Around 1200 BC, a catastrophic wave swept through the Eastern Mediterranean. Within just 50 years, the Hittite Empire fell, Mycenaean Greece collapsed, and the great trading city of Ugarit was burned and never rebuilt. Egypt survived but was permanently weakened. Researchers think interconnected systems failed simultaneously through drought, migration, revolt, and supply breakdown. The interconnected world of the Late Bronze Age simply broke.
Bronze Age Collapse around 1200 BC destroyed Eastern Mediterranean civilizations
SyriaGeneral
Key facts
- Around 1200 BC, a catastrophic event swept through the Eastern Mediterranean
- Within 50 years, the Hittite Empire collapsed
- Mycenaean Greece collapsed
- Ugarit, one of the great trading cities of the ancient world, was burned and never rebuilt
- Egypt survived but was permanently diminished
- Leading explanation involves interconnected systems failing simultaneously through drought, migration, internal revolt, and supply failure
Site mentioned
Sources
The Fall of the Bronze Age and the Destruction that Wasn'tanetoday.org
Almost every major and many minor sites in the Eastern Mediterranean have been cited as destroyed ca. 1200 BCE as part of a massive destruction horizon.
Late Bronze Age collapse - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
The Late Bronze Age collapse was a period of societal collapse in the Mediterranean basin during the late 13th to early 12th century BC.
Late Bronze Age collapse | Anthropology | Research Starters - EBSCOebsco.com
The Bronze Age lasted to about 1200 BCE, which coincides with the time of late Bronze Age collapse. After this period, humans began making tools and weapons ...
What Caused the Bronze Age Collapse? - History.comhistory.com
After 1177 BC, the survivors of this Bronze Age collapse were plunged into a centuries-long "Dark Ages" that saw the disappearance of some written languages.
The Late Bronze Age Collapse - Unseen Historiesunseenhistories.com
Archaeological evidence is quite explicit: at some point between 1200 and 1100 BCE, civilization in this region simply came to an end. The ...
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