Attila The Hun May Have Raided The Roman Empire Because Of Drought

Attila the Hun is one of history’s most notorious warlords – yet while he has traditionally been cast as a bloodthirsty barbarian motivated only by a lust for gold, new research suggests that his constant attacks on the Roman Empire may have been driven by drought.

After analyzing 2,000 years’ worth of tree-ring data, the study authors found that many of Attila’s most epic raids occurred during extremely dry years, and may therefore have represented an attempt to mitigate the effects of an unstable climate.

Though the origins of the Huns remain uncertain, they are believed to have crossed into Eastern Europe from Central Asia sometime around 370 CE, before settling on the Great Hungarian Plain to the east of the River Danube.

Following Attila’s rise to power in 434 CE, the Huns increasingly pillaged the eastern flank of the Roman Empire, and are largely credited with expediting the fall of Rome.

“Historical sources tell us that Roman and Hun diplomacy was extremely complex,” explained study author Dr Susanne Hakenbeck in a statement. “Initially it involved mutually beneficial arrangements, resulting in Hun elites gaining access to vast amounts of gold.

This system of collaboration broke down in the 440s, leading to regular raids of Roman lands and increasing demands for gold.”

However, the researchers say that this diplomatic breakdown alone may not explain Attila’s military incursions, and point out that the period coincided with a series of droughts.

Using stable carbon and oxygen isotope data from oak tree rings, the study authors reconstructed the Central European hydroclimate and found that the most devastating Hun raids of 447, 451, and 452 all occurred during extremely dry years.

“Tree ring data gives us an amazing opportunity to link climatic conditions to human activity on a year-by-year basis,” said study author Professor Ulf Büntgen. “We found that periods of drought recorded in biochemical signals in tree-rings coincided with an intensification of raiding activity in the region.”

Based on these findings, the researchers write that “the Huns’ apparently inexplicable violence may have been one strategy for coping with climatic extremes within a wider context of the social and economic changes that occurred at the time.” 

This assumption is strengthened by previous isotopic analyses of fifth-century Hunnic skeletons, which revealed sudden changes in diet that may reflect the various strategies employed by the Huns in response to an uncertain climate.

The authors speculate that some of the group’s raids may have been launched to secure food and livestock, although they concede that more evidence is required to support this theory.

They also say that Attila’s demands that the Romans hand over an extensive strip of territory flanking the Danube might have been a mitigating strategy, as land in a floodplain would have provided greater food security in times of drought.

Furthermore, an unstable climate may have led to major social restructuring within Hun communities, as herders abandoned their flocks to become raiders.

The emergence of these war parties would then have led to a new network of allegiances between warlords, with Attila at the top of the hierarchy.

Such alliances would probably have been maintained with gold subsidies, which may explain Attila’s increasing demands for Roman gold.

“Climate-induced economic disruption may have required Attila and others of high rank to extract gold from the Roman provinces to keep war bands and maintain inter-elite loyalties,” explains Hakenbeck.

Fortunately for the Romans, Attila died suddenly in 453 after choking on his own blood following a nosebleed, and the Huns faded away shortly after. However, the damage they had already inflicted proved cataclysmic for the Roman Empire, highlighting the impact that climate can have on even the mightiest of civilizations.

The study is published in The Journal of Roman Archaeology. 

Tiny flakes tell a story of tool use 300,000 years ago

Tübingen University and Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment team analyze flint chips found in Schöningen, Lower Saxony.

When prehistoric people re-sharpened cutting tools 300,000 years ago, they dropped tiny chips of flint – which today yield evidence of how the wood was processed by early humans.

The small flint flakes were discovered at the Lower Paleolithic site of Schöningen, Lower Saxony. Now, a multidisciplinary team led by the University of Tübingen and the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment (SHEP) in Tübingen has analyzed this very old material for the information it can provide. The study has been published in Scientific Reports.

The 57 small stone chips and three bone implements for re-sharpening stone tools were discovered around the skeleton of a Eurasian straight-tusked elephant that had died on the shore of a lake about 300,000 years ago.

“We can prove, among other things, from these finds that people – probably Homo heidelbergensis or early Neanderthals – were in the vicinity of the elephant carcass,” says Dr. Jordi Serangeli, director of the archaeological excavations in Schöningen. “This site is located about two meters below the famous site of the world’s oldest spears,” he adds.

A snapshot of Stone Age life

Tübingen researcher Flavia Venditti, the study’s lead author, says the story of the Stone Age is told mainly via the study of objects worked by our ancestors.

“One is inclined to believe that large tools such as knives, scrapers and points are more significant than simple flakes, especially when they are small and really just a byproduct of tool production.

But even microscopic stone chips, in the context of the overall evidence, can tell us a lot about the way of life of our ancestors,” she says.

Most of the fragments studied were smaller than one centimeter, Venditti reports. “Through a multidisciplinary approach that included technological and spatial analysis, the study of residues and signs of use, and methods of experimental archaeology, we were able to obtain more of the Stone Age story from these stone chips,” Venditti says. “The small flakes come from knife-like tools, they were knocked off during re-sharpening.” The chips fell to the ground, where they stayed when the people moved on with their tools, she said.

Evidence of woodworking

Fifteen pieces showed signs of use typical of working fresh wood.

“Microscopic wood residues remained attached to what had been the tool edges,” Venditti says. In addition, micro use-wear on a sharp-edged natural flint fragment proved that people used it to cut fresh animal tissue. “Probably this flint was used in the butchering of the elephant,” she says.

These results are further evidence of the combined use of stone, bone, and plant technologies 300,000 years ago, as has been documented several times in Schöningen, Venditti says.

Professor Nicholas Conard from Tübingen and head of the Schöningen research project emphasizes that “this study shows how detailed analyses of traces of use and microresidues can provide information from small artifacts that are often ignored.

This is the first study to produce such comprehensive results from 300,000 years old re-sharpening flakes.

The prerequisite for this kind of research is that the artifacts are handled with extreme care from excavation throughout the analyses.”

The archaeological excavation at the Paleolithic sites in Schöningen and the scientific investigation are a long-term project of the University of Tübingen in cooperation with the Senckenberg Nature Research Society and the State Heritage Office of Lower Saxony. The project is funded by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture in Hanover.