CIRES (Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Studies) at the University of Colorado-Boulder posted an interesting story earlier this week about how changes in climate, specifically a megadrought, may have contributed to the collapse of the Assyrian Empire in the 7th century BC. Assyria was one of the most powerful empires on earth and was located in modern-day northern Iraq.

You can read about it at https://cires.colorado.edu/news/climate-may-have-helped-crumble-one-ancient-world%E2%80%99s-most-powerful-civilizations.

Detail_of_a_gypsum_wall_relief_depicting_the_deportation_of_the_inhabitants_of_the_city_of_Lachish_by_the_Assyrian_army._Reign_of_Sennacherib,_700-692_BCE,_from_Nineveh,_Iraq,_currently_housed_in_the_British_Museum.