Collapse · c. 1200–1150 BCE
Late Bronze Age collapse
Ugarit, Syrian coast
Within a few decades around 1200 BCE, the interconnected palace kingdoms of the eastern Mediterranean fell apart. The Hittite Empire broke up, the Mycenaean palaces of Greece were abandoned, and the port of Ugarit was destroyed around 1190–1185 BCE, its last letters warning of enemy ships; Egypt and Assyria survived but were weakened.
Recent studies suggest fewer cities were destroyed than once believed.
Why it mattered
The collapse ended an age of palace-run kingdoms and long-distance trade and cleared the way for the Iron Age world of new peoples, iron tools and the alphabet; its causes probably combined drought, earthquakes, migrations including the Sea Peoples, and fragile, over-centralised states.
Related
- The world in 1500 BCE: Chariots and Empires chapter
- Olmec civilisation flourishes previous moment · c. 1200–900 BCE
- Iron working spreads next moment · c. 1200–1000 BCE