meant the ancient Australians would eventually have moist
food to eat. Th us, because they lived in small groups that al-
lowed them to move quickly and they did not have towns or
farms to defend, the ancient Australians survived what could
be catastrophic disasters for other cultures.
Natural disasters can be swift , catastrophic events, or they
can be slow occurrences—at times aggravated by human tech-
nology—that over centuries destroy what humans build. Th e
Harappan civilization of ancient India (ca. 2600–1500 b.c.e.)
off ers examples of both. Its largest settlements were built near
rivers. Th e Harappans irrigated their lands with water that
fl owed from the north, carrying with it silt that built up in
the rivers, raising the beds of the rivers until they changed
their courses, sometimes fl ooding settlements. Further, water-
courses deposited salts in the soil that were not washed away
because rainfall was insuffi cient to do so. Over hundreds of
years the Harappans began to go hungry because their poi-
soned land could not grow as much food as it once had.
Th eir cities were increasingly subject to fl oods as the riv-
ers jumped their banks, but the Harappans either repaired
their damaged cities or built on top of the silt deposited in
them. Even so, there was one fl ood that may have been too
much for them. Th e Indus River valley is subject to frequent
earthquakes. Sometime aft er 2000 b.c.e. an earthquake re-
shaped the territory near the delta, blocking the river’s way to
the sea and causing it to fl ow backward and cover Harappan
cities in the Indus River valley. Th e Harappans built huts on
top of where their cities had been; however, they were easy to
overcome by nomads from the north who swept into India
on chariots.
Of all the natural disasters to which India was subject,
fl ooding attracted the most community eff ort, probably be-
cause it was the most likely to respond to human action. Ac-
counts of fl oods are a part of Indian mythology, and various
gods were believed to intervene to help human beings or to
harm them. Th us, one way Indians coped with fl oods and
storms was to pray to gods to spare human beings from the
wrath of nature. India’s peoples also took practical steps to
tame water and make it useful. Th ey built levees to contain
rivers in their banks, dams to create reservoirs, and irriga-
tion canals to take water to where farmers could use it. One
such irrigation system, dam, and reservoir that created a fer-
tile valley was built in Gujarat. In 150 c.e. the dam was de-
stroyed by a storm, but it was rebuilt. In about 500 c.e., aft er
the dam was again destroyed, they did what people oft en did
when natural disasters overtook them too many times; they
moved away.
Th e Silk Road stretched through central Asia from north-
western China to the ancient Near East. Along this road were
impressive cities t hat were f u ll of life w it h t hriv ing economies
and arts, yet they were doomed by a creeping natural disaster.
Th e world’s climate was changing, and the regions north of
China and in central Asia were becoming colder and drier.
Th is process of drying out is called desiccation, and along the
Silk Road the land was drying out. Archaeologists are begin-
ning to piece together the lives of the ancient peoples in the
cities of the Silk Road, aided by the dryness and cold, which
has preserved corpses thousands of years old. Th e cities of the
Silk Road were abandoned when there was no longer enough
water to drink.
Although droughts and fl oods were concerns through-
out Chinese history, from the time of the Shang Dynasty
(ca. 1500–ca. 1045 b.c.e.) to the end of the Six Dynasties era
(220–589 c.e.) they were of special concern to the rulers of
China. Droughts brought famines, and famines brought re-
bellions. Floods could kill people by the millions and destroy
crops and cities. In each case, an emperor could pay with his
life because it was the duty of emperors to remind the gods
to provide good weather and prevent natural disasters. An
emperor ruled by divine right, and natural disasters showed
that the gods were not listening to him, meaning he had lost
his divine right to rule and could be killed and replaced.
Th us, the Chinese government devoted much time,
wealth, and manpower to fi nding ways to control water in
times of fl ood and drought. About 80 percent of China’s rain-
fall is in the summer, and its rivers fi ll with silt; the Yellow
River can look like thick, fl owing mud. A buildup of silt can
raise riverbeds, which can result in their changed courses.
Th erefore, the Chinese dredged their rivers to keep the riv-
erbed low. Th ey also made levees ever higher, but this some-
times resulted in fl oods when a levee gave way to the pressure
of fl owing water. To relieve the water pressure, the directional
fl ow of a river was controlled.
Possibly the greatest example of this is the work directed
by architect Li Bing on the Min River in the 200s b.c.e. He
had a man-made island built in the middle of the river to di-
vide its fl ow into two directions. One direction was the old
course of the river; the other direction sent the river east into
a channel that carried water to irrigate about 2,000 square
miles of farmland. A spillway sent excess water away from the
channel to the main river; meanwhile the channel relieved
the river of pressure against its banks, reducing the chance
of fl ooding.
Little is known about disasters in Japan and Korea in
ancient times. Japan certainly had earthquakes, but how the
Japanese coped with them is not known. Th e work of archae-
ologists indicates that Honshu’s northeast coast was struck by
tsunamis, but dates for these events have yet to be established.
Korea probably had fl oods, but as is the case for Japan, there is
an absence of documentary evidence for the ancient era.EUROPE
BY CARYN E. NEUMANN
Natural disasters frequently struck the ancient world. Without
knowledge of science, the ancients struggled to make sense of
earthquakes, tsunamis, fl oods, and volcanic eruptions. Addi-
tionally, such celestial events as eclipses and meteor showers,
though they had little direct catastrophic impact on human
life, were regarded as natural disasters by prehistoric peoplenatural disasters: Europe 779