Bronze Age collapse

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Drought

Barry Weiss, using the Palmer Drought Index for 35 Greek, Turkish, and Middle Eastern weather stations, showed that a drought of the kinds that persisted from January 1972 would have affected all of the sites associated with the Late Bronze Age collapse.

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General systems collapse

A general systems collapse has been put forward as an explanation for the reversals in culture that occurred between the Urnfield period of the 12-13th centuries BC and the rise of the Celtic Halstatt culture in the 9th and 10th centuries BC.

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Changes in warfare

Robert Drews argues that the appearance of massed infantry, using newly developed weapons and armor, such as swords and javelins, on a proto-hoplite model, who were able to withstand attacks of massed chariotry, destabilized states based upon the use of chariots by the ruling class and precipitated an abrupt social collapse when raiders and/or infantry mercenaries were able to conquer, loot, and burn the cities.

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References

1.   ^ Braudel, Fernand "L'Aube" in Braudel, F. (Ed) (1977), "La Mediterranee: l'espace et l'histoire" (Paris)
2.   ^ Nur, Amos and Cline, Eric; (2000) "Poseidon's Horses: Plate Tectonics and Earthquake Storms in the Late Bronze Age Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean", Journ. of Archael. Sc. No 27 pps.43-63 - http://srb.stanford.edu/nur/EndBronzeage.pdf
3.   ^ Robbins, Manuel (2001) Collapse of the Bronze Age: the story of Greece, Troy, Israel, Egypt and Peoples of the Sea" (Authors Choice Press)
4.   ^ Palmer, Leonard R (1962) "Mycenaeans and Minoans: Aegean Prehistory in the Light of the Linear B Tablets". (New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1962)
5.   ^ Weiss, Barry: (1982) "The decline of Late Bronze Age civilization as a possible response to climatic change" in Climatic Change ISSN 0165-0009 (Paper) 1573-1480 (Online), Volume 4, Number 2, June 1982, pps 173 - 198
6.   ^ http://www.iol.ie/~edmo/linktoprehistory.html - a page about the history of Castlemagner, on the web page of the local historical society
7.   ^ Drews, R (19930 "The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe ca. 1200 B.C." (Princeton 1993)