Abstract
The rise and fall of ancient cultures in drylands is mainly controlled by the
availability of water. Where no perennial water sources are available, (ancient)
cultures in drylands often depend on the availability of water by effective rainfall as
a source for water-harvesting measures. These settlements are susceptible to climatic
changes. The reconstruction of such climate-human interactions is constrained,
as paleoclimatic proxy archives provide climatic information at most
with annual or seasonal resolutions, which is often not a sufficient resolution to
relate them to the reactions or adaptations of societies to climatic shifts. For the city
of Naga (16°N 33°E) in the dry hinterland of the middle Nile River, we present
precipitation data for the last 6500 years employing two different downscaling
approaches. In time slice experiments, we simulated selected episodes using a
spatially high-resolved atmosphere general circulation model. Furthermore, combining
observed precipitation data and a simulation of a coupled ocean-atmosphere
general circulation model, we attained statistically downscaled precipitation data
for the last 6500 years. Our results indicate that the mean precipitation and the
frequency of runoff-generating rainfall events decreased from 6000 until 2000
years B.P. Since then, no significant changes occurred. Thus, the foundation of
Naga about 2500 years B.P. coincided with a time when rainfall was still more
reliable and less variable. Alterations in orbital parameters (according to Milankovic
theory) may have been a major reason for the abandonment of the city.