Did a mega drought topple empires 4,200 years ago?

People abandoned thriving cities in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley and farther afield at about the same time as a decades-long drought gripped parts of the planet.
Wednesday, January 26, 2022
Michael Marshall
Nature

Water flows from a vessel held by a god in this seal of an Akkadian king from around 2200 bc, about the time that a drought affected the empire.

Picture Credit:
The Art Archive/Shutterstock

People abandoned thriving cities in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley and farther afield at about the same time as a decades-long drought gripped parts of the planet.

Did a mega drought topple empires 4,200 years ago?

The Department of Earth System Science acknowledges our presence on the ancestral and unceded territory of the Acjachemen and Tongva peoples, who still hold strong cultural, spiritual and physical ties to this region.