Part 6/8:
The Drought Hypothesis
What's clear is that the Akkadians faced severe drought conditions around 2200 BCE. Work conducted by Oxford University's paleoclimate researchers indicated high-resolution findings of dust spikes in stalagmites from Iranian caves, further corroborating evidence for widespread drought in the region.
This ecological disaster, attributed in part to the El Niño phenomenon, stressed agricultural outputs, leading to food shortages. The resulting landscape degradation — evidenced by the lack of earthworm activity in the soil — signified the collapse of an agricultural economy that had once supported a thriving empire.