Destruction and the End of the Late Bronze Age in the Eastern Mediterranean
Final Report Abstract
The end of the Late Bronze Age is defined by the massive destruction events which shook the empires of the Eastern Mediterranean to their core. Yet, despite the common assumption that destruction by warfare or earthquakes were rampant ca. 1200 BC, the results of this project demonstrates that many of the traditional suppositions and explanations for the end of the LBA are unfounded based on the critical analyses of this supposed destruction horizon. Of the 153 destruction events cited in the scholarly literature, 94 or 61% were false destructions, that is they were misdated and did not occur ca. 1200 BC, there was not enough evidence for a site to be considered to have a destruction, or certain sites were simply added to lists and maps of destruction without references even though the excavators clearly stated that the site was not destroyed. Moreover, of the 59 destruction events which did occur ca. 1200, 36 or 61% only caused marginal physical damage to the site. There is no empirical evidence that destruction had a major impact on the societies of Crete, the Cycladic Islands, Anatolia, Cyprus, the central, and southern Levant. Likewise, this project has demonstrated that there is no evidence that earthquakes either at one time or over time had a great impact ca. 1200 BC as only two sites have evidence of earthquake damage in the entire Eastern Mediterranean. Warfare and arson appear to have been the major cause of destruction in the Argolid where it is evident at both Tiryns and Midea, and this was also the case for Ras Shamra, Ras Ibn Hani, and Emar in Syria. However, there is no evidence that these anthropogenic destruction events were connected as there is no indication that the Sea Peoples caused any perceivable damage in the Eastern Mediterranean, and moreover, the Egyptian and Ugaritic scribes never claimed they caused destruction as this was an assumption written into the texts by later scholars not the ancient witnesses to the events. Outside of these surprising results, this project has also paved the way to explore other destruction horizons throughout the ancient world as it established a method to determine what evidence constitutes a destruction, how to place each destruction into a scale which is comparable across regions, as well as laying out a methodology to analyze the archaeological remains from destruction events to determine what might have caused them be that an unknown, natural, accidental, or anthropogenic.
Publications
- “Destruction and the Fall of Egyptian Hegemony over the Southern Levant,” Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 19, 1-21
Millek, J. M.
- “Just how much was Destroyed? The End of the Late Bronze Age in the Southern Levant,” Ugarit-Forschungen 49: 239-274
Millek, J. M.
- “Crisis, Destruction, and the End of the Late Bronze Age in Jordan: A Preliminary Survey,” Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins 135(2), 119-142
Millek, J. M.
- “Destruction at the End of the Late Bronze Age in Syria: A Reassessment,” Studia Eblaitica 5, 157-190
Millek, J. M.
- “What Actually Happened at the End of the Late Bronze Age in Syria?” in: Ancient Near East Today Vol. VIII, No. 7.5
Millek, J. M.
- “‘Our city is sacked. May you know it!’ The Destruction of Ugarit and its Environs by the Sea Peoples,” Archaeology and History of Lebanon, 52-53, 102-132
Millek, J. M.
- “Why did the World End in 1200 BC?” in: Ancient Near East Today. Vol IX, 8
Millek, J. M.
