Abrupt climate change and collapse of ancient civilizations at 2200BC-2000BC
Plentiful evidence of historical, archaeological and palaeoclimatic studies proved that an abrupt change from wetter to drier climate occurred over the Nile Valley, the Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley and Huanghe River Valley at 2200BC-2000BC. The abrupt change was developed based on the general lowering of temperature in the middle latitudes, and was a strong cold event since the beginning of the Megathermal (8.5-3.0 kaBP). Collapse of Nile civilization appeared at the First Intermediate Period (2181BC-2040BC). Civilization of Mesopotamia began collapse following the disintegration of Akkadian Empire. This process lasted to the foundation of Babylon Kingdom from 2200BC to 1900BC. Indus civilization abruptly fell off at 1800BC. A widespread alternation of archaeological cultures happened in China at ca. 2000BC except only in its central part. Longsheng culture was replaced by the Erlitou culture, which is now acknowledged in China as Xia Culture. Foundation of Xia Dynasty at 2070BC opened a new chapter in the development of Chinese civilization. Studies indicated that abrupt climate change may be caused by the weakening of the Thermohaline Circulation (THC).
作 者： WANG Shaowu 作者单位： Department of Atmospheric Science, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China 刊 名： 自然科学进展（英文版） SCI 英文刊名： PROGRESS IN NATURAL SCIENCE 年，卷(期)： 2005 15(10) 分类号： P4 关键词： 2200BC-2000BC abrupt climate change collapse of ancient civilization