In several European nations, dryness has set in due to a lack of rain and many scorching days, and shallow rivers have revealed ancient warnings. “tones of hunger”are the telltale indicators of previous catastrophes.
Only visible during times of extreme drought, these stones are known as “famine stones” and contain warnings of previous environmental calamities brought on by a lack of water and other ills.
According to a tweet from @Batallitass, which has received a large number of likes, some of the artifacts date back just a few decades, while others are several hundred years old.
“If you see me, cry” is the earliest inscription on a “hunger stone” discovered on the Elbe River, which goes back to the year 1616. One of the most well-known of its kind, this boulder bears the dates of many catastrophic droughts.
As of 2013, the “famine stones” have referenced the years 1417, 1616, 1707, 1746, 1790, 1800, 1811, 1830, 1842, 1868, 1892, and 1893, according to a team of Czech archaeologists. One of them says, “Life will flourish, when this stone is gone.”
“Whoever has seen me before has shed tears. Tears will be shed by those who see me today “is a hint of a future inscription. One more time-traveled message: “You’ll weep again if you have to look at this stone. There was a similar drop in water levels in 1417.”
When river levels dropped in the past, it caused a lot of suffering and death. Due to the destruction of crops and the drying up of transportation routes, food and other necessities ran out. And a famine ensued.
Crops collected from the lush soils of the river valleys sustained the people of Central Europe at the time, which encompassed modern nations like Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Switzerland.
BBC notes that German journalist Olaf Kens uses the term “hungersteine,” which translates to “stone of hunger,” to describe stones with similar inscriptions. The phrase originated when a stone describing 1947 as the “year of hunger” was discovered.
Droughts, in particular, have been Central Europe’s most prominent indicator of climate change in recent years.