The Mysterious Vanishing of Bronze Age Civilizations

Superfact 121: Between the years 1200BCE and 1150BCE (3,200 years ago) major civilizations in the Mediterranean and Near Eastern civilizations vanished or collapsed completely, notably Mycenaean Greece, the Hittite Empire, the Canaanite city-states, civilizations in eastern Libya, Balkans, and Babylon suffered a severe political decline and eventual fall during the Late Bronze Age collapse. Other civilizations such as the Assyrian empire and Egypt survived the Late Bronze Age collapse but emerged severely weakened.

Green represents the Mycenaean Greece, blue the Hittite Empire, orange the New Kingdom Egypt, and purple the area of conflict between Hittites and Egypt. The various colored arrows depict the various invasions and movements. The red, blue and yellow arrows represent invasions from different Sea Peoples. | The Mysterious Vanishing of Bronze Age Civilizations
Invasions, destruction and population movements during the Late Bronze Age collapse. The red, blue and yellow arrows represent invasions from different Sea Peoples. Alexikoua, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Mediterranean and Near Eastern civilizations were powerful, important and wealthy, and their sudden collapse is one of the most consequential and mysterious events in history that ended in a dark age that lasted several hundred years, including the Greek Dark Ages, which lasted from c. 1200 BCE to c. 800 BCE.

Colorful map of 14 century BCE Mediterranean and Near Eastern civilizations including the Mycenaean Greece, Hittite empire, Assyria, Kassite Kingdom, Babylonia, Mittani, Egypt and Elam.
Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East during the 14th century BC; Mycenaean Greece in purple. Alexikoua,, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons.

The reason for the late Bronze Age collapse is being debated but climate change, droughts, and invasions by the so called Sea Peoples are considered to be major reasons. The Trojan war, which is mostly fiction occurred around 1200 BCE. If you watched the recent 2026 movie the Odyssey, you probably notice the frequent references to the Sea Peoples. One of the Sea Peoples was the Philistines. If you want to take a deep dive into the late Bronze Age collapse, click here, or here.

Most of us know about the collapse of the Roman Empire around 400-500 AD and perhaps the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453 AD, but the late Bronze Age collapse may come as surprise to many despite it being so consequential, at least I was very surprised when I first learned about it. It was not just civilization collapsing but many at the same time. The collapse is also mysterious and shrouded in mythology. That is why I consider it a super fact.

The Collapse of Mycenaean Greece

The collapse of Mycenaean Greece stands out. No other part of the Eastern Mediterranean suffered a civilizational setback quite as intense as in Greece. I think most of us are aware that after the Mycenaean Greece came other periods in Greece’s history, the Greek Dark Ages, the Archaic period, and classical and Hellenistic periods, Alexander the Great, Plato, Aristotle, etc.

I learned in school that there was a Dorian invasion of Greece that displaced its original population and this led to the Greek Dark Ages before a rebirth of Greek civilization. This is most likely not true. The Mycenaean Greeks were not replaced by modern Greeks; they were the ancient Greeks. What likely happened was that climate change and drought resulted in crop failures, which in turn resulted in people movements and a range of invading peoples around the Mediterranean and the Near East. This is what may be remembered in Homer’s account of the Trojan War.

Various Mycenaean states in various colors, Athens, Thebes, Orchomenos, Mycenae, Elis, Pylos, Menelaion, Dimini, Kythera, and IoLcos. | The Mysterious Vanishing of Bronze Age Civilizations
Reconstruction of the political landscape in mainland southern Greece, c. 1400–1250 BC. Alexikoua, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons.
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Author: thomasstigwikman

My name is Thomas Wikman. I am a software/robotics engineer with a background in physics. I am currently retired. I took early retirement. I am a dog lover, and especially a Leonberger lover, a home brewer, craft beer enthusiast, I’m learning French, and I am an avid reader. I live in Dallas, Texas, but I am originally from Sweden. I am married to Claudia, and we have three children. I have two blogs. The first feature the crazy adventures of our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle as well as information on Leonbergers. The second blog, superfactful, feature information and facts I think are very interesting. With this blog I would like to create a list of facts that are accepted as true among the experts of the field and yet disputed amongst the public or highly surprising. These facts are special and in lieu of a better word I call them super-facts.

49 thoughts on “The Mysterious Vanishing of Bronze Age Civilizations”

  1. Great read. I also think that maybe complacency plays a part in any fall along with these other factors. The Roman empire started to farm out security and military to others. They also drifted between between different government systems. Also he rise of other civilizations. The environment and cyclical impacts can all play role. It is funny how we hear little about these time periods.

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    1. Yes you are probably right. There was so much written about the Roman Empire and the fall of the Roman Empire that it is easier to have an idea even though causes of the fall of the Roman Empire is still discussed. However, rhe late Bronze age collapse of ancient Greece and all the other civlizations is further back in time, more complex, and less understood. Like you say, complacency might have been a factor, and then came drought, people started moving around, wars started, who knows. People typically don’t know that they are living through the end of their civilization.

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  2. People of those times would not have had the benefit of global communication and information like we do today. They just went through major changes one day at a time, probably without much thought about the future beyond their relatively short lives. Perhaps they were not even aware of major shifts in power or climate change.

    Invasions by hostile peoples might often have been a surprise, leaving communities vulnerable to being wiped out.

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    1. Yes I think you are right Anneli. The people back then probably didn’t know that they are living through the end of their civilizations. I did not go into what could have been the reasons for the late Bronze age collapse, that is beyond the scope of stating a super-fact, but the last of the two links in the second/third paragraph ……, click here, or here, goes into this in depth, even though there seem to be no clear answers.

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  3. I remember a while back I read an article about a lost civilization in the Amazon ― big population centers and cities that collapsed, possibly due to disease brought by Europeans, which were quickly reclaimed by the jungle, so that later explorers dismissed the accounts of earlier explorers and didn’t believe the civilization and its cities had ever existed. Because, y’know, how could those primitive tribes have ever built such things?

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    1. James I think that is a very good point. It is so easy to underestimate other peoples and cultures. Civilizations can rise, blossom and vanish for various reasons. War and disease killing 90% of the population is certainly one of them.

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  4. I haven’t seen the Odyssey yet, and first heard about the Sea People when we were in Egypt. There are battle scenes against them on some of the temple walls, but not many other records. It is a mysterious and fascinating time in history. Maggie

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    1. You are right Maggie, it is mysterious, and it interesting that you saw battle scenes against on the walls. The Odyssey movie is a great movie. It is very entertaining. They are referring to the terrible and awful Sea Peoples on several occasions. This is a bit of a spoiler………but at the end Odysseus is stating, as a regret for attacking Troy, that maybe we are the Sea Peoples (or just like them). Historically, that is possible.

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        1. Yes it is a good movie and I think Matt Damon was great as Odysseus. I liked that he was not depicted as a super hero but rather a man with regrets carrying the weight of every bad decision Odysseus ever made on his aging face. He was still a hero but more human.

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    1. Thank you so much Ada. It is interesting that your husband is interested in ancient civilizations. I should say, as usual I don’t go into much depth beyond stating the super fact. There is a lot of interesting information around this that I did not go into. However, at the end of my second/third paragraph, the last link has some interesting information, the sentence that says “If you want to take a deep dive into the late Bronze Age collapse, click here, or here.”.

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  6. I’ve lost many hours (scores at the least) reading the works of David Reich who studies events such as these, evaluating the movement of civilizations based on genetics. I’m doing a few paragraphs on that in my next In the Shadow of Giants post. Ancient history is fascinating stuff!

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    1. I did not know about David Reich until you mentioned him now, so I looked him up and he certainly a very interesting scientist. I can certainly understand why you would be interested in his research, especially his research on Neanderhal interbreeding. I am very much looking forward to your “In the Shadow of Giants post”

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    1. Thank you so much Debbie and thank you so much for sharing this post on Facebook. Your post about your visit to the ruins of Mycenae is fascinating and as usual it is both interesting and accompanied by the great photos you take. I’ve been to Greece several times and I’ve seen many ruins and monuments but I am not as much of a history buff like you are.

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  8. Hi Thomas, thanks for this interesting information. These collapse was most likely due to adverse living conditions as you’ve suggested. I would also agree that the modern Greeks are unlikely to be descendent of the Ancient Greeks. It’s the same with Egypt.

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    1. Thank you so much Robbie. Yes pain tend to spread. Severe drought in one place causes people movements that affect other places. Above Jacqui was referring to a scientist who is using genetics to update our ancient history. It will be interesting to see what comes out of that.

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  9. Such an interesting post on fallen civilizations, Thomas. Thanks for explaining the Bronze Age. And I’m quite inclined to agree with you about climate change and adverse conditions being part of the reason. Thanks for keeping us smart. 😋

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    1. Ha ha, yes lots of Greek here. It was a very consequential event, like the fall of Rome, but we don’t here a lot about it. Well at least I don’t. Maybe we’ll talk more about now with the new Odyssey movie and its references to Sea Peoples.

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  11. Thanks for this, Thomas. Climate change is often pointed out as one of the culprits of the collapse. It was a biggie. The Greeks lost their original writing system, Linear B. I have a T-shirt that says, “Sea Peoples” and lists their various attack sites like a band’s tour dates. Some posit that they were a symptom of the collapse; young men who had no home went marauding like Vikings. I don’t know.

    What an interesting topic and a very helpful post. 🙂

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  12. This is so fascinating, Thomas.. Thanks for sharing the collapses and the Bronze Age. I’ll come back when I have more time to explore. It’s a fascinating subject and as a yaya, I must earn my rankings and uphold the knowledge bestowed upon me by you.. xxxheee hee xxx💕

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        1. Thank you! You are so kind Yaya, I mean Cindy. Speaking about educating the wee ones and older ones. Right above in the comment section is Debbie D. and she went on a very big long trip to Greece and Turkey and her blog is filled with history, information, and a large amount of great photos, if you click on her link above.

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  13. Fascinating post. The Late Bronze Age Collapse is one of history’s greatest puzzles because it reminds us how interconnected civilizations already were more than 3,000 years ago. When climate stress, migration, warfare, and political instability converged, even the most powerful kingdoms proved vulnerable.

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  14. Thanks for the great post. As it happens, I just read the famous Bronze age Epic of Gilgamesh (and will be speaking about it over at my own blog later this month.) Obviously, I knew that Bronze Age civilizations had given way to other civilizations, but I hadn’t realized that there had been such an extensive disappearance before new civilizations appeared.

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