To Save Middle East From Climate Change, Ancient Egypt Mounted Massive Relief Effort, Archaeologists
Back in the Late Bronze Age, the world’s largest superpower realized something was off with the climate.
That superpower was ancient Egypt, and Israeli archaeologists believe they have uncovered some of the measures the pharaohs took more than 3,000 years ago to deal with the protracted drought that wracked the Middle East in the 13th and 12th centuries B.C.E., causing famine, wars and mass migrations.
At the time, Egypt firmly controlled Canaan as well as Lebanon and southwestern Syria. The pharaohs apparently ordered a massive increase in grain production in the fertile areas of ancient Israel, and took the food produced there for the more vulnerable provinces of the empire.
photo credit: Edgardo W. Olivera