The 12th Century Before the Common Era

The 12th century before the Common Era spans approximately the years 1200 to 1101 before the Common Era. It is marked as the end of the Late Bronze Age in the eastern Mediterranean, a time when numerous major powers and trading cities lost effective control of their territories.

Historians of the ancient world describe this period as a series of interconnected upheavals: the collapse of royal bureaucracies dependent on taxation and central administration, the disruption of trade routes that carried bronze and cedar, and population movements recorded in coastal settlements. Evidence from cuneiform texts and remains of destroyed structures forms the basis for this account.

The Collapse of Bronze Age Systems

The Hittite kingdom of Anatolia lost its capital at Hattusa during this century. Coastal cities in Syria, including Ugarit, ceased to function as trading centers. Within Greece, Mycenaean administrative centers such as Pylos and Mycenae lost their bureaucratic operations, leading to the disappearance of Linear B script.

Egypt experienced a decline in power during this period, coinciding with the later New Kingdom. Egyptian texts from the time of Ramses III record conflicts with a group known as the Sea Peoples. Egypt's control over territories in Canaan diminished as the century drew to a close.

Proposed Causes

No single cause commands universal agreement. Current interpretations link earthquakes and climate changes, including drought and altered rainfall patterns, to warfare and population movements, and to the fragility of systems dependent on long-distance trade. The most widely supported view holds that multiple factors acting together destabilized the existing order.

What Followed

The subsequent period is known as the Greek Dark Ages and the beginning of the Iron Age in many regions. New states emerged from the upheaval, including Aramean kingdoms in Syria, a revived Assyrian empire, and new societies in the Palestinian coast. The spread of iron working reduced dependence on the long-distance bronze trade networks.