Just over 3,200 years ago, it must have felt as if humanity was reaching never-before-seen heights. Across the Eastern Mediterranean, North Africa, and the Near East, a collection of complex and highly organized civilizations became interconnected through diplomacy, trade, and exchanges. Cultures boomed and cities rose. Then, it all fell apart – and no one is really sure why.
Some of the major societies impacted by the so-called “Bronze Age Collapse” were the Middle Assyrian Empire in Mesopotamia, the New Kingdom of Egypt, the Babylonians, the Hittite Empire of Anatolia, the Trojans, the Mycenaeans in mainland Greece, and the Minoans in Crete. For most of these societies, what followed was somewhat of a “dark age” with little remarkable technological or cultural advancement as well as social stagnation.
The societies came to prominence during the Bronze Age, a period starting around 3300 BCE that was marked by the use of bronze tools, produced by smelting copper and alloying it with tin, arsenic, or other metals. This technological breakthrough created a stronger and more durable material than previously available metals, giving these societies a significant edge in weaponry, toolmaking, engineering, and art.
This revolution also laid the foundation for the development of larger urban centers, the establishment of complex social hierarchies, and the invention of various writing systems, such as cuneiform.
For reasons that aren’t clear, this prosperous network came crashing down around the 12th century BCE.
In his 2014 book about the late Bronze Age collapse, American archaeologist Eric Cline highlights the year 1177 BCE as a decisive moment when things significantly deteriorated. However, as he notes, complex systems take time to unfold. Over the course of a few decades, rebellions raged, wars broke out, cities fell into ruin, writing systems were extinguished, and cultures were seemingly wiped from the planet.
Historians have come up with a variety of explanations for the demise, including many of the usual suspects behind society’s collapse.
One long-held explanation is the arrival of a new dominant force: the “Sea Peoples.” This supposed band of marauding conquerors didn’t leave any monuments or written records, so their identity is far from clear, and their existence is still widely debated. Perhaps they weren’t a unified culture, but a catch-all term applied to any sea-faring peoples from elsewhere in the Mediterranean.
Whatever the identity, their arrival may account for the widespread abandonment of cities across Anatolia, Syria, Phoenicia, Canaan, Cyprus, and Egypt between the 13th and 12th centuries BCE.
It’s also a possibility that some civilizations rotted from the inside through a general system collapse. Scholars have noted that many late Bronze societies had “fatal centralized, complex, and top-heavy” political structures that made them vulnerable to inequality and exploitation, leading to social instability.
Another explanation is that an environmental catastrophe was at play. A 2013 study looked at pollen grains from sediments of an ancient lake in the region and found evidence of climate changes around this time. This environmental change, the study authors argue, led to widespread droughts, food shortages, and famines. The consequence of this was mass migration, social upheaval, and these once-strong civilizations being left vulnerable to invaders, perhaps the Sea Peoples.
Likewise, studies have highlighted an outbreak of plague in Crete at the end of the 3rd millennium BCE, although there’s limited evidence to suggest it impacted other societies.
As Cline points out in his book, the Bronze Age collapse is unlikely to be explained by a single factor. Instead, he proposes that it was a “perfect storm of calamities,” including many of the themes mentioned here.
History is a humbling reminder that no civilization, no matter how powerful or advanced, is immune to collapse. When the great civilizations of the Bronze Age were on their upward trajectory, few could have foreseen that their grand cities and grander ideas would eventually fade into obscurity. Yet, with the right mix of climate change, internal conflict, and technological shifts, even the most formidable societies can easily falter and fall.
A previous version of this article was first published in November 2022.
