Around 4.2 ka BP (ca 2250 cal BC), potentially a global arid event took place, which has in the Near East been linked to the fall of the Akkadian empire, the abandonment of sites in Northeast Syria, and a decline of urban societies in the Southern Levant (deMenocal 2001; Migowski et al. 2006; Weiss et al. 1993). PhD student Sarah Jones is currently re-assessing evidence for this event in the Near East, while also collecting new speleothem evidence.

References:

deMenocal, Peter B. (2001), ‘Cultural Responses to Climate Change During the Late Holocene’, Science, 292, 667-73.

Migowski, Claudia, et al. (2006), ‘Holocene climate variability and cultural evolution in the Near East from the Dead Sea sedimentary record’, Quaternary Research, 66, 421-31.

Weiss, H., et al. (1993), ‘The Genesis and Collapse of Third Millennium North Mesopotamian Civilization’, Science, 261, 995-1004.