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Around 3,200 years ago, multiple civilizations in and around the Mediterranean fell, an event known as the Late Bronze Age (LBA) Collapse. It has not escaped historians’ notice that the events thought to have inspired Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey probably occurred around the same time.
Subsequent generations looked back at the pre-collapse period as a golden age, worthy of commemoration in heroic tales, but it was probably brought undone not by warring gods and stolen wives, but by extended drought. New work explains the underlying causes.
Bronze Age technologies made the transportation of large amounts of food difficult, so when natural disasters struck, hunger and war formed a vicious cycle that could end entire civilizations. Archaeologists have often found signs of drought preceding the fall or great cities, but have seldom known why a period was dangerously dry.
Subsequent generations looked back at the pre-collapse period as a golden age, worthy of commemoration in heroic tales, but it was probably brought undone not by warring gods and stolen wives, but by extended drought. New work explains the underlying causes.
Bronze Age technologies made the transportation of large amounts of food difficult, so when natural disasters struck, hunger and war formed a vicious cycle that could end entire civilizations. Archaeologists have often found signs of drought preceding the fall or great cities, but have seldom known why a period was dangerously dry.
