Planet

The secret of the disappearance of the first empire of mankind is revealed

An international group of scientists found out the reasons for the fall of the New Assyrian kingdom, which is considered the first world empire in the history of mankind.  Specialists collected samples of stalagmites from the Kuna Ba Cave in northern Iraq to establish the nature of the precipitation in Mesopotamia falling on the first millennium BC. Stalagmites grow from bottom to top when rainwater drips from the ceiling of the cave, while dissolved substances precipitate. In the “annual rings” of mineral formations, the ratio of oxygen isotopes contained in water is fixed. This ratio can be used to determine climatic conditions at different time periods.
Archaeologists have established that the heyday of the empire came in two centuries of an abnormally humid climate after four thousand years of arid conditions. The New Assyrian kingdom lasted from 912 to 609 BC. In the middle of the VII century BC, large and long droughts resumed, lasting decades and causing a decline in agriculture. This, in turn, contributed to the political and economic collapse of the empire.
During its heyday, the New Assyrian state stretched from the Mediterranean Sea and Egypt in the west to the Persian Gulf and western Iran in the east.