Africa-Press – Sierra-Leone. The Huns’ invasion of Europe began in the 370s AD, when nomadic tribes attacked the Goths, marking the start of a new period in history – the Great Migration. Historians find it difficult to pinpoint the exact set of causes that gave rise to this phenomenon. However, a new study has introduced a theory to explain this process.
Cambridge historians Susanne Hakenbeck from the Department of Archaeology and Ulf Büntgen from the Department of Geography conducted a study and found that the Hunnic invasion of the Western Roman Empire may have been caused by drought. They reconstructed the climate over the last 2,000 years by analyzing tree rings.
It turned out that there were many droughts in the area of modern Hungary in the fourth and fifth centuries AD. In particular, the period 420-450 AD was a dry one and significantly reduced harvests and the availability of fodder for livestock outside the Danube and Tisza floodplains. The driest years immediately preceded the invasion of the west and the subsequent campaign against the Eastern Roman Empire in 447.
During this period, the Huns were living along the Danube. This is also consistent with a recent analysis of skeletons, according to which many Huns began to consume more livestock products at this time, shifting to mobile animal grazing.
The authors of the study also suggest that the Huns may have been interested in food rather than gold, but this hypothesis is yet to be proven. This would be consistent with one of Attila’s demands from the Roman Empire – to provide him with an area along the Danube “five days journey wide.” It is likely that there were rich pastures there that would allow them to survive the drought.
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