For decades, historians attributed the abrupt decline of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in the seventh century BCE primarily to civil war and external invasions. However, recent high-resolution speleothem records from Kuna Ba Cave in northern Iraq have revealed a more complex catalyst: a severe, decades-long megadrought that began around 675 BCE, destabilizing the agricultural core that sustained the empire's urban centers. While military conflicts undoubtedly hastened the empire's collapse, these geopolitical crises were themselves exacerbated, if not initiated, by the catastrophic failure of the state's agrarian economy under extreme climatic stress. Thus, the downfall of Assyria was not merely a consequence of political instability, but rather a structural vulnerability exposed by environmental volatility.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
- Although political and military conflicts contributed to the fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, the collapse was fundamentally driven by a severe megadrought that destabilized the empire's agricultural foundation.Cevap
- BRecent discoveries at Kuna Ba Cave demonstrate that environmental factors, rather than military conflicts, are the sole cause of the collapse of ancient Mesopotamian civilizations.
- CThe military conflicts and civil wars that plagued the seventh-century Neo-Assyrian Empire were entirely fabricated by early historians who lacked access to modern speleothem records.
- DThe Neo-Assyrian Empire could have easily avoided collapse if its rulers had diversified the agrarian economy to resist local weather fluctuations.