How a Medieval Society Withstood Nearly 60 Years of Drought

Through a study of the tree-ring record of archaic logs from Mongolia's Orkhon Valley, Nicola Di Cosmo, Luce Foundation Professor in East Asian Studies in the School of Historical Studies, and collaborators revealed a drought that lasted nearly seven decades. The dominant civilization in the area, the Uighurs, somehow survived nearly sixty years of the drought. Based on surviving Chinese and Uighur documents from the drought years, Di Cosmo and his team concluded that the Uighurs survived by diversifying their economy and using international diplomacy to boost trade.