The Late Bronze Age collapse was a period of societal collapse in the Mediterranean basin during the late 13th to early 12th century BC. It is thought to have affected much of the Eastern Mediterranean and Near East, in particular Egypt, Anatolia, the Aegean, eastern Libya, and the Balkans. The collapse was sudden, violent, and culturally disruptive for many Bronze Age civilizations, creating a sharp material decline for the region's previously existing powers.
The palace economy of Mycenaean Greece, the Aegean region, and Anatolia that characterized the Late Bronze Age broke apart into the small isolated village cultures of the Greek Dark Ages, which lasted from c. 1200 BC to c. 800 BC and were followed by the better‑known Archaic Age. The Hittite Empire spanning Anatolia and the Levant collapsed, while states such as the Middle Assyrian Empire in Mesopotamia and the New Kingdom of Egypt survived in weakened forms. Other cultures, such as the Phoenicians, enjoyed increased autonomy and power with the waning military presence of Egypt and Assyria in West Asia.
Competing theories of the cause of the Late Bronze Age collapse have been proposed since the 19th century, with most involving the violent destruction of cities and towns. These include climate change, volcanic eruptions, droughts, disease, invasions by the Sea Peoples, economic disruptions due to increased ironworking, and changes in military technology and strategy that brought the decline of chariot warfare. Following the collapse, gradual changes in metallurgic technology led to the subsequent Iron Age across Europe, Asia, and Africa during the 1st millennium BC. Scholarship in the late 20th and early 21st century introduced views that the collapse was more limited in scale and scope than previously thought.
Scholarship
The German historian Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeren first dated the Late Bronze Age collapse to 1200 BC. In an 1817 history of Ancient Greece, Heeren stated that the first period of Greek prehistory ended around this time, based on a dating of the fall of Troy to 1190 BC. In 1826, he dated the end of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt to around the same time. Also occurring in the first half of the 12th century BC were the Sea Peoples invasions, the collapse of Mycenaean Greece and the Kassites in Babylonia, and the carving of the Merneptah Stele. This period also saw the destruction of Ugarit and the Amorite states in the Levant, the fragmentation of western Anatolia's Luwian states, and chaos in Canaan. The deterioration of these governments interrupted trade routes and led to severely reduced literacy rates in much of this area.
Debate
Initially, historians believed that in the first phase of this period, almost every city between Pylos and Gaza was violently destroyed, and many were abandoned, including Hattusa, Mycenae, and Ugarit, with Robert Drews claiming that, "Within a period of forty to fifty years at the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the twelfth century, almost every significant city in the eastern Mediterranean world was destroyed, many of them never to be occupied again."
However, more recent research has shown that Drews overestimated the number of destroyed cities and referenced destructions that never happened. According to ancient historian and archaeologist Jesse Millek:
If one goes through archaeological literature from the past 150 years, there are 148 sites with 153 destruction events ascribed to the end of the Late Bronze Age ca. 1200 BC. However, of these, 94, or 61%, have either been misdated, assumed based on little evidence, or simply never happened at all. For Drews's map, and his subsequent discussion of some other sites which he believed were destroyed ca. 1200 BC, of the 60 "destructions" 31, or 52%, are false destructions. The complete list of false destructions includes other notable sites such as: Lefkandi, Orchomenos, Athens, Knossos, Alassa, Carchemish, Aleppo, Alalakh, Hama, Qatna, Kadesh, Tell Tweini, Byblos, Tyre, Sidon, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Beth-Shean, Tell Dier Alla, and many more.
Ann Killebrew has demonstrated that cities such as Jerusalem functioned as important walled settlements during the West Asian Middle Bronze IIB and Iron Age IIC periods (c. 1800–1550 and c. 720–586 BC), yet in the intervening Late Bronze (LB) and Iron Age I and IIA/B periods, sites like Jerusalem remained small, relatively insignificant, and unfortified. Some recent writing argues that although some collapses may have happened in this period, these may not have been widespread.
Background
Advanced civilizations with extensive trade networks and complex sociopolitical institutions characterized the Late Bronze Age (c. 1550–1200 BC). Prominent societies (Egyptians, Hittites, Mesopotamians, and Mycenaeans) exhibited monumental architecture, advanced metallurgy, and literacy. Flourishing trade in copper, timber, pottery, and agricultural goods, as well as diplomatic ties progressively deepened their interdependence. Geopolitical powers of the time relied on variations of the palace economy system, in which wealth is first concentrated in a centralized bureaucracy before being redistributed according to the sovereign's agenda, a system which primarily benefits the society's elite. This intricate web of dependencies, coupled with the inflexibility of the palace system, exposed these civilizations to the cascading effects of distant disturbances.
Evidence
Anatolia
Many Anatolian sites were destroyed at the Late Bronze Age, and the area appears to have undergone extreme political decentralization. For much of the Late Bronze Age, Anatolia had been dominated by the Hittite Empire, but by 1200 BC, the state was already fragmenting under the strain of famine, plague, and civil war. The Hittite capital of Hattusa was burned at an unknown date in this general period, though it may in fact have been abandoned at that point. Karaoğlan, near present-day Ankara, was burned and the corpses left unburied. Many Anatolian sites have destruction layers dating to this general period. Some of them such as Troy were immediately rebuilt, while others such as Kaymakçı were abandoned.
This period appears to have also been a time of migration. For instance, some evidence suggests that the Phrygians arrived in Anatolia during this period, possibly through the Bosporus or over the Caucasus Mountains.
Initially, the Assyrian Empire maintained a presence in the area. However, it gradually withdrew from much of the region for a time in the second half of the 11th century BC.
Cyprus
During the reign of the Tudḫaliya IV (reigned c. 1237–1209 BC), the island was briefly invaded by the Hittites, either to secure the copper resource or as a way of preventing piracy. Shortly afterwards, the island was reconquered by his son Suppiluliuma II around 1200 BC.
There is little evidence of destruction on the island of Cyprus in the years surrounding 1200 BC which marks the separation between the Late Cypriot II (LCII) from the LCIII period. The city of Kition is commonly cited as destroyed at the end of the LC IIC, but the excavator, Vassos Karageorghis, made it expressly clear that it was not destroyed, stating, "At Kition, major rebuilding was carried out in both excavated Areas I and II, but there is no evidence of violent destruction; on the contrary, we observe a cultural continuity." Jesse Millek has demonstrated that while it is possible that the city of Enkomi was destroyed, the archaeological evidence is not clear. Both Enkomi buildings from the end of LC IIC showed limited burning, with most rooms undamaged. The same can be said for the site of Sinda as it is not clear if it was destroyed since only some ash was found but no other evidence that the city was destroyed like fallen walls or burnt rubble. The only settlement on Cyprus that has clear evidence it was destroyed around 1200 BC was Maa Palaeokastro, which was likely destroyed by some sort of attack, though the excavators were not sure who attacked it, saying, "We might suggest that [the attackers] were 'pirates', 'adventurers' or remnants of the 'Sea Peoples', but this is simply another way of saying that we do not know."
Several settlements on Cyprus were abandoned at the end of the LC IIC or during the first half of the 12th century BC without destruction such as Pyla Kokkinokremmos, Toumba tou Skourou, Alassa, and Maroni-Vournes. While the Eastern Mediterranean declined, parts of Cyprus such as Kition and Paphos prospered after 1200 BC during the LC IIIA.
Greece
Destruction was heaviest at palaces and fortified sites, and none of the Mycenaean palaces of the Late Bronze Age survived (with the possible exception of the Cyclopean fortifications on the Acropolis of Athens). Thebes was one of the earliest examples of this, having its palace sacked repeatedly between 1300 and 1200 BC and eventually completely destroyed by fire. The extent of this destruction is highlighted by Robert Drews, who reasons that the destruction was such that Thebes did not resume a significant position in Greece until at least the late 12th century BC. Many other sites offer less conclusive causes; for example, it is unclear what happened at Athens, although it is clear that the settlement saw a significant decline during the Bronze Age Collapse. While there is no evidence of remnants of a destroyed palace or central structure, a change in location of living quarters and burial sites demonstrates a significant recession. Furthermore, the increase in fortification at this site suggests much fear of the decline in Athens. Vincent Desborough asserts that this is evidence of later migrations away from the city in reaction to its initial decline, although a significant population did remain. It remains possible that this emigration from Athens was not flight from violence. Nancy Demand posits that environmental changes could have played an important role in the collapse of Athens. In particular, Demand notes the presence of "enclosed and protected means of access to water sources at Athens" as evidence of persistent droughts in the region that could have resulted in a fragile reliance on imports.
Up to 90% of small sites in the Peloponnese were abandoned, suggesting a major depopulation. The extent of this destruction remains unclear, as at many other Greek sites. The city of Mycenae, for example, was initially destroyed in an earthquake in 1250 BC as evidenced by the presence of crushed bodies buried in collapsed buildings. However, the site was rebuilt only to face destruction in 1190 BC as the result of a series of major fires. There is a suggestion by Robert Drews that the fires could have been the result of an attack on the site and its palace; however, Eric Cline points out the lack of archaeological evidence for an attack. Thus, while fire was definitely the cause of the destruction, it is unclear what or who caused it. A similar situation occurred at Tiryns in 1200 BC, when an earthquake destroyed much of the city including its palace. It is likely however that the city continued to be inhabited for some time following the earthquake. As a result, there is a general agreement that earthquakes did not permanently destroy Mycenae or Tiryns because, as is highlighted by Guy Middleton, "Physical destruction then cannot fully explain the collapse". Drews points out that there was continued occupation at these sites, accompanied by attempts to rebuild, demonstrating the continuation of Tiryns as a settlement. Demand proposes that the cause may once more have been environmental, chiefly a shortfall in domestic food production and the palaces' function in administering and stockpiling imported food, meaning their destruction would have merely aggravated the paramount issue of food scarcity. The importance of trade as a factor is supported by Spyros Iakovidis, who points out the lack of evidence for violent or sudden decline in Mycenae.
Pylos offers some more clues to its destruction, as the intensive and extensive destruction by fire around 1180 BC reflects the violent destruction of the city. There is some evidence of Pylos expecting a seaborne attack, with tablets at Pylos discussing "Watchers guarding the coast". Eric Cline rebuts the idea that this is evidence of an attack by Sea People, pointing out that the tablet does not say what is being watched for or why. Cline does not see naval attacks as playing a role in Pylos's decline. Demand, however, argues that, regardless of what the threat from the sea was, it likely played a role in the decline, at least in hindering trade and perhaps vital food imports.
The Bronze Age collapse marked the start of what has been called the Greek Dark Ages, which lasted roughly 400 years and ended with the establishment of Archaic Greece. Other cities, such as Athens, continued to be occupied, but with a more local sphere of influence, limited evidence of trade and an impoverished culture, from which it took centuries to recover.
These sites in Greece show evidence of the collapse: Knossos, Kydonia, Lefkandi, Menelaion, Mycenae, Nichoria, Pylos, Teichos Dymaion, Thebes, Tiryns, and Iolkos .