guy Posted February 2, 2022 Report Share Posted February 2, 2022 (edited) No one knows for sure what pressures led the Huns to migrate West. These Hunnic migrations forced the Goths to plead entry to the Roman Empire in order to escape the advancing Huns. This, of course, exacerbated the increasing instability of the Empire. It may have been a drought in the Asian Steppe that forced the Hunnic migration. Valerie Trouet, a paleoclimatologist, suggests in her research that the evidence might be in the rings of trees. Quote “One theory postulates that the westward migration of the nomadic Huns might have been driven by drought in their original stomping grounds that disrupted their pastoral economy. To investigate the validity of this theory, my LTRR colleague Paul Sheppard and his collaborators developed a 2,500-plus-year-long tree-ring chronology from drought-sensitive Qilian juniper (Sabina przewalskii) trees on the Tibetan Plateau. They sampled 800-year-old living juniper trees, as well as historical construction wood. They then extended their tree-ring chronology even further back in time by sampling wooden coffins found in subterranean tomb chambers dating back to the seventh through ninth centuries. Their Tibetan Plateau tree ring chronology reveals a severe drought in Central Asia in the fourth century that might have led the nomadic Huns to quite literally seek greener pastures to the west and south.” Dan Jones, in his book “Plagues, Princes and Pardons” explores the impact of climate, pathogens and technology on the development of societies. He explains what made the Huns “climate migrants”: Quote “The rugged, spiny Chinese mountain tree [is] known as the Qilian juniper or Przewalski’s juniper (Juniperus przewalski). This hardy plant, which thrives in the mountains, grows slowly but steadily to around twenty meters in height. Individual trees often live for more than one thousand years, and as they grow they preserve in the rings of their trunks precious information about the history of their world. In this case, the Qilian juniper tells us about the amount of rain that fell in the east during the fourth century A.D. According to tree ring data provided by Qilian juniper samples from Qinghai province on the Tibetan Plateau, it seems that between A.D. 350 and 370, eastern Asia suffered a “megadrought”—which remains the worst drought recorded in the last two thousand years.” https://lithub.com/how-to-sack-an-empire-on-goths-huns-and-the-fall-of-rome/ https://www.newsweek.com/fall-roman-empire-tree-rings-1504740?amp=1 Edited February 2, 2022 by guy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Novosedoff Posted February 2, 2022 Report Share Posted February 2, 2022 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_the_Huns?wprov=sfla1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiongnu?wprov=sfla1 Quote The name Xiongnu may be cognate with that of the Huns or the Huna. In Russian language both words Huns and Xiongnu have almost identical roots and sound almost the same. Xiongnu were defeated by Chinese and had to flee to the West. 2 hours ago, guy said: No one knows for sure what pressures led the Huns to migrate West Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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