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It's been described as one of the great apocalyptic events of the ancient world. In 1200 BCE, the Bronze Age collapsed. And it did so rapidly and with disastrous consequences. But how did an epoch that had flourished for over 2,000 years suddenly end, and why did so many ancient civilizations fall with it?
Click through and relive the remarkable series of catastrophes that brought down the Bronze Age and changed the course of history.
The Bronze Age was a historical period lasting from approximately 3300 to 1200 BCE. In Europe, the epoch was characterized by settlements such as Grimspound, a community situated on Dartmoor in Devon, England.
It was the first epoch in which societies became irreversibly linked in their co-dependence on ores and metallurgical skills. The age of mastering metal had begun.
Previously, in the Stone Age, flint was shaped and used as tools and weapons. In the Bronze Age, stone was gradually replaced by bronze. Bronze was made by melting tin and copper, and mixing them together.
Most of central and northern Europe in the Bronze Age was made up of agrarian societies where communities depended largely on producing and maintaining crops and farmland.
In the Mediterranean and Near East, however, a wealthy and interconnected Bronze Age civilization flourished.
The Early Bronze Age (3300–2100 BCE) had already witnessed the invention of the wheel and writing, realized during the Uruk Period in Mesopotamia.
In Egypt, the Pyramids of Giza were constructed, between about roughly 2700 and 1500 BCE.
Near Luxor, the Temple of Karnak complex was an astonishing mix of monumental crisosphynxes (sphinxes with the head of a ram instead of a human) pylons, columns, and other buildings. It was the largest of its kind in Egypt.
Elsewhere, the Hitties, one of the first major civilizations of Bronze Age West Asia, centered their empire on Hattusa, located near modern Boğazkale, in Turkey.
The Phoenician city of Ugarit on the Mediterranean coast in what is now northern Syria prospered, one of several busy ports that owed their importance to maritime trade.
In Greece, the Mycenaean civilization was at its height, its sphere of power and influence radiating out of Mycenae.
The people of Elam, a civilization centered in the far west and southwest of modern-day Iran, built Susa and other great cities. Susa became the center of the Elamite civilization, which flourished from 2700 BCE.
And Babylon, the main cultural and political center of the Akkadian-speaking region of Babylonia, was on its way to becoming one of history's most prominent centers of learning.
These great kingdoms and empires of the day were responsible for building some of history's most recognized monuments, achieved through extraordinary vision and technical know-how. They also produced beautiful and imaginative works of art of dazzling intricacy.
Much of what we know about the Bronze Age is because of the many scribes employed to chronicle everyday life, including building work, financial transactions, and military exploits. But by the Late Bronze Age, around 1200 BCE, the writing was on the wall.
The Bronze Age collapse was nothing short of a catastrophe. In just a little over 100 years, entire civilizations experienced rapid and near-total disintegration and with it the disappearance of once thriving cultures. But what kind of event could have caused such an immediate and far-reaching downfall?
One primary cause of the collapse was the Battle of the Delta. In 1175 BCE, the Sea Peoples, a confederation of tribes predominantly from the Aegean Sea area, launched a seaborne attack on Egypt.
The Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses III managed to repulse the attack and save Egypt from invasion. A relief from the temple of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu shows Egyptian forces battling against the invaders. However, the damage had already been done.
Their military campaign saw the Sea Peoples sack several cities before they reached Egypt, among them Ugarit and Hattusa. These raids seriously disrupted trade throughout the region and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
Each civilization depended on the other for raw materials—copper and tin, of course, but also goods made from gold, ivory, and ceramic. When this supply chain dried up, it spelt economic disaster for many once mighty dominions.
The extent to which raw materials and luxury goods were traded across the Mediterranean during the Late Bronze Age was revealed with the discovery of a shipwreck off the coast of Turkey in 1982. Known as the Uluburun wreck, it gave up a veritable hoard of priceless cargo, including gold and agate jewelry and bulk shipments of copper and tin ingots.
Artifacts raised from the ancient vessel are now on display at the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology and serve to remind us of just how technically and culturally advanced these civilizations were.
With the disruption of trade came the severance of diplomatic relations. Ensuing political instability fueled internal strife and discord.
But conflict alone wasn't the only cause that advanced the collapse of the Bronze Age. Drought and famine played its part. According to a study published in the Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University, the period from 1250 to 1100 BCE was the driest of the entire Bronze Age.
The Egyptians and Babylonians fared better. They were spared the worst of the drought because of their proximity to expansive rivers like the Nile and the Tigris and Euphrates. But even these two venerated civilizations would never be the same again.
As if drought and famine weren't enough, during the 50-year period from 1225 to 1175 BCE the Mediterranean region was hit with a succession of major earthquakes, what seismologists call an "earthquake storm."
Eventually, the entire fabric of society had been ripped apart. Bartering systems vanished, writing methods were forgotten, general literacy declined, and large-scale monument building was halted.
The combination of war, drought, famine, and earthquakes killed many thousands and devastated the Eastern Mediterranean, Near East, Balkans, Aegean, and Anatolia regions.
The Bronze Age collapse left in its wake a cultural, political, and economic void, a period scholars refer to as the "Dark Age." But the ancient world was about to redefine itself and aimed to move forward.
The Bronze Age collapse gave rise to the Iron Age. This new metal proved far stronger and resilient, and when smelted produced superior tools and weapons. The Iron Age would last until 550 BCE.
Sources: (History) (Study.com) (World History Encyclopedia) (Cambridge University Press)
The ancient apocalypse that was the Bronze Age collapse
The Bronze Age was one of the most influential epochs in history
HEALTH History
It's been described as one of the great apocalyptic events of the ancient world. In 1200 BCE, the Bronze Age collapsed. And it did so rapidly and with disastrous consequences. But how did an epoch that had flourished for over 2,000 years suddenly end, and why did so many ancient civilizations fall with it?
Click through and relive the remarkable series of catastrophes that brought down the Bronze Age and changed the course of history.