"If you can see me, weep"
Recent droughts in Europe once again made visible the "Hunger Stones" in some Czech and German rivers. These stones were used to mark desperately low river levels that would forecast famines. This one, in Elbe river, is from 1616 and says: "If you see me, cry"
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Hunger stones are a hydrological monument found in some rivers of Central Europe that are revealed when water levels drop. Dating from the 15th to 19th century, the stones were embedded in dried-up riverbeds to warn people in the future that hard times could be near. Some stones also feature watermarks detailing the dates of previous droughts, providing historians and researchers with some tantalizing primary evidence. "It expressed that drought had brought a bad harvest, lack of food, high prices, and hunger for poor people. Before 1900, the following droughts are commemorated on the stone: 1417, 1616, 1707, 1746, 1790, 1800, 1811, 1830, 1842, 1868, 1892, and 1893," geographers from Masaryk University wrote of one of the most famous hunger stones ina 2013 studyabout droughts in Czech history.
