Late Bronze Age collapse

Invasions, destruction and population movements during the Late Bronze Age collapse
Bronze Age
↑ Chalcolithic
Africa, Near East (c. 3300–1200 BC)
Egypt, Anatolia, Caucasus, Elam, Levant, Mesopotamia, Sistan, Canaan Late Bronze Age collapse
East Asia (c. 3100–300 BC)
Erlitou, Erligang, Gojoseon, Jomon, Majiayao, Mumun, Qijia, Siwa, Wucheng, Xindian, Yueshi, Xia dynasty, Shang dynasty, Sanxingdui, Zhou dynasty
Eurasia and Siberia (c. 2700–700 BC)
Poltavka culture, Abashevo culture, Sintashta culture, Andronovo culture, Mezhovskaya culture, Cherkaskul culture
Europe (c. 3200–900 BC)
Aegean (Cycladic, Minoan, Mycenaean), Caucasus, Catacomb culture, Srubnaya culture, Bell Beaker culture, Apennine culture, Terramare culture, Únětice culture, Tumulus culture, Urnfield culture, Proto-Villanovan culture, Hallstatt culture, Canegrate culture, Golasecca culture, Argaric culture, Atlantic Bronze Age, Bronze Age Britain, Nordic Bronze Age
Indian subcontinent (c. 3300–1200 BC)
Indus Valley Civilisation, Bronze Age India, Ochre Coloured Pottery, Cemetery H
Topics
Arsenical bronze, writing, literature, Sword, Chariot
↓ Iron Age

The Late Bronze Age collapse was a period of societal collapse in the Mediterranean basin during the 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 disintegrated, transforming into the small isolated village cultures of the Greek Dark Ages, which lasted from c. 1100 to c. 750 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 or migrations of the Dorians, 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 has articulated views of the collapse as being more limited in scale and scope than previously thought.[1][2][3]

  1. ^ Middleton, Guy D. (25 February 2024). "Getting closer to the Late Bronze Age collapse in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean, c. 1200 BC". Antiquity. 98 (397): 260–263. doi:10.15184/aqy.2023.187 – via Cambridge University Press.
  2. ^ Millek, Jesse (2023). Destruction and Its Impact on Ancient Societies at the End of the Bronze Age. Columbus, GA: Lockwood. ISBN 978-1-948488-83-9.
  3. ^ Jung, Reinhard; Kardamaki, Eleftheria (2022). Synchronizing the Destructions of the Mycenaean Palaces. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences Press. ISBN 978-3-7001-8877-3.