LAUSR

Anthropology From roughly 912 to 609 BCE, the Neo-Assyrian Empire rose as one of the most powerful superpowers of its time, dominating much of the Near East. Sinha et al. propose that megadroughts played an important role in the rapid decline in the empire's power, from its height around 670 BCE to its collapse only six decades later. Precisely dated cave deposits from northern Iraq preserved a record of precipitation and effective moisture over a 4000-year period that includes the span of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. This record demonstrates that the rise of the empire occurred during a roughly 200-year interval of abundant rainfall. Subsequently, severe megadroughts characterized the climate across the empire, likely contributing to the empire's rapid decline. Sci. Adv. 10.1126/sciadv.aax6656 (2019).