnaca (Cyprus), already pointed to the drought as the cause of the disappearance of the Mycanians, Minoans and Hittites.
Lessons for climate change
The work that is now published in Nature has allowed us to identify the exact dates. Its authors analyze the rings in remains of juniper wood (Juniperus excelsa y Juniper smelly) excavated at the Gordion site, in the center of present-day Turkey. Based on the size and shape of these rings, which make it possible to identify the growing seasons of the trees, they have been able to follow the hydric evolution of the area. In addition, the study of the stable isotope of carbon-13 helps to more precise dating.
The communities that lived there more than 3,000 years ago had developed mechanisms to cope with the usual conditions of the region, including years of low rainfall, as evidenced by grain silos or the construction of dams. However, the changes were severe enough to create a tipping point from which their efforts did not allow them to adapt, especially in interior territories. This situation would have caused the intensive use of landscapes and natural resources, inflicting lasting damage on their ecosystems, and finally the abandonment of territories, including Hattusa. One of the enigmas in the study of the history of the Hittites has been the abandonment of their capital in the last decades of the empire, since the exodus seems to have been meticulously planned and not the result of a violent episode.
The authors of the article stress the importance of studying how to deal with the current climate crisis. “There is a contemporary relevance, our societies are resilient to climate threats within the foreseeable, but today’s climate change is leading us to more difficult circumstances, it is causing more cases of extreme weather conditions,” says Sturt Manning. “It can be assumed that the climatic changes that humans will experience in the next century will be much more severe than those experienced by the Hittites. The collapse of a five-century-old, highly climate-resilient civilization should make us wonder: what is really our resilience?
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