00:00They accidentally salted their own entire empire.
00:04Farmers in the Tigris and Euphrates River Valley flooded their wheat fields every single year.
00:09River water carried hidden minerals that baked under the intense Bronze Age sun into a deadly crust.
00:16Wheat yields plunged by 90% as salt poisoned the soil chemistry and starved the capital city.
00:24Unchecked evaporation rates forced subterranean brines upward,
00:28crystallizing toxic sodium across thousands of once-fertile farming fields.
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