Posted on 08/18/2012 11:29:28 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Ancient pollen and charcoal preserved in deeply buried sediments in Egypt's Nile Delta document the region's ancient droughts and fires, including a huge drought 4,200 years ago associated with the demise of Egypt's Old Kingdom, the era known as the pyramid-building time... said Christopher Bernhardt, a researcher with the U.S. Geological Survey... "Even the mighty builders of the ancient pyramids more than 4,000 years ago fell victim when they were unable to respond to a changing climate," said USGS Director Marcia McNutt. "This study illustrates that water availability was the climate-change Achilles Heel then for Egypt, as it may well be now, for a planet topping seven billion thirsty people."...
The researchers used pollen and charcoal preserved in a Nile Delta sediment core dating from 7,000 years ago to the present to help resolve the physical mechanisms underlying critical events in ancient Egyptian history.
They wanted to see if changes in pollen assemblages would reflect ancient Egyptian and Middle East droughts recorded in archaeological and historical records. The researchers also examined the presence and amount of charcoal because fire frequency often increases during times of drought, and fires are recorded as charcoal in the geological record...
Large decreases in the proportion of wetland pollen and increases in microscopic charcoal occurred in the core during four different times between 3,000 and 6,000 years ago. One of those events was the abrupt and global mega-drought of around 4,200 years ago, a drought that had serious societal repercussions, including famines, and which probably played a role in the end of Egypt's Old Kingdom and affected other Mediterranean cultures as well.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
The Spinx and the Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt are pictured here. USGS and University of Pennsylvania research shows that ancient pollen and charcoal preserved in deeply buried sediments in Egypt's Nile Delta document the region’s ancient droughts and fires, including a huge drought 4,200 years ago associated with the demise of Egypt's Old Kingdom, the era known as the pyramid-building time. (Credit: Benjamin P. Horton , University of Pennsylvania)
Here's an oldie (7 Jul 99):Evolution in Your FaceLake Victoria, Africa's largest lake, is home to more than 300 species of cichlids. These fish, which are popular in aquariums, are deep-bodied and have one nostril, rather than the usual two, on each side of the head. Seismic profiles and cores of the lake taken by a team headed by Thomas C. Johnson of the University of Minnesota, reveal that the lake dried up completely about 12,400 years ago. This means that the rate of speciation of cichlid fishes has been extremely rapid: something on average of one new species every 40 years!
by Patrick Huyghe
Omni
Sahara's abrupt desertificationGerman scientists, employing a new climate system model, have concluded that this desertification was initiated by subtle changes in the Earth's orbit and strongly amplified by resulting atmospheric and vegetation feedbacks in the subtropics. The timing of this transition was, they report, mainly governed by a global interplay among atmosphere, ocean, sea ice, and vegetation... the model led to the conclusion that the desertification of North Africa began abruptly 5,440 years ago (+/- 30 years). Before that time, the Sahara was covered by annual grasses and low shrubs, as evidenced by fossilized pollen.
by Harvey Leifert
It’s not “Sphinx”? Am I getting confused with sfincter?
Does anyone have one of those Ancient Egyptian SUVs still running? Perhaps it was the Ancient Egyptian coal powered plants they used to build the pyramids.
“Even the mighty builders of the ancient pyramids more than 4,000 years ago fell victim when they were unable to respond to a changing climate,”
So, in order to compensate for our technical deficits in properly dealing with climate change, we’ll just build these structures. Gimme a break
Closer to home ‘......the abrupt and global mega-drought of around 4,200 years ago.......” coincides with the drying up of Lake Erie in Northern Indiana ~ http://www.michiganscience.org/images.aspx?ID=9117
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2151143/Climate-change-wiped-worlds-great-civilisations-4-000-years-ago.html ~ ignoring the GlobullWharming stuff, the date for the fall of the Harrapan civilization (with large cities) is right there at the same mark.
Before that time a steady monsoonal flow came from the vicinity of Yemen and blew across the Indian Ocean where it dropped enormous quantities of water onto the Dekkan Highlands. That resulted in equally enormous jungle growth which kept people out of that area.
Every sign of civilization in central India dates from AFTER the beginning of monsoons and the end of the steady monsoonal flow.
So, creation and destruction ~ from the same cause.
Exactamundo. Building the pyramids was the ancient Egyptian stimulus plan. By creating hundreds of thousands of government jobs, leaders hoped to jumpstart an economy slowed by climate change.
Yes. King Tut's SUV just made a tour around the world, described here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38545625/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/king-tuts-chariots-were-formula-one-cars/
In the article, Tut's demise was described as caused by a crash in his SUV. Also in the article, Professor Emeritus B. Sandor describes the SUV as a "major engineering marvel". It was clearly the SUV that caused the Egyptian drought.
FWIW, the Old Kingdom ran from c. 2700 to c. 2200.
The great pyramids were built during the 2500s.
So they were roughly 300 years old when this period came along.
To put that in some perspective, B. Franklin was born 306 years ago.
Post 13 was meant as a reply to 11.
Apologies.
FWIW, there is archaelogical evidence that the pyramids were built using mostly labor during the agricultural off season.
Those damn peasants are just sitting around anyway, might as well put em to work at something useful. “Useful” dependent on definition, of course.
It worked. Those huge pyramids have held the soil in place for thousands of years!
Given that “the devil finds work for idle hands”, this was probably a sensible (though non-libertarian) way of keeping the “yutes” out of trouble.
The Giza (and Abu Roash) pyramids antedate this drought by a few hundred years, that is, the writer of the article refers to the 4th dynasty, which transitioned into the short 5th and 6th dynasties, and the latter deteriorated into the 1st Intermediate Period. Menkaure (grandson of Khufu, and builder of the third and smallest of the larger Giza pyramids) was succeeded by his own son, but that pharaoh built a mastaba, and nowhere near Giza.
What are you refering to SG?
Wanna know what scares me? Keeps me up at night? That makes a ton of sense to me. And they're all dead.
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