In 2334 BCE the Akkadians conquered and united the Sumerian city state kingdoms to create the world’s first empire. The Akkadian’s ruled over much of Mesopotamia, what is now modern-day Iraq, Syria and Turkey, but after only 140 years the Akkadian Empire fractured. Entire regions of Mesopotamia descended into chaos and the Akkadian Empire’s very existence was lost to history. Now archaeologists scour the Middle East searching for information about how they became so powerful and why they collapsed.
A phenomenon being studied as a strong cause for drought across the world is El Nino.
Could it be responsible for a drought occurring at 2200 BCE?
El Nino occurs when tropical water in the eastern Pacific Ocean becomes unusually warm.
The effects of El Nino are unpredictable, but often cause drought around the globe.
Doctor Frank Sirocko has a hunch El Nino is responsible for the drought at 2200 BCE,
but how can you work out when El Nino occurred throughout history? Sirocko turns to what we know now.
When they dated the sample, incredibly they see a spike in sediment from 2500 to 2000 BCE.
For Sirocko it indicates an intensification of El Nino activity
around the period that drought hit Mesopotamia.
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