Attila the Hun is one of history ’s most notoriouswarlords – yet while he has traditionally been cast as a bloodthirsty barbarian motivate only by a lust for gold , raw research paint a picture that his invariant flack on theRoman Empiremay have been driven by drought . After analyse 2,000 long time ’ Charles Frederick Worth of tree - ring data , the study author found that many of Attila ’s most epic raids occurred during super dry years , and may therefore have represented an attempt to extenuate the effects of an unstable mood .
“ diachronic generator severalize us that Roman and Hun diplomacy was extremely complex , ” explained sketch author Dr Susanne Hakenbeck in astatement . “ Initially it involved mutually good arrangements , resulting in Hun elites realize access to vast sum of gold . This organisation of collaborationism broke down in the 440s , leading to veritable maraud of Roman lands and increasing demands for gold . ”
However , the researchers say that this diplomatical dislocation alone may not explicate Attila ’s military incursions , and point out that the period coincide with a serial ofdroughts . Using unchanging carbon copy and oxygen isotope data from oak tree tree diagram rings , the subject author reconstruct the Central European hydroclimate , and found that the most devastating Hun raid of 447 , 451 and 452 all occurred during super dry year .
“ Tree ringdata gives us an astonishing opportunity to link climatical conditions to human activity on a year - by - year groundwork , ” said discipline generator Professor Ulf Büntgen . “ We feel that periods of drouth recorded in biochemical signals in Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree - rings coincided with an intensification of raiding body process in the area . ”
Based on these findings , the researchers write that “ the Huns ’ apparently incomprehensible violence may have been one scheme for coping with climatical extremes within a wider circumstance of the social and economic change that occurred at the clock time . ”
This assumption is strengthened by previous isotopic analyses of fifth - century Hunnic skeletal system , which revealed sudden changes in diet that may reflect the various strategies utilize by the Huns in response to an unsealed mood .
The generator speculate that some of the grouping ’s raids may have been establish to secure food and farm animal , although they concede that more evidence is require to stomach this theory . They also say that Attila ’s requirement that the Romans reach over an extensive strip of territory flanking the Danube might have been a mitigating scheme , as land in a floodplain would have ply greater solid food security in times of drought .
Furthermore , an unstable clime may have led to major societal restructuring within Hun communities , as herdsman abandoned their flocks to become raider . The emergence of these war parties would then have led to a raw internet of allegiances between warlords , with Attila at the top of the power structure .
Such alliances would belike have been maintained with Au subsidies , which may explicate Attila ’s increase requirement forRoman gold .
“ Climate - induced economical hurly burly may have required Attila and others of high rank to extract gold from the papistic provinces to keep state of war bands and maintain inter - elite loyalties , ” explains Hakenbeck .
fortuitously for the Romans , Attila go suddenly in 453 after choking on his own stemma following a nosebleed , and the Huns faded away shortly after . However , the damage they had already impose proved cataclysmic for the Roman Empire , highlight the impingement that mood can have on even the mightiest of civilization .
The bailiwick is published inThe Journal of Roman Archaeology .
