Bronze Age Collapse

Around 1200 BCE, a catastrophic collapse occurred across the Eastern Mediterranean — the Mycenaean Greek civilization, the Hittite Empire, the Egyptian New Kingdom, the Ugarit trading state, and Cyprus all either collapsed or were severely disrupted within decades. Palace economies, literacy (Linear B script), and long-distance trade networks vanished. It was the ancient world's most complete civilizational collapse. The causes remain debated — 'Sea Peoples' (mysterious raiders), climate change (drought across the region), earthquakes, internal rebellions, and disruption of the interconnected Bronze Age trade system all contributed. The evidence suggests a 'perfect storm' of multiple simultaneous stressors that overwhelmed interconnected civilizations. The collapse produced a 'Dark Age' of several centuries before Greek civilization re-emerged.