Scientists from Columbia University in the United States have found that an abnormally high level of rainfall led to the "great famine" of 1315-1317 in Europe. Historians write that at that time thousands of people died daily from lack of food, parents sold and ate their children, and cannibalism was widespread.
Tree rings told about the history of Europe.
In order to come to this conclusion, the researchers analyzed the annual rings of several hundred of the most ancient European trees, RIA Novosti reports. The thickness of the rings depends on how unfavorable or, conversely, favorable for the trees were the weather conditions in the year of their formation. Typically, the lower the rainfall, the darker and thinner the ring will be, scientists say.
The study of tree rings allowed scientists to establish that the Holodomor of 1740-1741 in Ireland was also caused not only by the cold winter and spring, but also by the low level of precipitation during the spring and summer periods in these years. And at the end of the 15th century, at the end of the 13th century and at the beginning of the 18th century in Medieval and New Europe, there were periods of "mega-droughts" and "mega-precipitation" that influenced the life of society.