Copper production and the fall of empires

[nancylebov]

This is a chart which seems to show that empires decline well before they fall, as shown by a sharp drop-off in copper production before the end.

I am absolutely not qualified to judge whether this is based on plausible information. If you know some appropriate history, what do you think?

Comments

[mishalak]

The first thing that springs to mind when I think of Pliny is his inclusion of sciapods and dog headed people in his Natural History. He was brilliant in some ways, but he could also be rather like a random collection of 'facts' from the internet and without serious research it is hard to say which parts of his books are which.

There are plenty of estimate of Roman copper production, yes. Which set of estimates is the chart using? Is is Pliny, Greenland ice cores, department of political ax to grind? The chart is not sourced and so cannot be evaluated even if I were an expert in the history of cooper.