This summer central Europe has been suffering from a drought, and as water levels on the Elbe River have receded, a rather creepy sight has emerged: Stones on the river banks carved with dire inscriptions. "When you see me, cry," reads one in Czechia. "We cried – We cry – And you will cry," reads another. A third rock located in Germany states "If you will again see this stone, so you will weep, so shallow the water was in the year 1417."

Yes, it appears that some literate, chisel-carrying people who were alive during the 1400s to 1600s would record historically low levels of water--and warn future generations of the misery ahead. In a drought, of course, crops, livestock and thus humans suffer, which led the chiselers to spread their unhappy message in a medium known as "Hunger Stones."

It's ironic that in agrarian cultures, when water stops coming out of the sky, it comes out of people's eyes.

via Science Alert and AP News