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Homeric Minimum

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The Homeric Minimum is a grand solar minimum that started about 2,800 years ago (ca. 800 BC) and lasted around 200 years. It appears to coincide with, and have been the cause of, a phase of climate change at that time, which involved a wetter Western Europe and drier eastern Europe. This had far-reaching effects on human civilization, some of which may be recorded in Greek mythology and the Old Testament.

Solar phenomenon

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The Homeric Minimum is a persistent and deep[1] grand solar minimum between about 800 and 600 BC. Cosmogenic beryllium-10 deposits in varves in a German lake show a sharp increase "2,759 ± 39 varve years before present",[2][3] while carbon-14 is high starting around 830 BC.[4] It is similar to the Spörer Minimum of around AD 1500.[5] It is sometimes named the "Great Solar Minimum".[6] It has been subdivided into a stronger minimum at 2,750-2,635 years before present and a secondary minimum 2,614-2,594 years before present.[7] The Homeric Minimum is sometimes considered to be part of a longer "Hallstattzeit" solar minimum between 705–200 BC that also includes a second minimum between 460 and 260 BC.[8] The Homeric Minimum however also coincided with a geomagnetic excursion named "Etrussia-Sterno", which may have altered the climate response to the Homeric Minimum.[9] The name "Homeric Minimum" however is not widely accepted in solar physics.[10]

Mechanisms of climate effects

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Variations in the solar output have effects on climate, less through the usually quite small effects on insolation and more through the relatively large changes of UV radiation and potentially also indirectly through modulation of cosmic ray radiation. The 11-year solar cycle measurably alters the behaviour of weather and atmosphere, but decadal and centennial climate cycles are also attributed to solar variation.[3] It is possible that cooling in the North Atlantic predated the Homeric Minimum.[11]

Effects on human populations and climate

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Debates on whether a climatic deterioration occurred during that time began already in the late 19th century.[12] The Homeric Minimum has been linked with a phase of climate change,[13] during which the Western United States [14] and Europe became colder[15] but whether it became drier or wetter is under debate;[16] the western parts and the North Atlantic may have become wetter[17] and the eastern parts of Europe drier.[18] This climate oscillation has been called the "Homeric Climate Oscillation"[13] or the "2.8 kyr event",[19][20] and it has been associated with the Iron Age Cold Epoch,[21] the decline of the Urartu kingdom in Armenia[22] and a cultural interruption in Ireland although its effect there is still debated.[12]

Human cultures at that time underwent changes,[13] which also coincide with the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age.[23] The climate fallout of this prolonged solar minimum may have had substantial impact on human societies at that time,[24] with a recovery of societies after its end.[25] Increased precipitation over the Eurasian steppes during the Homeric Minimum may have benefitted the Skythians there, however.[26]

It has been speculated that some ancient literary references refer to these phenomena. For example, the period saw the growth of a glacier on Mount Olympus, while Greek mythology and Homer refer to ice and storms on the mountain, which may also be reflected in the name "Olympus".[27] Increased activity of the polar lights at the end of the Homeric Minimum may have inspired Ezekiel's vision of God in the Old Testament.[28]

a stormy wind ... out of the north ... with brightness around it, and fire flashing forth ... as it were gleaming metal ... an expanse, shining like awe-inspiring crystal.

Other effects

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A variety of phenomena have been linked to the Homeric Minimum:

References

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  1. ^ Landscheidt, T. (1987). "Long-range forecasts of solar cycles and climate change". In Rampino, M.; Sanders, J.; Newman, W.; Konigsson, L. (eds.). Climate History, Periodicity, and Predictability. New York: van Nostrand Reinhold. p. 428.
  2. ^ Geel et al. 2012, p. 401.
  3. ^ a b c d Geel et al. 2012, p. 397.
  4. ^ Kilian, Van der Plicht & Van Geel 1995, p. 962.
  5. ^ Kilian, Van der Plicht & Van Geel 1995, p. 959.
  6. ^ a b Giovanni, Zanchetta; Ilaria, Baneschi; Michel, Magny; Laura, Sadori; Rosa, Termine; Monica, Bini; Boris, Vannière; Marc, Desmet; Stefano, Natali; Marco, Luppichini; Francesca, Pasquetti (October 2022). "Insight into summer drought in southern Italy: palaeohydrological evolution of Lake Pergusa (Sicily) in the last 6700 years". Journal of Quaternary Science. 37 (7): 1288. Bibcode:2022JQS....37.1280G. doi:10.1002/jqs.3435. hdl:11568/1160637. ISSN 0267-8179. S2CID 249325599.
  7. ^ Harding et al. 2022, p. 2.
  8. ^ a b Davis, Jirikowic & Kalin 1992, p. 23.
  9. ^ Raspopov, O. M.; Dergachev, V. A.; Gus'kova, E. G.; Kolstrom, T. (2004-12-01). "Development of the Maunder Type of Solar Activity and Their Climatic Response". AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts. 43: U43A–0739. Bibcode:2004AGUFM.U43A0739R.
  10. ^ Silverman, Sam M.; Hayakawa, Hisashi (2021). "The Dalton Minimum and John Dalton's Auroral Observations". Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate. 11: 3. arXiv:2012.13713. Bibcode:2021JSWSC..11...17S. doi:10.1051/swsc/2020082. ISSN 2115-7251. S2CID 229678780.
  11. ^ Jin et al. 2023, p. 9.
  12. ^ a b Gearey et al. 2020, p. 2.
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Sources

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