Editing Bronze Age (section)

==== Aegean collapse ====
{{Main|Bronze Age collapse|Greek Dark Ages}}
[[File:Bronze Age End.svg|thumb|upright=1.4|Invasions, destruction and possible population movements during the collapse of the Bronze Age, {{circa|1200&nbsp;BC|lk=no}}E]]

Bronze Age collapse theories have described aspects of the end of the Bronze Age in this region. At the end of the Bronze Age in the Aegean region, the [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean]] administration of the regional trade empire followed the decline of Minoan primacy.<ref>[[Robert Drews|Drews, R.]] (1993). ''The end of the Bronze Age: Changes in warfare and the catastrophe ca. 1200 B.C.'' Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press</ref> Several Minoan [[client states]] lost much of their population to famine and pestilence. This would indicate that the trade network may have failed, preventing the trade that would previously have relieved such famines and prevented illness caused by malnutrition. It is also known that in this era, the [[breadbasket]] of the Minoan empire—the area north of the [[Black Sea]]—also suddenly lost much of its population and thus probably some capacity to cultivate crops. Drought and famine in Anatolia may have also led to the Aegean collapse by disrupting trade networks, therefore preventing the Aegean from accessing bronze and luxury goods.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Neer |first=Richard T. |title=Greek Art and Archaeology |publisher=Thames & Hudson |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-500-28877-1 |location=New York |page=63}}</ref>

The Aegean collapse has been attributed to the exhaustion of the [[Geography of Cyprus|Cypriot]] forests causing the end of the bronze trade.<ref>Swiny, S., Hohlfelder, R. L., & Swiny, H. W. (1998). Cities on the Sea. Res maritime: Cyprus and the eastern Mediterranean from prehistory to late antiquity: proceedings of the Second International Symposium "Cities on the Sea", Nicosia, Cyprus, 18–22 October 1994. Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press.</ref><ref>Creevey, B. (1994). The forest resources of Bronze Age Cyprus.</ref><ref>A. Bernard Knapp, Steve O. Held, and Sturt W. Manning. The prehistory of Cyprus: Problems and prospects.</ref> These forests are known to have existed in later times, and experiments have shown that charcoal production on the scale necessary for the bronze production of the late Bronze Age would have exhausted them in less than 50 years.

The Aegean collapse has also been attributed to the fact that as iron tools became more common, the main justification for the tin trade ended, and that trade network ceased to function as it did formerly.<ref>Lockard, Craig A. (2009). ''Societies, Networks, and Transitions: To 600''. Wadsworth Publishing Company. p. 96.</ref> The colonies of the Minoan empire then suffered drought, famine, war, or some combination of the three, and had no access to the distant resources of an empire by which they could easily recover.

The [[Thera eruption]] occurred {{circa|1600&nbsp;BC|lk=no}}E, {{cvt|110|km}} north of Crete. Speculation includes that a [[tsunami]] from Thera (more commonly known today as [[Santorini]]) destroyed Cretan cities. A tsunami may have destroyed the Cretan navy in its home harbour, which then lost crucial naval battles; so that in the [[Minoan chronology|LMIB/LMII]] event ({{circa|1450&nbsp;BC|lk=no}}E) the cities of Crete burned and the [[Mycenaean civilisation]] conquered [[Knossos]]. If the eruption occurred in the late 17th century&nbsp;BCE as most chronologists believe, then its immediate effects belong to the Middle to Late Bronze Age transition, and not to the end of the Late Bronze Age, but it could have triggered the instability that led to the collapse first of Knossos and then of Bronze Age society overall.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}} One such theory highlights the role of Cretan expertise in administering the empire, post-Thera. If this expertise was concentrated in Crete, then the Mycenaeans may have made political and commercial mistakes in administering the Cretan empire.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}}

Archaeological findings, including some on the island of Thera, suggest that the centre of the Minoan civilisation at the time of the eruption was actually on Thera rather than on Crete.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Antonopoulos |first=John |date=1992-03-01 |title=The great Minoan eruption of Thera volcano and the ensuing tsunami in the Greek Archipelago |journal=Natural Hazards |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=153–168 |bibcode=1992NatHa...5..153A |doi=10.1007/BF00127003 |issn=1573-0840 |s2cid=129836887}}</ref> According to this theory, the catastrophic loss of the political, administrative and economic centre due to the eruption, as well as the damage wrought by the tsunami to the coastal towns and villages of Crete, precipitated the decline of the Minoans. A weakened political entity with a reduced economic and military capability and fabled riches would have then been more vulnerable to conquest. Indeed, the Santorini eruption is usually dated to {{circa|1630&nbsp;BC|lk=no}}E,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Rackham |first1=Oliver |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k4dHmA9jq4wC&pg=PA8 |title=The Making of the Cretan Landscape |last2=Moody |first2=Jennifer |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-7190-3647-7}}</ref> while the Mycenaean Greeks first enter the historical record a few decades later, {{circa|1600&nbsp;BC|lk=no}}E.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}} The later Mycenaean assaults on Crete ({{circa|1450&nbsp;BC|lk=no}}) and Troy ({{circa|1250&nbsp;BC|lk=no}}E) would have been a continuation of the steady encroachment of the Greeks upon the weakened Minoan world.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}}