Ancient Egyptian Climate Change

[guy]

An interesting article describing the climate change of Egypt documented by papyri during the third century of the Roman Empire:

 

Quote

In the third century CE, the entire Roman Empire was hit by crises that are relatively well documented in the province of Egypt by more than 26,000 preserved papyri (documents written on sheets of papyrus). In the Faiyum region, these include records of inhabitants who switched to growing vines instead of grain or to sheep farming due to the scarcity of water. Others accused their neighbors of water theft or turned to the Roman authorities for tax relief. These and other adaptive strategies of the population delayed the death of their villages for several decades.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/01/210125113133.htm

 

Summary: This may be another piece of evidence that Northern Africa was, in fact, the "bread basket" of ancient Rome. It may be more than a coincidence that the collapse of productivity of Northern Africa (in the third century AD) paralleled the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. 

 

guy also known as gaius