Greed for gold and power mobilized the Huns for their notorious raids through the Roman Empire, it is said. However, a study suggests that, at least in the beginning, simply hunger also played a role: severe droughts in today’s Hungary in the 5th century could have contributed to the radicalization of the Hun peoples, according to an examination of tree ring data from the region. The high level of violence may have been one of the strategies used to insure against severe economic challenges in the bad times, the researchers say.
They became a nightmare for the Romans of late antiquity: Coming from the east, the nomadic peoples known as the Huns spread more and more to the west in the 4th and 5th centuries AD, becoming a driving force behind the migration of peoples. They finally settled partially in the Danube area. This region of present-day Hungary was for some time the Huns’ center of power, where they cultivated crops and ranched animals and had complex contacts with the Romans. Violence then escalated under the famous military leader Attila in the late 430s: the Huns increasingly invaded the neighboring western Roman provinces. Then, in AD 451, they invaded Gaul, and a year later advanced as far as northern Italy. This destabilization is considered one of the key factors in the end of the Roman Empire.
Tree ring data and historical context
Susanne Hakenbeck and Ulf Büntgen from the University of Cambridge are dealing with the sometimes mysterious history of the Huns. As part of their current study, they investigated whether climatic factors could also have played a role in the case of the Huns. Because various historical developments are already associated with droughts or other climatic events. The new conclusions are based in part on tree ring surveys. They come from drill cores from oak wood in the Danube region. Based on certain isotope ratios in the wood of the annual rings, conclusions can be drawn about the moisture conditions over the past 2000 years. “Tree ring data gives us an amazing way to link climatic conditions to human activities on an annual basis,” says Büntgen.
The researchers report that the data show that episodes of unusually dry summers occurred in the area of the former heartland of the Huns in present-day Hungary in the 4th and 5th centuries. In particular, they explain, the droughts between 420s and 450s AD may have severely affected crop yields and grazing land for animals there. “When resource scarcity became extreme, sedentary populations may have been forced to relocate, diversify their subsistence practices, and switch between arable farming and mobile herding,” says Hakenbeck. However, social and political changes could also have taken place. “We found that periods of drought, which are reflected in biochemical signals in tree rings, coincided with an intensification of predation in the region,” says Büntgen.
From shepherds to looters
According to the researchers, historical sources make it clear that Roman and Hunnic diplomacy was extremely complex. “Originally, these were mutually beneficial agreements that gave Hunnic elites access to large amounts of gold. However, this system of cooperation broke down in the 440s, leading to regular raids on Roman lands,” says Hakenbeck. The study suggests that one reason for some of the Hun attacks on the provinces of Thrace and Illyricum was to obtain food and livestock rather than gold. A historically documented claim of Attila also seems to fit in with this: the authors suspect that he claimed a “five days’ journey wide” strip of land along the Danube because it could have offered better grazing grounds in times of drought.
According to the researchers, it seems plausible that the extremely dry summers in the region were ultimately linked to the most devastating raids by the Huns. “Climate is changing the ways in which the environment can be used, and this can prompt people to make decisions that affect their economy and their social and political organization. Such decisions are often not simply rational, and their consequences can be long-term,” says Hakenbeck.
Source: University of Cambridge, professional article: Journal of Roman Archeology, doi: 10.1017/S1047759422000332