Crisis of metamorfose? Het einde van de Bronstijd in de oostelijke Mediterranée

Abstract

There can be no doubt that the eastern Mediterranean saw momentous changes during the late 13th and 12th century BC. Various ancient kingdoms, including major states such as the Kingdom of the Hittites and the palace world of the Mycenaean Greeks collapsed, and numerous important cities, such as Ugarit, Troy, Mycenae or Hattusa, were either destroyed or abandoned. Most scholars argue that a number of factors, including climate change (with droughts causing bad harvests and famine), natural disasters, piracy, migrations and perhaps even plagues caused a perfect storm, that caused a ‘system collapse’. New discoveries and reevaluations of old evidence suggest, however, a slightly different picture. This paper argues that, amidst all the destruction and mayhem, this period is also characterized by a number of important technological innovations, the emergence of new identities and ideas, and – in some areas – a remarkable degree of stability.