How climate change wiped out the Hittite empire in Anatolia

Three years of extreme drought caused the collapse of the powerful Hittite civilization of Anatolia (the current Turkey) in the 12th century before the Christian era, according to a study based on the analysis of ancient logs.

Droughts or the depletion of natural resources are factors increasingly studied by historians to explain dramatic changes in the past, for example in the Mayan territories of Mesoamerica.

The Hittites were one of the most influential ancient civilizations in the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, between 1650 and 1200 BC, beginning in central Anatolia, a semi-arid region that occupies virtually all of present-day Turkey.

Its capital, Hattusa, is an archaeological site classified as a World Heritage Site by Unesco.

The Hittites expanded into present-day Syria and forged numerous links with other empires, even rivaling the mighty Egyptian empire of Ramesses II.

His fall was quite precipitous. Hattusa was abandoned and then razed to the ground by fire.

With that collapse, the writing system and any trace of its administration system were lost. everything happened “quite quickly”explains to AFP Sturt Manning, professor of Archeology at the American University of Cornell, lead author of the study published this week in Nature.

Many Mediterranean civilizations -such as that of the Greek city of Mycenae- suffered the same fate during that period, at the end of the Bronze Age.

Famines, epidemics, foreign attacks contributed to these dramatic changes.

But until now there did not seem to be a primary responsible element, according to Müge Durusu-Tanriöver, a researcher in art history at the University of Philadelphia, in a commentary attached to the study.

juniper logs

In the case of the Hittites, the answer lay in the trees, specifically in some juniper logs found in a burial mound in Gordion (central Turkey) where the tomb of a king was discovered in the 1950s.

That tomb contained one of the oldest wooden structures in the world, very well preserved.

The analysis of the rings of these juniper trunks (dendrochronology) made it possible to accurately reconstruct the climatic conditions at that time.

“The main obstacle for the growth of trees in central Anatolia is the absence of water”explains Sturt Manning.

The researchers identified three consecutive years of abnormally weak growth, suggesting a period of prolonged and particularly severe drought, between 1198 and 1196 BC.

A hypothesis confirmed by carbon 12 and 13 dating.

This extreme aridity suggests long periods of food shortages due to dependence on cereals and livestock, which are very vulnerable to this situation.

The local population was probably used to the lack of water for centuries. But “It couldn’t cope with such brutal climate change. All their adaptation and resilience strategies in difficult times, such as storing grain in huge silos, were overwhelmed.”adds Manning.

Food shortages led to political, economic and social disorders, as well as epidemics that precipitated the collapse of the empire.

“This study finally gives us a tangible explanation for the abandonment of the city of Hattusa”Müge Durusu-Tanriöver was pleased, who hopes that further research will help determine whether other regions were affected by that period of aridity.

(With information from AFP)