An
ancient lake whose shores vacillated
between lush forests and dry savannahs shows how the
changing climate may have shaped humanity's dawn in eastern Africa, according to new research.
For some contrasts
between the Younger Dryas and the most serious droughts since then at 8200, 5200, and 4200 years ago, see Fagan (1999) and Harvey Weiss, «Beyond the Younger Dryas: Collapse as adaptation to abrupt
climate change in
ancient West Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean,» pp. 75 - 98 in Confronting Natural Disaster: Engaging the Past to Understand the Future, G. Bawden and R. Reycraft, editors (University of New Mexico Press 2000), at http://www.yale.edu/nelc/weiss/byd.html.