Major migratory population waves that happened several times through out history may well have been caused by climate changes some of which were in turn caused by extreme volcanic activity.
1800 and 1700 BC Collapse of the
Indus Valley Civilization"Today, many scholars believe that the collapse of the Indus Civilization was caused by drought and a decline in trade with Egypt and Mesopotamia. It has also been suggested that immigration by new peoples, deforestation, floods, or changes in the course of the river may have contributed to the collapse of the IVC."
1627 BC and 1600 BC
Eruption of Thera --
Hyksos invasion in Egypt.
Indo-Aryan migration theories. "Recent examinations of the eruption of the Santorini volcano suggest that it occurred very close (estimated between 1660-1613 BC) to the first appearances of the Sea People in Egypt." "Many archaeologists speculate that the eruption induced a crisis in Minoan civilization, which allowed the Mycenaeans to conquer them easily." "In China the collapse of the dynasty and the rise of the Shang dynasty, approximately dated to 1618 BCE, were accompanied by "yellow fog, a dim sun, then three suns, frost in July, famine, and the withering of all five cereals."
"Models of the Indo-Aryan migration discuss scenarios of prehistoric migrations of the proto-Indo-Aryans to their historically attested areas of settlement in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent, postulated to have started around 1500 BC... Migration of Proto-Indo-Iranian speakers to and within Northwestern parts of South Asia is consequently presumed to have taken place in the Middle to Late Bronze Age, contemporary to the Late Harappan phase (ca. 1700 to 1300 BCE)." "Recent genetic research indicates that the Indian subcontinent was subjected to a series of massive Indo-European migrations about 1500 BC."
1260 and 1240 BC Trojan war,
Bronze_Age_Collapse.
"The fact that several civilizations around 1175 BCE collapsed has led suggestion that the
Sea Peoples may have been involved in the end of the Hittite, Mycenaean and Mitanni kingdoms." "It has also been noted that there is great similarity between the names of the Sea Peoples, which at that time were raiding Egypt, as they are listed by Ramesses III and Merneptah, and of the allies of the Trojans."
"A famous passage from Herodotus portrays the wandering and migration of Lydians from Anatolia because of famine:
In the days of Atys, the son of Manes, there was a great scarcity through the whole land of Lydia ... So the king determined to divide the nation in half ... the one to stay, the other to leave the land. ... the emigrants should have his son Tyrrhenus for their leader ... they went down to Smyrna, and built themselves ships ... after sailing past many countries they came to Umbria ... and called themselves ... Tyrrhenians." "The last Greek Linear B documents in the Aegean (dating to just before the collapse) reported a large rise in piracy, slave raiding and other attacks, particularly around Anatolia."
"This theory is strengthened by the fact that the collapse coincides with the appearance in the region of many new ethnic groups. Indo-European tribes such as; the Phrygians, Proto-Armenians, Medes, Persians, Cimmerians, Lydians and Scythians, as well as the Pontic speaking Colchians, Hurro-Urartuans and Iranian Sarmatians. These groups settled or emerged in the Caucasus, Iran and Anatolia. Thracians, Macedonians and Dorian Greeks seem to have arrived at this time – possibly from the north, usurping the earlier Greeks of Mycenae and Achaea. There also seems to have been widespread migration of Semitic peoples, such as Aramaeans, Chaldeans and Suteans – possibly from the South-East.
The ultimate reasons for these migrations could include drought, developments in warfare/weaponry, earthquakes or other natural disasters, meaning that the Migrations theory is not necessarily incompatible with the other theories mentioned here."
400-600 AD Fall of Roman Empire
Extreme weather events 530-s Migration period, decline of
Teotihuacán.
"This period was marked by profound changes both within the Roman Empire and beyond its "barbarian frontier". The migrants who came first were Germanic tribes such as the Goths, Vandals, Angles, Saxons, Lombards, Suebi, Frisii and Franks; they were later pushed westwards by the Huns, Avars, Slavs, Bulgars and Alans."
"Period of extreme weather during 535–536 AD. Evidence of this cold period is also found in dendrochronology and ice cores."
610–718 AD Muslim conquests (unrelated to climate?)
800-1200 AD Vikings, Norman conquests (unrelated to climate?)
1205-1240 AD Mongolian invasion (unrelated to climate?)
1300-1850 AD
Little Ice Age.
Crisis of the Late Middle Ages. Great Famine of 1315-1317 "The
Kuwae eruption has been linked with the second pulse of the Little Ice Age, which had started two centuries earlier with a series of four unidentified eruptions."
"
A year without summer in 1815."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timetable_of_major_worldwide_volcanic_eruptionshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_faminesP.S. BTW Biblical Exodus is also happening near a long famine period.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
