Historical Evidence for Climate Instability and Environmental Catastrophes in Northern
Syria and the Jazira: The Chronicle of Michael the Syrian
Author(s): MAGNUS WIDELL
Source: Environment and History, Vol. 13, No. 1 (February 2007), pp. 47-70 Published by: White Horse Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20723604
Accessed: 12-09-2016 20:35 UTC
REFERENCES
Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20723604?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms
White Horse Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Environment and History
This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 12 Sep 2016 20:35:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
Historical Evidence for Climate Instability and Environmental Catastrophes in Northern Syria and the
Jazira: The Chronicle of Michael the Syrian
MAGNUS WIDELL
Oriental Institute
University of Chicago 1155 E. 58th Street
Chicago, IL 60637, USA Email: widell@uchicago.edu
ABSTRACT
Significant cataclysms occurred frequently throughout the history of northern Syria and the Jazira, and had severe short- and long-term implications on the region’s economy and the social structure. This paper uses the Chronicle of
Michael the Syrian, a Patriarch of Antioch in the late twelfth century a.D., as a representation of environmental and climatic catastrophes taking place in northern Syria and the Jazira in the third and early second Millennium b.c. The proportions, general frequency and the clustering tendency of the different disasters in the
Chronicle are treated in detail, as well as their general economic, environmental and social significance. The article argues that diversified subsistence and a high degree of flexibility were essential for ancient Mesopotamian societies to absorb
the many risks that life in this marginal semiarid environment involved.
KEYWORDS
Jazira, northern Syria, climate, environment, disaster
INTRODUCTION
In models of ancient societies, climate, and especially abrupt climate changes, are often considered, perhaps even reconstructed, in order to explain cultural change or unfamiliar and new settlement patterns. The climate of northern Syria and the Jazira in the Bronze Age (or, more specifically, during the end of the third and the early second millennium b.c.) has recently been a subject of rather
intense debate. Most notably, Harvey Weiss and Marie-Agnes Courty have ar
Environment and History 13 (2007): 47-70 ? 2007 The White Horse Press
This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 12 Sep 2016 20:35:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
48
MAGNUS WIDELL
gued in a series of articles for an abrupt climate change, drastic arid conditions, sociopolitical collapse and site and regional abandonment. These anomalous
conditions of extreme aridification and cooling remained for 300 years until ca. 1900 b.c. when the climate returned to normal, which according to Weiss and Courty roughly corresponded to the present. Others have noted that in the
mid-to-late Holocene, small-scale climate changes were rather frequent, and that some of these changes lasted for up to 300 years. In fact, the critique that the above described scenario has received has not been primarily concerned
with the notion that the end of the third millennium may have experienced a climate change – a fact that seems to find support in several independent sci entific studies – but rather how, if at all, this change would affect the people
living in northern Syria and the Jazira. Climatic change may have played a role in the alleged urban and demographic collapse, but climate changes or other environmental anomalies should not be isolated from their economic, historic, and structural contexts. Moreover, groups of people may respond to climate change in many different ways and it is necessary to consider environmental
disasters more broadly, not just climate change.1
While modern science often can reconstruct climate changes over large re
gions, albeit seldom in great detail or without a significant level of interpretation/ adaptation, it remains very difficult to determine the direct significance of these changes to the populations of specific areas. Palaeo-climatic studies of soil
micromorphology, isotope composition of lake, marine and ice cores, or solar anatolia
fAntioch a
Aleppo SYRIA
Damascus
Jerusalem
FIGURE 1. Northern Syria and the Jazira Environment and History 13.1
This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 12 Sep 2016 20:35:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
THE CHRONICLE OF MICHAEL THE SYRIAN
variability of the third millennium are often unable to provide the details and/or
the high temporal and geographical resolution provided by textual sources, and such studies are therefore often less suitable to reconstruct natural and climatic
idiosyncrasies on a human scale. On the other hand, there can be no doubt that climatic data with a higher temporal resolution are necessary for studies on the social and economic history of the highly sensitive semiarid environment of northern Syria and the Jazira. Gil Stein has recently pointed out that although
the average annual rainfall in northern Mesopotamia and Syria may suffice for cereal agriculture, 30-year records of modern (that is between roughly 1940 and 1970) rainfall in the region show ‘an extremely high rate of interannual variability, often ranging from 30 to 35 per cent’.2
Climate is in constant change and there can be no doubt that the climate and environment of every period of history should be considered unique. Nev ertheless, it should also be stated that regardless of how we choose to view and label the indisputable climatic variations of the history of Syria and the Jazira, by far the greatest changes on the climate, agricultural production, erosion and
land degradation of this region are certainly anthropogenic and have occurred in modern times. The main reasons for these drastic modern changes can be
found in the significant increase of atmospheric C02 levels, the introduction of chemicals and mechanised deep ploughing in the agricultural production, the
introduction of new crops, larger farms and a shift to mono-agriculture, severe overgrazing, excessive pumping of ground water and large-scale dam construc tions in Syria and Turkey. While it certainly remains problematic to determine
exactly how, and to what extent, these factors together have influenced the modern climate and environment of the region, there can be little doubt that modern climate and environmental data simply applied to ancient societies in
this region should be regarded with caution. Thus, while we acknowledge that conditions constantly change and that the climate and environment in the third
millennium b.c. certainly was not the same as in the first millennium a.D., it seems reasonable to assume that any pre-industrial differences were, at least by comparison, relatively small.3
The most comprehensive pre-industrial account on the climate and environ ment of northern Syria and the Jazira is provided to us in a mediaeval manuscript usually referred to as the Chronicle of Michael the Syrian. The dry farming
region in northern Syria and the Jazira described by Michael relied on wheat and barley as the main crops while cash crops included olives and grapes. This does not appear to be different from the general picture archaeologists have depicted of dry-farming agriculture in this region in antiquity. Recent anthracological data from the site of Emar show that both olives and grapes were cultivated (or growing wild) in northern Syria at the end of the third millennium b.c. Moreo ver, cuneiform texts dated to around 2400 b.c. from Tell Beydar, situated on
the minor north-south Wadi Awaidj in the western Habur, show that barley and wheat as well as grapes were cultivated in the region. Furthermore, contemporary
Environment and History 13.1
This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 12 Sep 2016 20:35:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
49
50
MAGNUS WIDELL
records from Ebla, situated on the fertile plain of north-western Syria about 53 kilometres southwest of Aleppo, contain references to thousands of olive trees growing in northern Syria. In view of these similarities, it seems reasonable to consider the climatic and agricultural data provided by the Chronicle of Michael
the Syrian suitable for more general reconstructions of the climate, environment and agricultural disasters of northern Syria and the Jazira in the late third and early second millennium b.c., as well as in antiquity in general.4
To provide a more transparent overview of the events described by Michael, this article attempts to summarise and analyse the disastrous elements of Michael’s
history of the region. The focus in the article is on extreme, usually irremedi able, natural calamities on a communal or regional level that severely disrupt the normal routine of life and cause significant loss of property, life or livelihood.
A few remarks are made also on the proportion/frequency of the different cli matic and natural disasters described as well as their economic, environmental
and social significance. When a known specific catastrophe is not recorded in Michael’s Chronicle for uncertain reasons, the analysis has been supplemented
with data from the Chronicle ofZuqnin and other sources. Finally, the author of the present article is focusing mainly on the ancient history of Syria and Mesopotamia, and it should be stated that this work is significantly indebted to Michael G. Morony’s excellent, and much more profound, study on Michael
the Syrian and his Chronicle.5
THE CHRONICLE OF MICHAEL THE SYRIAN
The Orthodox Patriarch Michael the Syrian’s monumental Chronicle, encompass ing 21 books, represents the most voluminous historical compilation transmitted to us in Syriac. The comprehensive account of Michael the Syrian, who was elected Patriarch of Antioch 1166-1199, provides valuable information con
cerning abnormal conditions and various climatic and agricultural catastrophes
taking place in northern Syria and the Jazira from the sixth century a.d. until the death of Saladin in a.d. 1196.6
Unfortunately, we do not know all of the sources that Michael used to compile his Chronicle. From the Chronicle ofZuqnin it becomes evident that there are several gaps in Michael’s information concerning the storms, droughts and other
severe conditions adversely impacting agricultural production in the region. A lack of references to agricultural disasters in Michael’s account does not neces sarily mean that nothing happened in a particular year. On the other hand, the
Chronicle ofZuqnin sometimes fails to record severe weather or natural calamities that are found in Michael’s history. As already stated by Morony, both Michael and the author of the Chronicle ofZuqnin based their earliest accounts on the sixth-century Syriac writer John of Ephesus. Michael also used the Chronicle of
Dionysius of Tell Mahre, whose history started in 582. As can be seen in Table 1, Environment and History 13.1
This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 12 Sep 2016 20:35:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
THE CHRONICLE OF MICHAEL THE SYRIAN
TABLE 1. Summary of disasters in northern Syria and the Jazira in the sixth century a.d.
51
Year
Spring 500 528/29
543-14 546-54 Spring 583
Disaster Locusts Severe winter Plague
Crop failure; Flood 549/50
Locusts
Claimed Results Famine
Wheat fields went unharvested; Live stock dying
Eight year famine; Flood ruined the vine
Lack of bread
Sources8 Zuqnin; Josue Zuqnin Zuqnin
Zuqnin Michael
Michael seems to have missed most of what happened in the sixth century, and his record from this century cannot be considered reliable.7
The agricultural and climatic disasters or catastrophes reported by Michael from 600 to 1196 are more interesting (see Appendices 1 and 2). During the
initial 176 years from 600 to 775, which Michael reconstructed using the Chroni cle of Zuqnin and the Chronicle of Dionysius, Michael recorded 41 different catastrophes occurring in 33 different years. Statistically, that would mean that
tragedy would strike every 5.3 years, or that there was an 18.8 per cent risk for one or several disasters in any given year.
For the following 68 years from 776 to 843, Michael relied on the final part of the Chronicle of Dionysius. Ten of these 68 years (14.7 per cent) are reported
to have been afflicted with catastrophes. Michael reported 13 separate disasters
for these ten disastrous years: Locusts (8 different years), Hail (2 different
years), Storm wind (1 year), Snow (1 year), Freeze (1 year). Unfortunately, the
ecclesiastical history of the ninth-century Patriarch Dionysius is lost and the
only reason that we know that Michael relied on it is because he is quoting some passages of it in his own work. Thus, we cannot deduce the extent of Michael’s
reliance on the Chronicle of Dionysius or how true he was to it, nor can we say much about the historical and narrative reliability of Dionysius’ work. The overrepresentation of locusts and the unexpected absence of severe winters and droughts (see below) suggests that Michael’s report of this period does not of
fer a representative picture of the actual situation, and calls for further caution
as for using this data in statistical analyses. After the end of the Chronicle of Dionysius in 843, there is a severe gap in Michael’s information lasting until
the twelfth century. Michael’s apparent lack of reliable sources for more than three centuries, from 775 to the end of the eleventh century, makes this entire
period less suitable for statistical studies.
For the events of the last 100 years of his Chronicle, from 1097 to 1196,
we have to assume that Michael had sufficient access to firsthand sources who personally witnessed or experienced the various events (in addition, of course,
to Michael’s own experiences and notes during his own lifetime. Michael died Environment and History 13.1
This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 12 Sep 2016 20:35:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
52
MAGNUS WIDELL
in 1199, three years after the end of his Chronicle). For these 100 years, Michael reported 27 disasters occurring in 20 different years. The statistical 20 per cent risk of having one or several catastrophes in any given year during this period corresponds well with the 18.8 per cent risk in the period from 600 to 775 (see above). Moreover, a detailed comparison of the different catastrophes attested in the two periods displays very similar proportions (see Table 2).
TABLE 2. Disasters in northern Syriand the Jazira in the periods a.d. 600-775 and a.d. 1097-1196
Catastrophe
600-775(176 years) 1097-1196 (100 years) Total (276 years)
Drought
13
5 1.8% 5 1.8% 3 1.1% 3 1.1% 2 0.7%
Attesta tions
Yearly risk Attesta tions
6 3.4% 7.0% Snow 2 1.1% 3.0% Storm wind 4 2.3% 1.0%
Freeze 2 1.1% 1.0% Hail 2 1.1% 1.0% Flood 2 1.1%
1 0.6% Mildew 1 0.6%
Rain
Rats 0.6% Weevils 0.6%
1.0% 2 0.7% 1 0.4% 1 0.4% 1 0.4% 1 0.4%
27.0% 68 24.6% 20.0% 53 19.2%
Plague
41 23.3% 27 Affected years: 33 18.8% 20
Catastrophes:
5.1%
7.0% 16 15
5.8% 5.4% 4.7%
Severe winter
Locusts 10 5.7% 5.0%
DISTRIBUTION, EFFECTS, SEVERITY, AND NATURE OF THE CATASTROPHES
Unfortunately, the Chronicle of Michael is rather laconic in its information con cerning the actual results of its enumerated catastrophes and it remains difficult to reconstruct the concrete impact and severity of the different events. Moreover, due to the somewhat sensational character of the Chronicle of Michael, we have to allow for exaggeration in both the extent of the development and the consequences of the events described. In addition, some events were no doubt
more local, such as the chicken plague in 1141 or the hail breaking trees and grapevines in the region of Militene in the same year, and did not have wide
spread effects. Other disasters, however, such as the frequent plagues of locusts Environment and History 13.1
This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 12 Sep 2016 20:35:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
Yearly risk Attesta tions
Yearly risk
THE CHRONICLE OF MICHAEL THE SYRIAN
(see below), could be devastating to huge areas. As far as catastrophes related to climate are concerned, it should be noted that more recent climate records
from the twentieth century display very high levels of correlation between the climatic events of Syria and northern Mesopotamia. It is therefore likely that such catastrophes affected relatively large areas.9
It is important to point out that the table above only offers a simplified repre
sentation of the probabilities of catastrophes in northern Syria and the Jazira. The occurrences of climatic and environmental events should not be understood as a
stochastic process defined by random variables. The table shows, for example, that there is an average 5.8 per cent probability that any given year within a period of 276 years is going to have a severe winter. However, the underlying
mechanisms for every severe winter can be connected to a number of factors, including the climatic and environmental events of previous year(s). The prob
ability for a certain catastrophic event may increase (or decrease) depending on immediately preceding events. For example, the probability for a widespread
outbreak of an epidemic of any disease is affected by the population’s resist ance to human disease, which may be significantly decreased due to nutritional deficiencies. Thus, all outbreaks of epidemics are more likely to occur together
with other disasters and general famine. Depending on the particular nature of the disease, some disasters, such as large areas of flooded land, could further exacerbate the outbreak, while other disasters, such as extreme cold, actually could lessen the probability of a major outbreak. Similarly, the catastrophic gregarisa
tion of the locust from its largely harmless solitary phase is not a random event but is determined by an extremely complex and only partly understood array of external climatic and environmental factors. By performing a large number of random simulations using Michael the Syrian’s 68 disasters over 267 years,
we are able to estimate the expected distribution of disasters if the events were completely random occurrences (see Table 3 and Figure 2). The upper part of the table (A) and the figure show that compared to a random distribution, the risks of having several different disasters occurring in the same year are much higher in Michael’s Chronicle. Moreover, there is a clear tendency for Michael the Syrian’s disasters to cluster and occur in consecutive years. The lower part of the table (B) shows that while single year events dominate in the random distribution (61.0 per cent of all affected years), only 39.6 per cent of the years affected with one or more disasters in Michael’s Chronicle were single-year events. Moreover, Michael the Syrian reports five separate sequences with three consecutive disastrous years and one consecutive period of five years with dis asters. The statistical probability for this level of clustering with a distribution of five (or more) separate periods with three consecutive disastrous years and one (or more) period with five consecutive years is only 0.0009 (that is, this distribution occurred 9 times out of the 10,000 performed simulations).
The sequential and accumulative nature of many climatic and environmental disasters is extremely important. In his study of long-term macro-climatic change
Environment and History 13.1
This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 12 Sep 2016 20:35:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
53
54
MAGNUS WIDELL
TABLE 3. The 68 disasters from Table 2 distributed over 276 years independently using 10,000 simulations (two identical disasters cannot occur in the same year) and according to the Chronicle of Michael the Syrian
# of affected 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 years
# from
10,000 simulations
Probability
Michaelthe M Syrian
83% of the sim ulations
A. Distribution of the number of affected years with one or several disast simulations) using Michael the Syrian’s 68 disasters. The probability Syrian’s distribution with 53 affected years is 0.0003. Roughly 83% of
Sequences 1
2 years
years
4 years
5 years
6 7 years years
years
9 years
Total #of affected years
of years with disas
Average # sequential years from
10,000 simulations
% of the total # of affected years
Sequential
years in Michael the
Syrian % of the
total # of affected years
year
are in the range 59-64 affected years.
37.4102 16.4570 5.3676 1.5492 0.4085 0.0960 0.0238 0.0104 0.0018 61.3245
2.5% 0.7%
B. Average number of consecutively affected years in 10,000 independent simulations and the number of consecutively affected years in the Chronicle of Michael the Syrian. Single year disasters are significantly more common in the random distribution while three consecutive disastrous years are more than three times as common in Michael’s
Chronicle than they are in the randomly generated distributions. Environment and History 13.1
This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 12 Sep 2016 20:35:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
0.2% 0.0%
0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 53
61.0% 26.8%
21 12 15
39.6% 22.6% 28.3% 0.0% 9.4% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 100.0%
O _ LO ^
Oo o
o LO
o -> 50
83% Michael
?1-!
55 60 65
THE CHRONICLE OF MICHAEL THE SYRIAN
55
Number of affected years
FIGURE 2. Independent distribution of 68 disasters over 276 years using 10,000 simulations (two identical disasters cannot occur in the same year). The arrow indi
cates the distribution in Michael the Syrian
and its effects on, among others, Mesopotamian societies, Harvey Weiss raises the important question of when we may assume that crop failure and reduced agro-production result in permanent changes to human societies. This question,
of course, depends largely on the socio-economic structures of the affected societies. The high frequency of constantly reoccurring disasters recorded in the Chronicle of Michael the Syrian demonstrates the resilient character of the settlements in northern Syria and the Jazira. While any natural disaster in this region may have caused severe implications for independent households, the settlements as a whole would be able to deal even with extremely catastrophic years as long as they were followed by more regular years. Only a series of consecutive years with disasters would be able to affect an entire community on a more permanent level.10
From Table 2 it becomes clear that severe winters were the most frequent
disaster followed by plagues of locusts and droughts (especially if we include here references to ‘snow’ and ‘freeze’ as well). The extreme cold could kill ani
mals and wither and sometimes kill trees, both of which would have long-term Environment and History 13.1
This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 12 Sep 2016 20:35:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
56
MAGNUS WIDELL
effects on the economy. The olive tree, for example, is extremely slow-growing but very long-lived (trees produce good yields for 50 years or more). It would
take a settlement very long to recover from the losses of its olive trees.
On some occasions, the cold would freeze all available water, a condition
that could rapidly cause animals to die of thirst (for example the winters of 1173/74 and 1175). For example, a modern donkey requires 15-30 litres of
unfrozen water per day and will not break any layer of ice on water because of its sensitive nose. A dehydrated donkey might not drink even if dehydrated. It will become fussy with its food and eventually stop eating all together. It was
not only the winter deep-freeze that affected livestock such as donkeys, but also the general harsh conditions of winter could adversely affect animals and their
owners. In his article on the life in the Balikh valley, Norman Lewis quotes the British Consul’s economic report of the Vilayet of Aleppo for the year 1911, which describes the terrible winter of 1910/11. In January severe frost set in,
accompanied by heavy falls of snow, which continued for nearly two months. Sheep and their shepherds are reported to have perished in the snow. Accord
ing to the report, 80 per cent of the sheep in the entire Vilayet of Aleppo died of cold and hunger. Despite the cold winter and the snow, the harvest of 1911 was reported to have been ‘fairly good’. This devastating report is very much in accordance with reports of severe winters and the deaths of animals in the Chronicle of Michael the Syrian (i.e. the winters of 684, 768/69, 1173/74 and
1175).11
Large losses of labour or draught animals would have long lasting effects on
the economy. Moreover, such losses would restrict the possibilities of transport ing grain and other commodities from one region to another and lack of traction
and labour would certainly exacerbate any agrarian crisis. During the devastat ing plague in 543-44 as well as during the three successive severe winters of
750/51-752/53 many fields were simply unharvested.12
In the cuneiform texts from ancient Mesopotamia, severe winters and cold
weather with snow and frost is a common topic. Moreover, several different accounts from various periods and regions reveal the severity and often devas tating effects of cold weather in antiquity. In a letter from the later part of the
second millennium b.c. addressed to the king of Ugarit in north-western Syria from one of his generals, we learn of a five month long cold spell that was destroying chariots, killing horses and exhausting the troops (Ugaritica V 20
lines 27-8). A similar concern over the vulnerability of horses in extreme cold
is found in a contemporary letter from the Hittite king Hattusili III to the Kas
site king Kadashman-Enlil II in Babylon (KBo 110 line 64). In this long letter, the land of Hatti in Anatolia is described as a land with severe winters where
old horses are unable to survive. In addition, an analogous reference to severe cold in a fragmentary letter from the Neo-Assyrian period, dated to the eighth century b.c., should be mentioned. This letter, which was discovered in Nimrud just north of Assur, describes severe cold weather killing both troops and horses.
Environment and History 13.1
This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 12 Sep 2016 20:35:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
THE CHRONICLE OF MICHAEL THE SYRIAN
Another so-called Nimrud Letter (C77V 5316 = ND 2777) describes how severe snow in early shabat (Month XI, January-February) made the roads to Kalhu (ancient Nimrud) impossible to travel. These examples are all somehow con nected to warfare, and the concern is therefore placed on troops, chariots, roads and horses rather than on regular people, farms and livestock. However, a few other texts offer some glimpses of the very real concern people had regarding severe winters and cold. Hence an Old Babylonian letter discovered in Sippar,
located about 35 kilometres southwest of modern Baghdad, where Iltani – the author of the letter – ends his letter by describing his predicament as follows:
am starving and the cold has prostrated me.’13
These numerous attestations in the cuneiform record show that cold winters
were a major concern in northern Syria and Mesopotamia for both humans and animals throughout antiquity, very much in accordance with the numerous reports of severe and devastating winters described in the Chronicle of Michael
the Syrian.
Almost as frequent as severe winters, and one of the most devastating natu
ral disasters in northern Syria and the Jazira, were plagues of locusts. Ruinous swarms of locusts – the Eighth Plague of Egypt (Exodus 10:12-15) – are known to have been ravaging Syria since the beginning of history. A group of letters
dated to the Old Babylonian king Zimri-Lim of Mari shows that the eastern parts of Syria suffered from two locust infestations that lasted for at least two consecutive years each during the first half of the eighteenth century b.c. Swarms of locusts appear in early spring when the crops are ripening and can destroy an entire year’s harvest. In addition, the locusts will devour seeds and vegetables
and ravage trees and orchards. In some years (that is 1081, 1121, 1135 and
1136) invasions of locusts are recorded to have done only little or no damage. The exact nature of these harmless outbreaks remains unclear. In some cases,
outbreaks or upsurges of locusts do not lead to more serious plagues because of poor rainfall or migration to unfavourable areas. Two kinds of locusts can cause plagues in western Asia.14
The Moroccan locusts (Dociostaurus maroccanus, Thunb.) will eat anything and appear in temporary breeding areas where they increase extremely rapidly.
The females lay their eggs in spring or early summer in bare, often stony, areas located in the lower slopes of bordering mountains. The eggs will hatch some ten months later in the spring of the following year when the crops are green (for example the years 713-714,804-805-806-807,830/31-831 /32). Wolfgang Heimpel has suggested the ranges of the Jabal Sinjar and Jabal Abd al-Aziz to the east and west of the Habur river in north-eastern Syria, or Tur Abdin in southeast Turkey, as possible hatching areas for the Moroccan locust in the Old Babylonian period. Since infestations are known to spread concentrically up to two hundred kilometres from the original hatching areas, this would mean that almost the entire region of northern Syria and the Jazira could have been regularly
affected by swarms of Moroccan locusts in this period. Today, the Moroccan Environment and History 13.1
This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 12 Sep 2016 20:35:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
57
58
MAGNUS WIDELL
locusts have permanent breeding areas in the Habur area and all over central Anatolia. One of the most famous references to locusts in ancient Mesopota mia is a metaphor of the invading Gutians in the Curse of Agade. The text is a
poetic narrative written during the Ur III period (2111-2003 b.c.), or perhaps even earlier, describing the fall, destruction, and ultimate curse of the Akkadian capital and state. Because of the sacrilegious deeds of king Naramsin of Akkad, the god Enlil summoned the fierce Gutians from the distant mountains to invade the land (lines 157-8): ‘Enlil brought them (the Gutians) from the mountains, like hordes of locusts, they covered the earth’. The fact that this hostile invasion
into Mesopotamia from the mountains was poetically described as an invasion of locusts, suggests that locust infestations in Mesopotamia were traditionally considered to originate in mountainous regions. This would fit nicely with the breeding habits of the Moroccan locust.15
The desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria, Forsk.) is less common in Syria but potentially even more devastating than the Moroccan locust to agricultural areas. It lives in its solitary phase in the arid and semi-arid areas of Africa,
the Middle East, and southwest Asia. Gregarious locusts migrate in very large swarms. They invade new regions far outside their recession habitat and can cause extreme damage to crops and pasture over huge areas. The desert locusts
also appear in the spring but unlike the Moroccan locusts, their eggs have a very short incubation period of 10-65 days depending on soil temperatures. The larval period (hopper stage) lasts 30-40 days and is often devastating to crops, which are still green when marching bands of hungry hoppers are formed. The females lay their eggs in bare areas of slightly moist and sandy soil in intervals of 6-11
days. Because the laying takes place in intervals, the eggs do not hatch at the same time, and swarms may contain locusts in various stages of development. The new generation desert locusts (the fledglings and adults) will devour the
same crops as the earlier generation and those that ripen later in the year.16 The frequency of locust infestations recorded by Michael the Syrian can
be compared to more modern data. According to Michael the Syrian, northern Syria and the Jazira were invaded by locusts roughly every 23 years (at three separate occasions the infestations lasted for two consecutive years). This can be
compared to data on infestations in Israel between 1860 and 1960 when seven outbreaks were recorded for the years 1865,1878,1900-1902,1915,1928-1930,
1941-1944,1959-1960. Thus, the outbreaks in nineteenth and twentieth century Israel occurred, on the average, roughly every 14 years, significantly more often (and for more prolonged periods) than Michael the Syrian recorded for northern
Syria and the Jazira. The average number of years between the outbreaks in Israel was 13.5 years (with a standard deviation of only 3.89). The regularity of the outbreaks is remarkable, and it has been suggested that locust invasions in the Near East are periodic events occurring every 11 to 13 years. However, the idea
of such inherent breeding cycles should be rejected, and the outbreaks recorded by Michael the Syrian do not suggest any periodicity. The number of uninfested
Environment and History 13.1
This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 12 Sep 2016 20:35:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
THE CHRONICLE OF MICHAEL THE SYRIAN
years between the outbreaks in Michael the Syrian’s Chronicle vary from 1 to 74 years with an average of 22.6 years (standard deviation: 25.64).17
Finally, severe droughts should be mentioned as one of the most frequent reasons for widespread famines in northern Syria and the Jazira in Michael the Syrian’s Chronicle. Not only could the lack of rain ruin vegetables and crops
but it could also completely dry up the springs and rivers and cause people and
animals to die of thirst (for example, the years 721/22 or 1148). According to Marten Stol, the Akkadian word for drought is ublum. Only a few Old Babylo
nian letters and other texts from the early second millennium b.c. are concerned with droughts and the effects of drought. In the fragmentary letter AbB 5 198
discovered in Nippur in southern Mesopotamia, the author of the letter pleads that the ‘young men (or servants) should not die through drought’. In another letter of complaint, the author laments will die through famine and drought.’
Finally, an Old Babylonian incantation addressed to the god Enki concerning
the effects of black magic, enumerates various disasters being endured: ‘he has
cast over me famine, thirst, drought, cold and misery’. The particular enumera
tion in this text of drought and cold is worthy of note, and may imply that these different disasters were associated in the ancient world.18
DISCUSSION
The data from the Chronicle of Michael the Syrian suggest that climatic and agricultural disasters were very common in northern Syria and the Jazira in antiquity. On the average, about 1 year in 5 was affected with one or several catastrophes in the Chronicle. The most common and serious disasters were severe winters, plagues of locusts and droughts, which each occurred on the average roughly every 20 years. How were the ancient settlements able to handle
frequent catastrophes and disasters that constantly occurred in this marginal area of northern Syria and the Jazira?
Many of the climatic or environmental catastrophes enumerated by Michael the Syrian, such as extreme droughts or plagues of locusts, could affect several or all aspects of the economy. However, other catastrophes could be devastating to one or a few sectors of the economy while they apparently did little or no
direct damage to other areas of the economy. As an example of the latter type of disaster, extremely cold winters can be mentioned. Severe winters and cold
weather could kill large numbers of animals and trees, but such winters were often followed by normal, or even exceptional, harvests. Other studies have shown that there is a strong association between cold winters and increased
average annual rainfall in the Middle East, and only once during the 276 years discussed in this article do we find evidence that colder winters coincided with
droughts; according to Michael the Syrian, the year 1135 was affected by a drought that had started already in 1133. This long drought was immediately
Environment and History 13.1
This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 12 Sep 2016 20:35:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
59
60
MAGNUS WIDELL
FIGURE 3. Relief from the palace of Sennacherib (704-681 b.c.) with locusts and other foodstuff prepared for the grill (Bruno Meissner, Babylonien und Assyrien, Erster Band (Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1920), Abb. 45)
Environment and History 13.1
This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 12 Sep 2016 20:35:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
THE CHRONICLE OF MICHAEL THE SYRIAN
followed (and alleviated?) by the severe winter of 1135/36.19
Years with warm winters would be beneficial to the social organisation based
on livestock raising, but such years would also be more likely to experience
extremely dry weather resulting in crop failures. Although the economy of the
settlements in northern Mesopotamia was based on cereal farming, there can
be no doubt that sheep and goat herding (both nomadic and sedentary) played
a crucial role in the region. The animals themselves served as a necessary store
of grain surplus from years with good harvests for the constantly reoccurring bad years. Moreover, a diversified subsistence of the settlements was essential
in order to absorb some of the risks that life in this marginal semiarid environ ment involved.20
Large swarms of locusts could be devastating to cultivated fields, pasture, and even trees, and would therefore have devastating effects on every aspect of the economy. However, it should be noted that the locust itself is extremely nutritious. Around 62 per cent of the dry weight of an adult desert locust consists of protein and around 17 per cent of fats. In many parts of the Near East, locusts are eaten during periods of increased locust activity, and this may, at least to some extent, counteract widespread famine, especially since locusts can be dried and eaten later. Indeed, cuneiform texts and iconographie material show that roasted locusts were considered a delicacy in ancient Mesopotamia.21
The local character of some of the disasters described by Michel the Syrian is noteworthy and it seems possible that transports of grain between different
villages and regions could have been used to relieve severely hit areas. Jean ette C. Fincke has recently suggested that overland transports of agricultural produce in the Nuzi state may have been initiated to help specific areas with crop failures. Such potential relief transports should be taken into account in any reconstructions of early interregional transports of grain, and may suggest that the functionalistic position that transports on land (by pack animals either alone or pulling carts) of grain in northern Mesopotamia in the third millennium
were uneconomic, and therefore of insignificant importance, should be recon sidered. Moreover, as already noted by Gil Stein, the environment and climate of the north made urbanism ‘a risky business’. A flexible and more dispersed settlement pattern with smaller rural settlements, rather than a few larger towns,
makes more sense in an environment of local catastrophes.22
CONCLUSIONS
In the scenario proposed by Harvey Weiss et al., the collapse of urban-scale settlements in northern Syria in the late third millennium is explained by an
extreme aridification which resulted in recurring droughts. The aridification reduced agro-production and ultimately led to site and regional abandonment of the rain-fed agricultural zone of northern Iraq and Syria. The data derived
Environment and History 13.1
This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 12 Sep 2016 20:35:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
61
62
MAGNUS WIDELL
from the Chronicle of Michael the Syrian confirm that drought indeed was a recurring threat to the farmers in northern Syria and the Jazira, even in a period of more normal climatic conditions. However, ancient references to droughts in this region are surprisingly rare. In fact, in both the Chronicle of Michael the Syrian and in the cuneiform text record, references to locust infestations or, in particular, extremely cold weather are far more frequent than the references to droughts. Extreme winters with snow and frozen rivers appear to have been equally – or even more – devastating to the region. More importantly, the nega tive effects of extremely bad winters would be suffered for several consecutive
years, since they would kill trees and animals. The losses of trees and draught
animals would have long lasting effects on the agricultural production while widespread losses of sheep and goats would completely exhaust several years
of collected agricultural surplus. While severe droughts are likely to increase in frequency during a period of aridification and cooling, so are severe winters, and the data suggests that winters and cold weather may have been an equally serious threat to the populations of northern Syria and the Jazira, especially when such
winters were not followed by any intensification of annual precipitation. The extended catastrophic results of cold winters and the negative effects on several different aspects of the economy are extremely important. The constantly recur ring catastrophes enumerated by Michael the Syrian demonstrate the resilient nature of the settlements in this region in antiquity. It seems clear that only a recurrent series of several extreme disasters would cause permanent changes to the settlement patterns of the region, especially if several important aspects of the economy were affected simultaneously.
Environment and History 13.1
This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 12 Sep 2016 20:35:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
THE CHRONICLE OF MICHAEL THE SYRIAN
APPENDIX 1 : Years affected with catastrophes in northern Syria and the Jazira 600-1196
63
Environment and History 13.1
This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 12 Sep 2016 20:35:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
64
APPENDIX 2: Summary of disasters in northern Syria and the Jazira 600-1196
Year 600-601
1 Spring 602
i Spring 605 607
611 647 655 669 678/79
[Spring 680 684
687 694 706
Spring 713
1 April 714
[May 714 714
I Spring 715
I Spring 721 721/22
1 Spring 723
1 Spring 739? 742/43?
744_45 Zu
qnin: 743 750/51 752/53
[Spring 763 763-64
I Spring 766 768/69
772/73 Fall 773
Disaster
Drought; Storm wind
Locusts
Locusts
Severe winter
Drought Storm wind
Severe winter Rats
Locusts Severe winter
Drought Freeze
Locusts; Storm wind
Freeze Locusts
Drought Hail
Locusts Drought
Locusts
Flood
Severe winter; Storm wind; Flood
Severe winter
3 Severe winters; Locusts; Mildew;
Weevils Locusts Plague
Locusts Snow
Drought Snow; Hail
Claimed Results
Olives and other trees withered
Destroyed seeds and fruits Famine
Euphrates froze; Seeds and trees withered Crops perished; Famine
Trees uprooted
Lack of grain; Famine
Olives, other trees, vines withered Destroyed seeds; Famine
Olives, vines withered; People, animals died of cold
Lack of grain; Famine Lack of grain; Famine Olives, vines withered Trees uprooted by the wind
Trees, plants, vines withered Destroyed fields, plants, vines
Killed animals, including camels and donkeys Destroyed olives, figs, vines
Springs, rivers dried up; Lack of grain, veg etables; Desertation of many places
Destroyed harvest; Famine
Presumably, Michael and ZuqninlDionysius are here referring to the same eventful year. According to Morony (2000, ?7, n. 28), Zu
qnin is notoriously cavalier about chronology. Severe Famine; Epidemic bubonic plague
Rivers froze, Damage to vines, olive trees, gardens, seeds; Pests damage vines, trees, fruit, wheat; Many fields unharvested; Famine
Destroyed seeds Killed horses
Destroyed seeds Killed cattle, sheep
No winter rain, ruined the crop Ruining vines, trees
Environment and History 13.1
MAGNUS WIDELL
This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 12 Sep 2016 20:35:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
Year 773/74
i Spring 785
1 Spring 804
I Spring 805
1 Spring 806
Spring 807 Jan 810?
830 or 831
831 or 832 833 842/43 843
1037
Spring 1081 1082
Spring 1121 1121/22
1123 1127/28 1133-35
I Spring 1135 1135/36
! Spring 1136 1136/37
1139/40
[May 1141 June 1141
1141 1148 1151/52 1165 1172 1173/74 1175
1177
1178/79
I Spring 1196
Disaster Severe winter
Locusts Locusts Locusts Locusts Locusts Storm wind Hail; Locusts
Locusts
Snow; Freeze Hail; Locusts
Locusts
Locusts Severe winter
Drought Severe winter
Drought
Locusts
Severe winter
Locusts
Severe winter; Snow
Severe winter Hail
Storm wind
Plague Drought
Snow; Rain
Freeze; Snow Severe winter Severe winter
Drought
Drought Locusts
THE CHRONICLE OF MICHAEL THE SYRIAN
65
Claimed Results
Destroyed vines and withered trees (Olive, Fig, Apple, Pomegranate, Palm) Destroyed all crops and vegetables; Famine Destroyed all crops
Destroyed crops; Famine
Destroyed crops; Famine
Destroyed crops; Famine
All vine, grain, fruits destroyed
Destroyed crops; Locusts destroyed vines, olive trees
Destroyed crops, vine, trees Lack of grain; Famine
Seeds fail to germinate; Famine; Disease Destroyed seeds, crops; Famine; Disease Lack of grain; Famine
Little damage
Lack of grain, vines; Famine
Little damage Rivers froze
Famine that lasted until 1125
Famine
No damage to the crops
No damage Rivers froze
Rivers froze; Late harvest
Ruin vines, trees
Trees uprooted Killed chickens
Springs dried up; Desertation of many places Destroyed seeds, crops
Lack of wheat
Ruin vines, olives, sesame, crops
All water froze; Thirst; Famine
All water froze; Cattle, donkeys, horses died; Thirst; Famine
Destroyed seeds, grain; Desertation of places; Famine
Destroyed grain; Famine Destroyed grain, vines
Environment and History 13.1
This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 12 Sep 2016 20:35:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
66
MAGNUS WIDELL
NOTES
This article was written within the project Modeling Bronze Age Settlement Systems in a Dynamic Environment of the University of Chicago (Oriental Institute and Depart ment of Anthropology), the University of Durham and the Argonne National Laboratory,
funded by the National Science Foundation Program: Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems (Grant No. 0216548). An earlier draft of the paper has benefited greatly from comments by Jesse Casana, Gil Stein and Tony Wilkinson. I am also most grateful to Darongsai Kwon and Benjamin Verschuere for their invaluable assistance with the
statistical simulations in this paper.
References to cuneiform texts in this article follow the abbreviations and conventions
used in The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (Chicago and Gl?ckstadt: The Oriental Institute, 1956ff.) and Wolfgang Von Soden, Akkadisches Handw?rterbuch (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1959-74) (hereafter
CAD and AHw).
1 For a most recent study on the profound impact that environment has on practically everything, see Shepard Krech III, J.R. McNeill and Carolyn Merchant (eds.), Encyclo
pedia of World Environmental History, 3 vols. (New York: Routledge, 2004); see also the extensive review by Ted Steinberg, ‘Fertilizing the Tree of Knowledge: Environmental History Comes of Age’, Journal of Interdisciplinary History 35/2 (2004): 265-77, em phasising the unnatural aspects of many historical ‘natural’ disasters. For the climate
of northern Syria and the Jazira in the Bronze Age, see, for example, Hasan Niizhet Dalfes, George Kukla and Harvey Weiss (eds.), Third Millennium BC Climate Change
and Old World Collapse, NATO ASI Series I: Global Environmental Change 49 (Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1997); H. Weiss, M.-A. Courty, W. Wetterstrom, F. Guichard, L. Sen ior, R. Meadow and A. Curnow, ‘The Genesis and Collapse of Third Millennium North
Mesopotamian Civilizations’, Science 261 (1993), 995-1004; Harvey Weiss, ‘Beyond the Younger Dry as: Collapse as Adaptation to Abrupt Climate Change in Ancient West
Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean’, in Environmental Disaster and the Archaeology of Human Response, ed. Garth Bawden and Richard Martin Rey craft (Albuquerque: Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, 2000), 75-98; Marie Agnes Courty and Harvey Weiss, ‘The Scenario of Environmental Degradation in the Tell Leilan Region, Ne Syria, During the Late Third Millennium Abrupt Climate Change’, in Third Millennium BC Climate Change and Old World Collapse, ed. Hasan Niizhet Dalfes, George Kukla and Harvey Weiss, NATO ASI Series I: Global Environmental Change 49 (Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1997), 107^17. Note, however, a general settle ment increase – rather than decrease – that appears to have taken place in some areas
of northern Syria at the end of the third millennium b.c. (T.J. Wilkinson, Excavations at Tell Es-Sweyhat, Syria, Volume 1: On the Margin of the Euphrates: Settlement and Land Use at Tell Es-Sweyhat and in the Upper Lake Assad Area, Syria [Chicago: The
Oriental Institute, 2004], 193).
For numerous climate changes in the mid-to-late Holocene in northern Syria, see
Frank Hole, ‘Evidence for Mid-Holocene Environmental Change in the Western Khabur Drainage, Northeastern Syria’, in Third Millennium BC Climate Change and Old World Collapse, op.cit., 39-66,41 ; see also J. Neumann and Simo Parp?la, ‘Climate Change and the Eleventh-Tenth-Century Eclipse of Assyria and Babylonia’, Journal of ear Eastern Studies 46 (1987), 146-82; and Burchard Brentjes, ‘Kaltzeiten und V?lkerbewegungen. Thesen zum Zusammenhang von Klimaschwankungen und V?lkerbewegungen im sp?ten
Environment and History 13.1
This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 12 Sep 2016 20:35:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
67 THE CHRONICLE OF MICHAEL THE SYRIAN
2 Jahrtausend . Chr.’, in Landwirtschaft im Alten Orient, ed. Horst Klengel and Johan nes Renger, Berliner Beitr?ge zum Vorderen Orient 18 (Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag,
1999), 59-63. For a balanced discussion of climate change and its potential impact on
site and regional abandonment, see Richard L. Zettler, ‘Reconstructing the World of Ancient Mesopotamia: Divided Beginnings and Holistic History’, Journal of the Eco
nomic and Social History of the Orient 46 (2003), 3-45; Karl W. Butzer, ‘Sociopolitical Discontinuity in the Near East C. 2200 B.C.E.: Scenarios from Palestine and Egypt’, in
Third Millennium BC Climate Change and Old World Collapse, op.cit., 245-96.
2 Gil J. Stein, ‘Structural Parameters and Sociocultural Factors in the Economic Organiza tion of North Mesopotamian Urbanism in the Third Millennium B.C. ‘, in Archaeological
Perspectives on Political Economies, ed. Gary M. Feinmann and Linda M. Nicholas (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2004), 61-83,62, with data from Harvey Weiss ‘The Origins of Tell Leilan and the Conquest of Space in Third Millennium Mesopotamia’, in The Origins of Cities in Dry Farming Syria and Mesopotamia in the Third Millennium BC, ed. Harvey Weiss (Guilford: Four Quarters Publishing Co., 1986), 71-108, 77;
see also T.J. Wilkinson, ‘The Structure and Dynamics of Dry-Farming States in Upper Mesopotamia’, Current Anthropology 35 (1994), 483-520, 499-500.
3 For a most recent study on the effects of the industrialisation and increased atmospheric
C02 levels on climate and agriculture, see Jos? Luis Araus, Gustavo Ariel Slafer, Ramon Buco and Ignacio Romagosa, ‘Productivity in Prehistoric Agriculture: Physiological Mod els for the Quantification of Cereal Yields as an Alternative to Traditional Approaches’,
Journal of Archaeological Science 30 (2003), 681-93, 683.
4 For a general picture of dry-farming agriculture in northern Syria and the Jazira in an
tiquity, see Stein ‘Structural Parameters’, 67-8; with further references; see also Katleen Deckers, ‘ Anthracological Research at the Archaeological Site of Emar on the Middle Euphrates, Syria’, Pal?orient. Revue pluridisciplinaire de pr?histoire et protohistoire de l’Asie du Sud-Ouest et de l’Asie centrale 31/2 (2005), 153-67. For the cultivation of
barley, wheat and emmer in the cuneiform texts from Tell Beydar, see Magnus Widell, ‘Some Observations on the Administration, Agriculture and Animal Management of Tell Beydar’, Ugarit-Forschungen. Internationales Jahrbuch f?r die Altertumskunde Syrien-Pal?stinas 35 (2004), 717-33, 724-26; for wine or grapes in Tell Beydar, see
Walther Sallaberger and Philippe Talon, ‘Transliterated Texts’, in Administrative Docu ments from Tell Beydar (Seasons 1993-1995), ed. Farouk Ismail, Walther Sallaberger, Philippe Talon and Karel Van Lerberghe, Subartu 2 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1996), 127-74,
130 (text no. 6). For the cultivation of olives in Ebla, see Hartmut Waetzoldt, ‘?lpflanzen und Pflanzen?le im 3. Jahrtausend’, Bulletin on Sumerian Agriculture 2 (1985), 77-96,
77 and 79-80; Alfonso Archi, ‘Culture de l’olivier et production de l’huile ? Ebla’, in
Marchands, diplomates et empereurs. ?tudes sur la civilization M?sopotamienne offertes
? Paul Garelli, ed. Dominique Charpin and Francis Joannes (Paris: ?ditions Recherche
sur les Civilisations, 1991), 211-22.
5 Michael G. Morony, ‘Michael the Syrian as a Source for Economie History’, Hugoye: Journal ofSyriac Studies 3 (2000), available from http://syrcom.cua.edu/Hugoye/. Al though Michael’s chronicle records ravaging or pillaging at the hands of humans, such
data cannot be applied on the completely different cultural and political setting of the third millennium b.c., and this information has not been included in this analysis (hence Michael’s report on Muslims killing pigs in 994 or 820). Nevertheless, it should be
stated that conflicts, wars and ravaging groups also constituted an additional constant Environment and History 13.1
This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 12 Sep 2016 20:35:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
68
MAGNUS WIDELL
threat to the farmers of the third millennium b.c. It goes without saying that this threat became more serious in times of famine, when large groups in the society were unable
to produce food by peaceful means and when the settlements were less able to defend
themselves. See further Neumann and Parp?la, ‘Climate Change and the Eleventh-Tenth Century Eclipse’, 161.
6 For an outline of the life of Michael the Syrian (sometimes referred to as Michael the Great, see Dorothea Weltecke, ‘The World Chronicle by Patriarch Michael the Great
(1126-1199): Some Reflections \ Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies 11 (1997), 6-30,
17); see also Abdulmesih BarAbrahem, ‘Patriarch Michael the Great: Beyond his World Chronicle’, Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies 12 (1998), 33-45, 33-8.
7 For a recent, more comprehensive, study of the historical and narrative reliability of the Chronicle of Michael the Syrian, see Dorothea Weltecke, ‘Originality and Func tion of Formal Structures in the Chronicle of Michael the Great’, Hugoye: Journal of
Syriac Studies 3 (2000), available from http://syrcom.cua.edu/Hugoye/. For the sources used by Michael the Syrian, see also BarAbrahem, ‘Patriarch Michael the Great’, 41-3. For the Chronicle of Zuqnin – presumably an eighth-century monk at the monastery of Zuqnin in Tour Abdin – see Amir Harrak, The Chronicle of Zuqnin, Parts III and IV, A.D. 488-775 (Toronto: Pontificial Institutute of Mediaeval Studies, 1999); Witold
Witakowski, The Syriac Chronicle of Pseudo-Dionysius ofTell-Magre. A Study in the History of Historiography (Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1987); Witold Witakowski, Pseudo-Dionysius ofTel-Mahre, Chronicle, Part III (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1996). For John of Ephesus, sometimes referred to as John of Asia,
see further Morony, ‘Michael the Syrian’, ?5; Susan A. Harvey, ‘Theodora the “Believ ing Queen”: A Study in Syriac Historiographical Tradition’, Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies 4 (2001), ??16-18, ?30, available from http://syrcom.cua.edu/Hugoye/. As for
the unreliable nature of Michael the Syrian’s account for the sixth century, it should be noted that Michael hardly seems to acknowledge the well-known and significant global event around 536-45, documented by David Keys, Catastrophe. An Investigation into
the Origins of the Modern World (New York: Ballantine, 1999); and Joel D. Gunn, The Years without Summer: Tracing A.D. 536 and its Aftermath, BAR International Series 872 (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2000), with further literature.
8 Josue = Chronicle of Josue the Stylite. Paulin Martin, Cronique de Josu? le Styl
ite, Abhandlungen f?r die Kunde des Morgenlandes 6, Band 1 (Leipzig: Deutschen Morgenl?ndischen Gesellschaft, 1876); Michael = Chronicle of Michael the Syrian. Jean-Baptiste Chabot, Cronique de Michel le Syrien (Paris: E. Leroux, 1899; rpt. edn.,
Bruxelles: Culture et Civilisation, 1963); Zuqnin = Chronicle of Zuqnin. Harrak, The Chronicle of Zuqnin.
9 Hence, the locusts of the year 500, which are reported to have devoured everything from the territory of Assur to the Mediterranean and the land of Urtea in the north, or the outbreak of 1196, which affected the entire area from the borders of Egypt to Iberia and from Iran to the Black Sea (see Morony, ‘Michael the Syrian’, ?19 and ?23). There can be little doubt that such large infestations were caused by the desert locust (see below).
For the climatic correlation between Syria and northern Mesopotamia, see Neumann and Parp?la, ‘Climate Change and the Eleventh-Tenth-Century Eclipse’, 168-71.
10 See Weiss ‘Beyond the Younger Dryas’, 91: ‘First, precisely when does crop failure and reduced agro-production generate abandonment, habitat-tracking, nomadism, and system collapse, within various politico-economic systems and across various terrains
Environment and History 13.1
This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 12 Sep 2016 20:35:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
69 THE CHRONICLE OF MICHAEL THE SYRIAN
in Greece, Palestine, Egypt, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and the Indus?’
11 Norman Lewis, ‘The Balikh Valley and its People’, in Hammam Et – Turkman I.
Report on the University of Amsterdams 1981-84 Excavations in Syria II, ed. Maurits N. Van Loon (Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Osten, 1988), 683-95, 689.
For the report, which was unavailable to me, see Raff A. Fontana, Report for the Year 1911 on the Trade and Commerce of the Vilayet of Aleppo. Parliamentary Papers, Vol.
C, 1912-13(1912).
12 For the important role of donkeys and other draft animals in the agricultural production in northern Syria in the Bronze Age, see Widell, ‘Some Observations on the Administra tion, Agriculture and Animal Management of Tell Beydar’, 717-33.
13 For numerous references to winters, frost and cold weather, see CAD and AHw under e/arijatu, halp?, hurb?su, kupp?, kussu/k?su, mamm?, salgu, sur?pu, surupp?, taks?tu.
Other related disasters described by Michael the Syrian, such as hail, is also well attested (see CAD under ahnu A6 and AHw under tiku 2c).
For a recent English translation of KBo ITO, see Gary Beckman, Hittite Diplomatic Texts, Second Edition (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1999), 138-43. For the Neo-Assyrian
letter describing cold weather killing troops and horses, see H. W. S. Saggs, ‘The Nimrud Letters, 1952-Part V, Iraq 21 (1959), 158-80, 172 (text LXI). Additional Neo-Assyr ian letters referring to extreme cold and its effect on livestock, plants and roads can be
found in Govert Van Driel, ‘Weather: Between the Natural and the Unnatural in First Millennium Cuneiform Inscriptions’ in Diederik J.W Meijer (ed.) Natural Phenomena.
Their Meaning, Depiction and Description in the Ancient Near East (Amsterdam, 1992), 39-52,47-49. Note also the Old Babylonian letter ARM 167, which describes a brief but devastating hail storm that destroyed agricultural fields in north-eastern Syria. The letter
was written by Yaqqim-Addu, governor of the province of Sagar?tum in the Habur area, to the famous king Zimri-Lim in Mari (1779-1757 b.c.). For the correct interpretation of this text, see Jean-Marie Durand, ‘Trois etudes sur Mari’, Mari Annales de Recherches
Interdisciplinaires 3 (1984), 127-80, 137.
14 For these ancient plagues of locusts in Syria, see Wolfgang Heimpel, ‘Moroccan Lo
custs in Qattunan’, Revue d’assyriologie et d’arch?ologie orientale 90 (1996), 101-20; Brigitte Lion and C?cile Michel, ‘Criquets et autres insectes ? Mari’, Mari Annales de Recherches Interdisciplinaires 8 (1997), 707-24; Niele Ziegler’s extensive review of Maurice Birot, Correspondance des gouverneurs de Qattun?n, ARM 27 (Paris: ?ditions Recherches sur les Civilisations, 1993), in Archiv f?r Orientforschung 46-47 1999/2000),
324-36, 328-30.
15 For a detailed description of the development stages, general behaviour, and habitat of the Moroccan locust, see Boris P. Uvarov, ‘Ecology of the Moroccan Locust in Iraq and Syria’, Bulletin of Entomological Research 24 (1933). For a translation and commen tary of the Curse of Agade, see Jerrold S. Cooper, The Curse of Agade (Baltimore and
London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983); for the passage in this text concerning locusts, see also Wolfgang Heimpel, Tierbilder in der sumerischen Literatur (Rome:
Papstliches Bibelinstitut, 1968,446.
16 For a detailed description of the development stages, general behaviour, and habitat of the desert locust, see Philip. M. Symmons and Keith Cressman, Desert Locust Guidelines. 1.
Biology and Behaviour (Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2001, Second edition), available from http://www.fao.org/ag/locusts/oldsite/PUBS 1 .htm;
Ezekiel Rivnay, Field Crop Pests in the Near East (The Hague: W. Junk, 1962). Environment and History 13.1
This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 12 Sep 2016 20:35:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
70
MAGNUS WIDELL
17 For periodicity of locust outbreaks in Israel in the nineteenth and twentieth century, see Rivnay, Field Crop Pests in the Near East, 30. All the outbreaks in Israel took place during
global plagues of the desert locust: 1861-67,1869-81,1889-1910,1912-19,1926-34, 1940-48, 1949-63 (Symmons and Cressman, Desert Locust Guidelines, 36-7).
18Marten Stol, ‘ublum”drought”\NouvellesAssyriologiquesBreves et Utilitaires 2001/? (2001), no. 5. For the OB letter of complaint, see Farouk N.H. Al-Rawi and Stephanie
Dalley, Old Babylonian Texts from Private Houses at Abu Habbah, Ancient Sippar. Baghdad University Excavations, EDUBBA 7 (London: NABU Publications, 2000),
no. 117. For the OB incantation, see Gary Beckman and Benjamin R. Foster, ‘An Old Babylonian Plaint against Black Magic ‘, Acta Sumerologica 18(1996), 19-21. In addition
to these early references to drought, a Neo-Assyrian report from the seventh century b.c. describing how insufficient precipitation resulted in a completely failed cereal harvest
should be mentioned. For an analysis of this report (LAS 300 + 109), see Govert Van Driel, ‘Weather: Between the Natural and the Unnatural in First Millennium Cuneiform
Inscriptions’, in Natural Phenomena. Their Meaning, Depiction and Description in
the Ancient Near East: Proceedings of the Colloquium, Amsterdam, 6-8 July, 1989, ed. Diederik J. W Meijer (Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1992), 39-52, 50.
19 For the connection between cold winters and increased annual rainfall, see J. Neumann and Marcel Sigrist, ‘Harvest Dates in Ancient Mesopotamia as Possible Indicators of
Climatic Variations’, Climatic Change 1 (1978), 239-52, 241; Neumann and Parp?la, ‘Climate Change and the Eleventh-Tenth-Century Eclipse’, 170-1.
20 See TJ. Wilkinson, ‘Settlement and Land Use in the Zone of Uncertainty in Upper Mesopotamia’, in Rainfall and Agriculture in Northern Mesopotamia. Proceedings of the
Third MOS Symposium, t?. RemkoM. Jas,PIHANS 88 (Leiden: Nederlandslnstituutvoor het Nabije Osten, 2000), 3-35, 14-6, 19-20; Stein ‘Structural Parameters’, 67, 69-70.
21 For textual evidence for the consumption of locusts from largely the Old Babylonian period (ca. 1900-1600 b.c.), see CAD under erbu b.
22 Jeanette C. Fincke, ‘Transport of Agricultural Produce in Arraphe’, in Rainfall and Agriculture in Northern Mesopotamia. Proceedings of the Third MOS Symposium, ed. Remko M. Jas, PIHANS 88 (Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Osten, 2000),
147-69; see further Wilkinson, ‘Settlement and Land Use in the Zone of Uncertainty’, 15-16, n. 13. On the advantages of a diversified economy in the marginal area of north em Mesopotamia, see Stein ‘Structural Parameters’, 77. For the settlement patterns of northern Mesopotamia, see T.J. Wilkinson, ‘Regional Approaches to Mesopotamian Archaeology: The Contribution of Archaeological Surveys’, Journal of Archaeological
Research 8 (2000), 219-67.
23 Dionysius = Chronicle of Dionysius of Tell Mahre. Jean-Baptiste Chabot, Cronique de Deny s de Tell-Mahr?, Quatri?me Partie. Bibi. ?c/ Hautes ?tudes 112 (Paris: Biblioth?que
de l’?cole, 1895); Disasters = Chronicle of Disasters. Sebastian P. Brock, Chronicle of Disasters Dated AD 716′, in Andrew Palmer The Seventh Century in the West-Syrian Chronicles (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1993): 45-8; Michael = Chronicle of Michael the Syrian. Chabot, Cronique de Michel le Syrien; Zuqnin = Chronicle of
Zuqnin. Harrak, The Chronicle of Zuqnin.
Environment and History 13.1
This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 12 Sep 2016 20:35:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms