Monsoon blamed for the deaths of ancient civilizations
Climatologists and geologists from the United States and China have found a link between the strength of the monsoons on the one hand and the rise and decline of the Asian civilizations on the other. The scientists explained their findings in an article published in the journal Science Advances.
The authors have studied the composition of different layers of stalagmites in a cave in the Himalayas. They were interested in the ratio of different isotopes of oxygen. Based on these data they could calculate how changing climatic conditions for more than 5700 years.
Scientists noticed that UPS India and the Vedic civilizations coincide well with periods of warm and wet climate during which temperature fluctuations and rainfall in different years were small. When the climate became more cool, and rainy seasons brought less moisture, the civilization fell into decay.
Climate scientists have linked the fall of the Guge Kingdom, which existed on the territory of Tibet and disappeared in the first half of the XVII century. According to the authors, it fell into disrepair over thirty very dry years, not because of the defeat in the war against the Dalai Lama and the Khan Mongolian nomadic Oirat than explain the decline of the state the most.