Almost everywhere in the world was prone to regular famine before modern industrialized agriculture (not that that doesn't have its own problems, of course). Crop failures were just a regular occurrence.
When there isn't a famine, areas like the Dniper and Volga basins are shockingly productive. And agriculture, despite the drawbacks, lets you survive 2-3 consecutive bad harvests/winters if you store grain, rather than one at best for hunter gatherers with storage pits on their seasonal routes.
Before the Iron Age, there was precisely one area in Eurasia that didn't have famine several times a century, and that was the shockingly, stupidly rich Egypt with its massive irrigation system and predictable tides.
In ~60 BC, the income of the Roman Empire (green in this pic) and Egypt (yellow in same pic) were both about 80 million denarii. Because this is pre-industrial, income basically just means "grain."
you could ask that of people who live anywhere, like people who live in the Arctic or the Timbisha Shoshone people who live in Death Valley. People will live anywhere as long as there's some ability to sustain yourself for a while
Oh no! I didn't mean it like "just buy a house" I just sort of imagined over centuries people would steer clear, but seeing the other replies alongside yours it still more complicated
Why did people live there if was prone to regular famine for centuries?
Almost everywhere in the world was prone to regular famine before modern industrialized agriculture (not that that doesn't have its own problems, of course). Crop failures were just a regular occurrence.
When there isn't a famine, areas like the Dniper and Volga basins are shockingly productive. And agriculture, despite the drawbacks, lets you survive 2-3 consecutive bad harvests/winters if you store grain, rather than one at best for hunter gatherers with storage pits on their seasonal routes.
Before the Iron Age, there was precisely one area in Eurasia that didn't have famine several times a century, and that was the shockingly, stupidly rich Egypt with its massive irrigation system and predictable tides.
In ~60 BC, the income of the Roman Empire (green in this pic) and Egypt (yellow in same pic) were both about 80 million denarii. Because this is pre-industrial, income basically just means "grain."
Unless you're the Minoans, in which case it means "monopoly on the colour purple"
you could ask that of people who live anywhere, like people who live in the Arctic or the Timbisha Shoshone people who live in Death Valley. People will live anywhere as long as there's some ability to sustain yourself for a while
I couldn't tell you why the first people who settled there chose to do so, but moving is pretty hard when you're a serf under the boot of the tsar.
Oh no! I didn't mean it like "just buy a house" I just sort of imagined over centuries people would steer clear, but seeing the other replies alongside yours it still more complicated