From ABC Science, Wednesday 18 October, 2017:
Distant volcanic eruptions may have indirectly triggered a series of revolts by the people of ancient Egypt against their despised Ptolemaic overlords.
The eruptions, which took place between 305-30BC far from Egypt itself, may have altered the climate enough to reduce the annual Nile flooding.
The resulting crop failures may have further inflamed tensions between the Egyptians and their tax-loving Greek conquerors leading to uprisings, according to new research by a team of historians and climate experts.
It may have even forced the Ptolemaic dynasty to withdraw from a long-running intermittent war with their great rival the Seleucid Empire, they report today in Nature Communications. Read more.
Bianca Nogrady 